I hadn’t researched Oxford much before going there. I assumed it would be a bit like Cambridge with some Art Deco in the town centre but I wasn’t expecting to see something stunning like this in amongst all the mediæval stuff in the University part of town.

It was obviously being gutted/refurbished – the insides were all gone and turned into a building site; as witnessed by the crane. It looked even better from the corner!

I have since discovered it’s the New Bodleian Library.

More conventional deco was to be found in the shopping areas.

This is the New Theatre.

The facade extends along the street.

There was this set of shops

I wasn’t quite sure whether the Job Centre was deco or not. It has a nice doorway whatever.

Yes there was Art Deco in Cambridge. And some more modern stuff, like malls.

This is the Marks & Spencer frontage in Market Hill. I had to photo it from the side as I couldn’t otherwise get far back enough due to the market stalls.

Just over the street from it, behind and to the left of the above photo is this lovely curved building.

On St Andrews Street there is this set of deco glass panels above what is now Thomas Cook.

Also on St Andrews Street, though further along, is the pub where I saw the first part of the Spain-Scotland game. Like in Lincoln it’s a former cinema.

It’s not the only former cinema in Cambridge converted by Wetherspoons. We also drove past this one by accident. I had got slightly disoriented. (Lost.)

Cambridge is a curious mixture of mediævality and the modern. Plus you take your life in your hands walking about the place. People on bikes whizz around almost silently. We nearly got knocked down several times. So many bikes are there parked in one spot I heard one woman say to her companion, “Well my bike’s in there somewhere but I can’t tell where.”

It was morning when I took this, and raining slightly – not many takers for the punts.

King’s College (entrance below left) is impressive, but you can’t get back far enough to photograph it all. See below right for the chapel.

Access to the river is also restricted by the various colleges’ grounds.

On a lane down to the river we saw this unusual vertical sundial – well, actually four vertical sundials, one on each compass point of the tower I suppose.

This is from the footbridge over the Cam that we were able to cross. More empty punts – though if you look hard enough you’ll see one being poled just beyond the right arch of the bridge.

On one of our two nights in Cambridge I had agreed to meet up with Eric Brown who lives nearby.

He arranged for other SF writers from the area to join us. They were Chris Beckett, Una McCormack, Philip Vine, BSFA chairman Ian Whates and Rebecca Payne, most of whom I had not met before. The six of them have semi-regular meetings in the Pickerel Inn in Cambridge.

The good lady and I had a meal in the Pickerel before everyone else arrived. Our plates groaned. So many peas were heaped on them we must have been served about half a kilogram between us.

I had meant to take some pictures of the gathering but such a good time was had by all that I forgot.

(No. I wasn’t drunk. I had to drive back to the hotel.)

After Stamford we stopped at Cambridge for two nights.

Despite seeing signs saying Lincoln City FC stadium on the way in to that city I never caught so much as a glimpse of Sincil Bank. The only football ground I did see on the trip was the Abbey Stadium, Cambridge United’s home, as we headed out of Cambridge the first morning along Newmarket Road.

I only took two photos in Newmarket. One was of the War Memorial, which has a lovely setting in a square surrounded by trees.

Newmarket itself could be described as a one horse town. I have never seen anywhere so dedicated to the one activity. Not only are there two racecourses, the National Horseracing Museum and the Jockey Club Estates Limited, but on the road out east there are training areas for horses on either side of the road and bridle paths running at the back of the pavements. There was even one road crossing dedicated to horses. Horses are Newmarket’s raison d’être. It seems to prosper with it, though.

The other photo was of this quite imposing deco style building.