Cambridgeshire Days... Part 3!!

The Orchard Tea Room, Grantchester

"The Orchard was first planted in 1868. One late spring morning in 1897, a group of Cambridge students asked Mrs Stevenson, of Orchard House, if she would serve them tea beneath the blossoming fruit trees, rather than as usual on the front lawn of her house, unaware that they were starting a great Cambridge tradition. The students enjoyed their rural tea and word spread around the colleges. Very soon the Orchard became a popular upriver resort with students walking or cycling along the Grantchester Grind and through Grantchester Meadows, or by punting upstream on the River Granta...

In taking tea at the Orchard, you are joining an impressive group of luminaries including Rupert Brooke (poet), Virginia Woolf (author), Maynard Keynes (economist), Bertrand Russell (philosopher), Alan Turing (inventor of the computer), Ernest Rutherford (split the atom), Crick and Watson (discovered DNA), Stephen Hawking (theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author) and HRH Prince Charles (future King of  England)." www.theorchardteagarden.co.uk

Up and out early this morning and in Cambridge by 9! Unlike me, M's an early bird!! Parked in the back streets of Cambridge then made our way to The Backs, following the path that leads along the River Granta, with views of the backs of Cambridge's famous colleges. Passing King's College, the chapel's bells were ringing out for morning service on a sunny Sunday morning...

Three miles later, after walking through Grantchester Meadows, we arrived at The Orchard Tea Garden which looked so lovely with all the apple trees in blossom. Arriving so early, we had plenty of choice of seats, and a plentiful supply of scones with jam and clotted cream!

On the way back, popped into the centre of Cambridge, picked up some sarnies and then found a warm, sunny riverbank at Trinity College to sit and watch the punts go by. Six miles later it was back to the car and back home again where M happily spent the afternoon tinkering with the van's brakes, and I very happily spent the afternoon being a couch potato!!