There and Back Again

If a distance seems far on Google maps, maybe it is.

Yesterday Hannah and I decided we were going to walk (because its cheap and easy to find your way) to some Stone Age ruins and a Roman road we had read about in connection to Cambridge. Having passed what we thought was the site on the bus while going to the Sanger institute, we had assumed it wasn't far. hahahahaha-yeah no. We walked twelve miles plus yesterday.
Now I'm not saying it wasn't worth it, because being history buffs, we were actually pretty excited about what we saw, though it wasn't terribly impressive to look at, and because the English countryside can be very beautiful. All I'm saying is that when we got back, our feet were not terribly happy with us. But we did make it back, despite being halfway lost when trying to come back.
We set off yesterday morning to the hills, also known as Magogs, to head up to Wandlebury park. Having never been there before, we really didn't know what we were looking for, but Hannah had scouted it out on Google maps and there were helpful signs every once and a while, so we felt pretty good about the direction we in which we were heading.

Blackberries ALL OVER the place

Swan in the Cam

It looks like Batman street to me!

The so called "Eiffel Tower" of Cambridge

I think this place studies the north and south poles

Do I need to explain?

Fields of wheat

Magog = Hill

When we finally reached our destination, we were at the top of a large hill overlooking Cambridge, which looks quite impressive from  a distance. The ruins at the site weren't terribly obvious, and a casual passerby might have ignored them, but we were interested. The stone age ruins were circa 400 BC and all that was left was a circular ditch you could walk around and a few shaped stones in the middle of the field surrounded by the ditch. Apparently the site had once been a type of fortress that held some sort of settlement. Romans may have occupied the area at some point, as there is some evidence of their presence there and a Roman road runs close to the site.

Stone Age ruins circa 400 BC. Thats it. Not a whole lot.

After passing through some very, very beautiful trees that made me think of Robin Hood legends, we found the road and proceeded to take it back towards Cambridge. When you look at the path, it is clear that many of the rocks embedded in the soil are not from the surrounding area and must have been carried in. I'm pretty sure that at some point there was a top layer of dirt covering the rocks and making the road smoother, but if it was there, it has been worn away by time. The road still seems to be frequently used, because we passed several groups of hikers, bicyclists, and runners.

The entire time we were in the hills, we were surrounded by english wildflowers, fields of wheat, and an amazing amount of insect life. At one point, we walked past a section of trail that must have had 3 or 4 insects of different species per flower. The bees and butterflies are very prevalent right now- it's cool to watch them going about their business.

Lots of poppies around

The  roadside seemed to have a lot of edible vegetation as well. We saw blackberry bushes, dandelions, currants, miniature plums, yarrow, and a few other plants we thought might be edible but couldn't name. We were really excited when we found some wild pea plants (being one of the classic genetic test subjects, we were more than a little thrilled to happen upon the pea plant way out there).

It was a really nice day to walk yesterday because it wasn't sunny, but it wasn't cold or rainy either. I think the good weather and the gorgeous landscape were the things that kept us from getting frustrated with our weird and slightly stupid decision to walk all the way. 

Yeah, alright, I was trying to be fancy w/ my camera

Wildflowers EVERYWHERE

When we finally got back into town, we decided to cut through a park/bog to shorten our trip and we came across a very very busy little section of town along the river. I'm not sure what made it so busy, but it was a cool place to be because it felt very distinctly country English to me (of course, there were a lot of tourists around, but still…) There were people spread out everywhere, having picnics on the grass, punters gliding all over the river (including a group of guys dressed as superheroes/video game characters??), cows wandering freely about (???), a bachelorette party (um.), a guy in a straw hat and striped clothing selling ice cream, and a lot of really happy people enjoying a beautiful Saturday.

So even though we were exhausted and didn't go out again yesterday, I'd say our trip was a success.