Journeys›Photograph

A Summer Afternoon Punting the Cam at Cambridge

·Cambridge, United Kingdom·#travel#summer#cambridge#river-cam#punting
Several punts with people are on a narrow river lined by old buildings and green trees under a blue sky.

Cambridge first thing off the train, and the whole town funnels you toward the river. From the bridge by Quayside you can watch the chauffeured punts stacking up in the narrow stretch — flat-bottomed boats, a guide standing at the back with a long pole, tourists lying across the cushions like it's a couch that happens to float.

We walked to King's College and sat on the lawn out front for a while, then gave in and booked a punt of our own. The girls got ice cream cones on the way to the dock and ate them stretched out on the red cushions while our guide poled us up past the Backs — the river-facing grounds of the colleges, which really are best from the water. St John's came up on the right, then the Bridge of Sighs directly overhead, stone tracery and all, with another punt sliding through behind us.

The Cam is a chalk river, and the water has that milky green look to prove it. It keeps going north from here toward Ely, but our hour ran out at Trinity.

Two smiling people take a selfie in front of a historic stone college building and a grassy lawn with others.A river scene featuring a stone bridge, people punting in boats, and many wooden boats docked along the green bank.Two young people sit in a wooden boat on a river, eating a pastry and ice cream, surrounded by green trees.Two young people in a wooden boat on a river, one eating ice cream, the other a pastry, surrounded by green trees.Two people sit in a wooden punt on a tree-lined river with historic buildings and a bridge in the background.A person poles a punt on a river, with other boats, trees, and a distant spire under a cloudy blue sky.A historic college building with a central tower is framed by large trees and a river with a punt boat carrying people.Two young women punt under the Bridge of Sighs in Cambridge on a sunny day.

More Entries