29 July 2006

Arrived at the Unicorn and had two ½ pints while waiting for Paisano. Unfortunately, he was waiting for me at the bus station. I met a nice couple who started up a conversation. I told them of my travels and they told me about life in Cambridge. Then Nigel introduced himself and we started talking. He was very friendly and it finally dawned on me that I was the object of his hitting. Well I made it very clear that I was taken and he backed off. He did allow me to make a phone call to Paisano off his mobile. That was nice. Paisano immediately called back and showed up 10 minutes later. Thankfully, he showed up soon. We transferred my bags into the house and headed back out, this time to a place called the Red Lion.
Saturday started early for me, but then I went back to sleep. Woke up later and had a great shower. Some coffee and some toast later, I was approximately human.
We headed down to Cambridge Central via bus. Cambridge was teeming with people. We went through one of the colleges – Clare college and I went over the River Cam by bridge (thus Cambridge!).
Paisano and I stopped for gelati after walking around town and sightseeing a bit.
Afterwards, we headed down to the River Cam for ‘punting.’ Punting is a time-honored tradition whereby flattened gondolas are taken up and down stream with a pole to propel you along. Paisano demonstrated the technique down river, and then I gave it a go on the way back. My form left something to be desired, to say the least. In all of the pictures, I am punting backwards.

After returning the boat, we had a pint at the Eagle, where Watson and Crick “worked out” the details of the DNA double helix. Then on to a tour of the original Cavendish labs, which made up the MRC in the beginning.
Dinner was a wonderful Turkish meal at Efe’s, on of Paisano’s favorite places, then on to the Pickerel Inn for several more pints. By the end of the night, I was beat.