Travel Plans with Fernando Pinho
Join airplane pilot and accidental adventurer Fernando Pinho on a journey to discover your next travel destination. Part toolkit, part love letter to travel, this podcast is a deep dive into exciting destinations and cultural experiences with curated guides, immersive episodes, and live Q&A sessions. So grab your passport and headphones – your next flight to adventure is boarding now!
Travel Plans with Fernando Pinho
Cambridge: Your Weekend Getaway Guide | England
Embark on a journey through time and intellect as we trace the cobbled streets of Cambridge. In the company of airplane pilot, Fernando Pinho, we traverse the hallowed halls where legendary minds like Isaac Newton and Alan Turing once roamed, exploring the city's contribution to the world with its 70 Nobel laureates. As we navigate the picturesque lanes by bike, breathe in the scholarly air and ascend the steps of St. Mary's Church tower for a view that encapsulates the city's essence.
This episode is more than a simple tour; it's a narrative woven with the threads of Cambridge's unique charm, from the luxurious University Arms Hotel to the whimsical Dinky Doors that beckon with their miniature wonder. We reflect on the poignant tributes at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial.
If you're looking for adventure with family or friends, this episode is packed with great suggestions for a weekend getaway.
If you wish to see photos of this trip and a list of suggestions of places to eat, visit and sleep, you can subscribe to my newsletter for free at www.travelplanspodcast.com
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Join pilot and adventurer Fernando Pinho as he takes you on journeys to discover exciting destinations across the UK and Europe. You'll fly with him to hidden gems and experience local culture, from bustling streets to serene hideaways, and the best places to eat, sleep and play. Travel plans with Fernando Pinho is more than a podcast. It's your ticket to exploring the world and its history with a friend who navigates both the skies and the vibrant streets below. In this episode, we're flying to the vibrant and historic city of Cambridge.
Fernando :Hi there and welcome on board for another episode of Travel Plans we will be talking off in the next few minutes or so. In this episode we are going to spend a couple of days in Cambridge and discover one of the most famous universities in the world, founded by guess who? Students from Oxford.
Fernando :We are going to pack a lot in this episode from visiting some of the city's most popular landmarks to a walking tour that was created as an antidote to the endless terrible news that we are inundated on a daily basis. Also, we are going to try some of the most popular places to eat and visit one of the most serene places in this country. This is an episode packed with ideas for a great getaway with your friends and family. I will talk to you again before we reach our destination, but for now, sit back, relax and enjoy the podcast.
Fernando :Welcome back. We are now cruising at 5000ft and very soon we will start our descent to Cambridge. But first a brief and curious introduction to this city. Cambridge has been an important town since Roman times, as it was mentioned on their map. Then, in the year of 1209, something really interesting happened. A group of students from Oxford University moved to Cambridge to escape the Oxford riots caused by the murder of a local woman. Legend says that this is the reason why Oxonians always refer to Cambridge as the other place. Today, 31 colleges make Cambridge University third-oldest world's university in continuous operation.
Fernando :It s famous buildings and streets attract visitors , and today we are heading there to explore it ourselves. As of 2020, 70 Cambridge Illuminati have won the Nobel Prizes. Some of these students we re Lord Byron, Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton and Alan Turing. If you are driving, cambridge is only one hour away from London by car or direct train, but if, like us today, you are flying directly, you have two options. Cambridge Airport is located in town and only 10 minutes away from its centre. Alternatively, the historical Duxford Airfield is located 10 miles to the south, and it's a great option. We are now preparing for landing and I can't wait to be on the ground and explore the city.
Air Trafic :November Two Six Two Delta Bravo, cambridge Tower continue approach runway Two Three, number one. Two Three continuing approach Delta Bravo. N262DB At number T, delta Bravo runway 23, wind at 210 degrees one zero knots clear to land.
Fernando :Clear to land runway Nov ember, 262, Delta Bravo. And here we are on the ground at Cambridge Airport. I'm very excited to go and explore Cambridge.
Air Trafic :City so come along.
Fernando :So I just left Cambridge Airport. I'm in front of the Cambridge Aero Club, where I was welcomed by its team. I paid my landing fees and now I'm trying to find a way to get to town, and there are plenty of options. The easiest one is just a bus stop in front of the airport. That will take you to town in 5 to 10 minutes. You can also get a taxi. It's very easy. The Cambridge Aero Club team can help you book one.
Fernando :But we are in Cambridge, and Cambridge has often been called Britain's cycle city, and you only have to venture out on a busy weekday to see why. So I brought my folding bike on a plane and I will use it to explore the city. The city is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. One in four city residents cycle to work. This is the highest level of cycling in the whole country and most of the city's 40,000 students hop into the saddle to get to their lectures or to move around town. There are over 80 miles of cycle lanes in town. There is even a multi-story bike parking by the train station with space for over 3,000 bicycles. It's much loved by its users and even some local thieves.
Fernando :Ok, I just parked my bike. That was an experience. It's quite fascinating to see so many bikes in the town. Let's remind you some Asian cities where bikes are a predominant way of transport. I have arrived to Market Square right in the city centre. In front of me is St Mary's Church and it has been standing here since the year of 1519. I was told that if you climb all the way up to the top you have the best view of the whole city. So let's give it a go. Hello is it seven pounds for an adult.
Box office assistant :Yes.
Fernando :Can I have one too, please?
Box office assistant :If you could just join the talent here.
Fernando :Thank you very much. So thank you those of you waiting. Just a few quick points of health and safety. You're going up through the small stone doorway. Please do watch your heads as you climb, and when you are at the top, if others are coming up, you will just call through and get you to wake up. So this is a spiral staircase that goes all the way from the church to the top of the tower. It's very narrow so you need to be ready to squeeze in between columns. Now it's so narrow that they operate a one-way system, so when visitors are going up, nobody can come down, and vice versa. This can be quite challenging. Step 60. You might be able to hear my breath now. Step 90. Step 100. This is quite a physical challenge. And here we are 124 steps. The stairs are now clear. Friend, I'm wishing to make the way down. Wow, at the top of the tower you have 360 degree views over Cambridge. You can see most of their colleges, the Guildhall, kings Cross Chapel and even the airport. It was well worse the 120 steps all the way up the tower to get here.
Fernando :Cambridge is most famous for its university, so people who often arrive to Cambridge and will say can you please tell me where the campus is. The reality is that the university is made of 31 different colleges, so it's fair to say that the whole city is the university, and most likely, wherever you are in town, you will be in front of a building owned by the university, and the most famous of all is Kings College Chapel. Let's go down and see it closer. This is literally a never ending staircase. King's College Chapel is the most iconic building in Cambridge. This Gothic marvel opened over 500 years ago. In addition to being a place of daily worship, it's where new students matriculate, where fellows are admitted and even where the choir performs concerts and records music. They even have their own record label. I can't help but notice that halfway through the chapel spires there are massive white spikes sticking down, spikes like those we are used to see to get birds away, but much, much bigger. They are there to stop people from climbing the chapel, and you might ask why would someone do that? Well, it's Cambridge, the home of infamous and clandestine student society, the night climbers of Cambridge. Over the last 100 years, members have been climbing buildings, statues, landmarks and streetlight posts. In the 50s, they even managed to place a car at the top of one of the most emblematic buildings of Cambridge University, the Senate House, just in front of King's College Chapel. You can find a picture of it in our newsletter. The link is in the episode's notes. Nothing is dangerous and illegal, but don't be surprised if you see someone climbing some of the most iconic buildings in town. Talking about funny and weird, let's walk down the road.
Fernando :A few meters away from King's College you will find one of the most modern landmarks in Cambridge the Corpus Clock. It has cost over £1 million to build and involves 200 people. It is an interesting and somehow controversial piece of art. It stands inside what looks like a shop window at the corner of the Corpus Christi College. The dominating visual feature of the clock is a grim looking metal sculpture of a creature similar to a grasshopper.
Fernando :The creators of the clock call the creature a chronophage, which means time eater. It moves its mouse, appearing to eat up the seconds as they pass, and the message is that time is fading away. The clock is eating away the limited time each one of us has available. I find this message quite disturbing. The man who paid for the clock is the famous former student of the university, john C Taylor, and he became very rich after inventing something that pretty much everyone has at home a cordless kettle. Just a few meters away from the clock, you will find the oldest building in Cambridge. The tower of St Benes Church is over 1000 years old, and just in front of this church I can see a pub I always wanted to get inside. Here is the RAF1 open.
Joy:All the way straight to the end.
Fernando :Thank you very much. Thank you. This is the Eagle Pub and although I'm not a huge fan of pubs, this is quite something. The Eagle was the preferred drinking spot for United States and Royal Air Force pilots during the Second World War. There were over 50 air bases in the region and some pilots would head here on their days off. Pilots used wax candles and petrol lighters and lipstick to write their names and squadron numbers in the ceiling of the pub. Whatever I look, I see a reference to a squadron, to a pilot, to an airplane, to a crew. It's quite a remarkable place and it looks more like a museum than a pub. To be honest, the place is covered in photos and memories from those times.
Fernando :I'm walking towards Pembroke College, one of the 31 colleges that formed Cambridge University. The college was founded by a French woman in 1347. Her name was Marie de Saint Paul. I chose this college for two reasons. The first is that it is only one of the few that is free to visit. The second is that it's one of the oldest and its original building still stands today, luckily for us. It's one of the most beautiful colleges in Cambridge. I just walk around. Can I just walk around?
Fernando :Well we're at the chapel which we'll do it on the end.
Air Trafic :There's no other buildings.
Fernando :Thank you very much. Thank you. It is actually so serene inside one of these colleges Now, although it's free to come in, you can only walk through the gardens and visit the chapel. All the other rooms and buildings are off the limits for visitors and tourists. Nevertheless, it's a beautiful site and completely free. I'm now heading towards the banks of the river Cam. The river cuts through some of the Cambridge's most popular colleges King's Trinity, claire, queens and St John's and that means that the best way to see those colleges is by taking a boat, also known as punting. If you aren't familiar with the term, a punting is a flat-bottom boat designed for shallow rivers like the Cam. A boat can take up to 12 people and each ticket costs around £50. A right a 45-minute tour might cost over £200 for a family of four. Instead of punting, I'm going to pay £5 and visit one of the colleges by the river Queens College. Hello, good morning how are you?
Fernando :I'm good, how are you? What can I see?
Box office assistant :You can see the Mathematica Bridge. I have left a window open to the Old Downing Hall, which is just there. You can see the glass-stayed windows and you can definitely go in Queens Chapel. Oh, fantastic, but you cannot enter any other buildings.
Fernando :Perfect. Yeah, makes sense, otherwise I'll disrupt everyone. Thank you very much. Thank you. So for £5 you get quite a lot at Queens College, and, again, it's the most serene place. I'm just walking through a tunnel that links internal gardens, and these gardens are so pristine, so beautifully kept. I could come here every day with a book and just sit down and relax. Queens is one of the oldest colleges in town and the home of one of the most photographed features in Cambridge the Mathematica Bridge. This wooden structure over the river Cam was originally built in 1749. And, although it appears to be an arch, it's composed entirely of straight pieces of timber. This is a stunning college. I must say that for £5, this is probably the best money you are going to spend in town.
Fernando :I've been walking in the city centre for the last couple of hours and the feeling that I get is that Cambridge is a small town but with much to see and do. Beside the sites I have already mentioned in this episode, there's so much more. The Fitzwilliam Museum, the University Botanic Gardens and the Catholic Art Gallery are just a few of the many museums and spaces open to visitors. All over the city you will find posters of music, concerts, plays, musicals, talks all hosted by the many student societies and local communities. Cambridge is as vibrant as you can get.
Fernando :And now it's time to head to the hotel, and I have a great suggestion for you. And here we are the University Arms Hotel. It looks quirky and eclectic, but it is luxurious too. First opened in 1934, the University Arms is the oldest hotel in Cambridge. It all started as a coaching inn built to provide a resting stop for travellers making the journey down to London. Bear in mind this was before the development of a rail network. It has been here for nearly 200 years and, thanks to an £80m renovation project, today it stands more glorious than ever. I'm going to enjoy my dinner and the hotel and I'll see you tomorrow morning, which, in this podcast episode and due to the editing magic, means that I'll be back in just a few seconds.
Joy:The link is in this episode's notes or the website Fernandotodaycom.
Fernando :Good morning. That was a very peaceful night and I'm quite excited for our second day in Cambridge. So for this morning I have a map of the city. There are 14 locations pin-pointed and I am told that each one there's a door, but these aren't normal doors. They are tiny. These are miniature sculptures with doors and hidden just out of plain sight. In Cambridge, they are known as the Dinky Doors According to the artists that designed them. Each door has an extraordinary power and there are a handful of them that I have to try. So what's going on here?
Fernando :Since 2019, an anonymous couple has been working towards their mission of saving the world by installing little portals throughout Cambridge. They are uncle level works of art. A tour of all the dinky doors is effectively a tour of Cambridge. If you want to find the doors, there are three ways. You can ask people if they know where they are. You can also buy a printed version of the dinky doors tour or, if you prefer, you can get it online. The first door I want to visit is just beside the hotel and it's called Dinky Shrinky. This is so cute. I'll post a photo in our newsletter, but effectively, I'm looking at what seems to be a tiny set from a Wallace and Gromit movie. According to its creators, this shrinking device has successfully shrunk peas into p'tipois, carrots into baby carrots and Tom Cruise by one millimeter Right.
Fernando :I'm going to cycle back to Market Square to find one of the most popular dinky doors, a teleporting machine called teleportomatic, or Tom for short. So I'm now in Market Square and I'm trying to find two phone boxes. I believe Tom lives in between them and here it is. This culture is easily overlooked. It was placed between two phone boxes and if you blink you will miss it. The top measure is no more than 20 centimeters or seven inches.
Fernando :Apparently, this is the first device in the world that makes teletransportation affordable. You just need to insert the appropriate number of 3p coins into the honey control panel, set your destination, climb into the chamber and off you go. Shame, I don't have any 3p coins on me. Now this is a dangerous device. Apparently. Reports say that we are yet to meet someone who has been teleported. They suspect most customers just inserted too many 3p coins, so please be careful. There are 14 of these doors spread around Cambridge and I can't imagine a better way for a family to explore the town. I can guarantee that children and adults will love it. I'm going to visit one last door that was inspired by the late Stephen Hawking.
Fernando :Look at the stars and not down at your feet.
Box office assistant :Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what?
Air Trafic :makes the universe exist.
Box office assistant :Be curious.
Fernando :And this door is indeed at my feet, but it's a rocket, so I can take to the skies. It looks like a rocket from Jules Verneauville, from the earth to the moon, and apparently it's fooled. By rocket I mean rocket vegetable. This is the most original tour I've ever done. I can see why families and children love it. Yes, they are very small sculptures, but each one of them has a backstory. It will make you smile and see Cambridge in such a happy way.
Fernando :My time in Cambridge is coming to an end, but before I head to the airport, it's time for something I've been looking forward for a long, long time. Let's step into the bicycle and I will explain why. You might find it odd, but one of the moments I've been looking forward to during this trip is a visit to a cemetery, and this is where I'll be heading now. Now, the cemetery is five miles away from Cambridge city, and to get there you can take a taxi or a bus, but this is Cambridge, so I'll be cycling. I was told that the trip will take around 20 minutes, but for your comfort, I will edit it down to just a few seconds. Cambridge is now behind me.
Fernando :I am leaving town and I'm probably halfway now. I guess why. Now I'm quite out of town because I'm crossing over the M11. Someone forgot to tell me that along this road there's a very steep hill to climb, but it will be worth it. Oh, wow, I'm on the flag post platform. Just by the entrance, the United States of American flag is at the top, overlooking the sweeping curves of the burial grounds that stretch across the lawn. It's a powerful moment. Standing here with a Cambridge American cemetery and memorial, standing on a serene hillside, the view of Cambridge in the distance, framed by woodlands, its breathtaking. From where I stand, the great mall stretches out with its reflecting pools leading the eye to the wide, sweeping curve of the burial area. It's a site that commands silence and reflection.
Fernando :This is the only American cemetery in the United Kingdom. It commemorates American soldiers and civilian volunteers who died in the Second World War. Most died in the Battle of the Atlantic or the air bombardments of Europe. It's a profound reminder of the cost of freedom. Over 3 million Americans crossed the Atlantic to the British Isles ready to train, prepare and fight. Of those, more than 3,800 are buried here, their final resting place on foreign soil, testament of their bravery, and alongside the reflecting pool you can find the wall of the missing, listing over 5,000 names of those whose bodies were never recovered. There's more to this place than just remembrance. A visitor centre offers a deeper dive into the stories behind the names that we see To personal accounts, photographs, films and interactive displays.
Box office assistant :For each of the men and women who battled so bravely. This is their monument, a reminder of their heroism and their lives, and a legacy that is all around us In the freedom we enjoy each day. It stands here at the Cambridge American Cemetery To acknowledge those who fell, to honour their sacrifice, to remember who they were and what they did when the world hung in the balance.
Fernando :This visit to a place where it feels like time stands still has been an unexpected highlight of my trip. I wasn't expecting it to feel it so deeply. It's a poignant reminder of the price of freedom and the enduring bond between nations united in a common cause, and I guess in times like those we live in, it's essential not to forget. Right, it's time to head back to town and to the airport. Fortunately, my cycle back is all the way down the hill. We are back on the plane and ready to leave the city.
Fernando :To me, cambridge felt like a place where we celebrate the best of humankind, a place where knowledge is constantly searched and shared, a vibrant town where people from all over the world come to study, to work and even remember those who fought for our freedom. It's a relatively small but vibrant and international city, which makes it perfect for a weekend away with your friends or with your family. What a place. I hope you enjoyed this episode and, if so, please share it with a friend. If you want to see photos of this trip and a list of suggestions of places to eat, to visit and sleep, you can subscribe to my newsletter at Fernandotoday slash forward travel plans. You can find a link in his episodes notes. See you next time for another flight to an incredible destination.
