cambridge and duxford...

On saturday I took a train to Cambridge, with the purpose of going to a place just south of there called Duxford - where there is an Imperial War Museum. Our grandfather flew Lancaster bombers in WWII, and I wanted to stand beneath one and get a feel for what it would have been like. You weren't allowed inside most of the planes, and it crossed my mind to try batting my eyelashes to see if someone would let me in the Lancaster (I didn't, I should have)...

The Lancaster was huge, and I couldn't imagine piloting one. From what I remember (hopefully correctly) grandpa didn't pilot any of the famous dam buster planes, but was part of a secret squadron (101 Squadron) and survived all his flights - which statistically was against the odds. So seeing the plane in it's metalic flesh, made it even more amazing to me.

I got to walk through a Concorde, and walked around heaps of other amazing planes - an F-111, Mustang, a Blackbird, and watched people taking joy flights around the air-field in a Tiger Moth.

It's so funny that I'm terrified of flying, and yet with my genes I should at least be comfortable with it!

I had a bit of spare time after Duxford, so went into Cambridge. I'd stayed there 10 years ago so had pretty much 'done' it, but walked around the city area loving how old everything was. The pic to the right is Kings College (not affiliated with King's College London where I worked).

I wish I'd been more prepared (like gone with a map), cos I wanted to find the river and see some people punting - but alas, I ran out of time and didn't find it...