Scandi Cambridge. An Airbnb adventure a month

“I find Cambridge an asylum, in every sense of the word.”

— A. E. Houseman

We plan to have an AirB&B adventure each month. Not necessarily far away and just a night or two, but regularly, to riffle up our molecules a bit

I am, like all right-minded people, in love, utterly, with Cambridge's Kettle's Yard, (the 20th century art gallery in a Cambridge house), it rivals only The Sainsbury Centre at UEA in my heart. My adoration for it is probably why I've often walked past, but never been to, the much larger Fitzwilliam museum. But dear, dear Kettle's Yard is closed until next year for refurbishment, so we couldn't even be tempted by it. And I'd heard good things about The Fitzwilliam, one friend told us it was as good as the V&A for decorative arts, so September's adventure was Cambridge. 

We are alternating the choice of the actual Airbnb accommodation between us and this month was OH's choice. You'll notice a sudden contrast from last month's gloriously ramshackle riverside cabin. He found himself drawn to a very modern top floor apartment in Chesterton, which is just outside the City centre. I should explain that OH (Derek) went to Cambridge and then stayed and worked there for a decade, before moving his indie music career to Norwich, so he's a good guide to the place.

 Cambridge is famously an odd mix. There's a nucleus of lofty medieval colleges, beautifully, expensively preserved havens of academia, wearing tradition with determined insouciance, interiors swarmed around by, but protectively inaccessible to, a million tourists, There's actually relatively little for the visitors, unless they have a specific purpose to their trip, apart from walking the hard, stone pavements, past the exteriors of the colleges and spending money in the shops (leased from the colleges who own most of the real estate).

Surrounding this is suburbs of yellow bricked terraces (with some inevitably awful 60's and 70s infill, such as The Grafton Centre), at first glance looking surprisingly like any Victorian-grown industrial town. But when you have time to walk past the houses and look properly you notice gorgeously kept front gardens and discrete but expensive extensions. And there's an unmistakable hum of brain power in the air, fuelled by hip and thriving coffee shops and pubs. And everywhere flyers for performances, films, activities and events. You just have to get your eye in to appreciate the Cambridge beyond Jesus Green. It is somewhere you could have fun living in.

Home for the weekend was an Edwardian terrace, owned by a classics professor and his Finnish pianist wife, both lovely and and friendly with a good line in wit. From the outside the house looked fairly small, but inside the house was deep and beautiful. The epitome of an academic's home, lovely paintings, shelves of books and two Steinway pianos in the front room. The attic had been enlarged and converted into a lovely, light and spacious modern studio apartment, scandi styled with a kitchen and shower room, overlooking the gardens of the house and the neighbours. Perfect.

After a cuppa we walked, along the river, past the house boats and Jesus Green Lido into the City.

The Fitzwilliam started as it went on, by exceeding expectations in its cafe. As it's free entry, should you ever be casting about in the city centre for a civilised lunch venue you could certainly do far worse. Well done Fitzwilliam.

A very happy afternoon ensued, wandering amongst world class pottery, paintings and antiquities. I do love a pot, so I was particularly happy. There's a lot of social history in a bowl, as well as beauty. They've also got an excellent Georgian glass collection, which I found exquisite. 

Ravillious

OH was especially taken with the Egyptology, although conflicted by the fact that you do have to try and lay aside your misgivings about the ethics of such treasures ending up in an East Anglian fenland town.

A well-staffed bakery 1950-1985 BC

Back on the streets we found Cambridge set-dressed in that special pewter-skyed light that comes after a rainstorm.

To escape the crowds, OH exercised his right as an "old member" (just stop that sniggering right now), albeit one who has mislaid his card so had to blag his way in, to rest our over-stimulated brains in Clare College's gardens and peacefully people-watch the punts from the bridge.

To escape another downpour we stood in Jesus College's porch and stared at the Elizabeth Frink horse in its pasture of very special magical mowing.

I'd asked some Cambridge Twitter friends for their food recommendations and, foot-sore that we were, we headed to The Waterman pub for food, very close to the house, which was great. We had so many other ace recommendations that it seems a shame not to share them, so I'll add them at the foot of the page.

The best Sunday mornings always start with leisurely breakfast, so we kicked back and then made our way to the Botanic Gardens. The gardens are 40 acres of academic gorgeousness in the city centre, Kew-like, with glasshouses, specimens, and meticulous landscaping.

Strangely fascinating are the benches, with their fond dedications. There's a short story to be researched and written about every one and I shamelessly want that gig - someone commission me.

Cryptically to Syd Barrett

After another surprisingly good cafe lunch in the gardens we drove to Granchester and had a walk along the water meadows. A pretty village, somewhat dominated by the likes of us turning up to enjoy it. Oh, the guilt of a tourist.

Rupert Brooke and village friends. Less flashy than the memorial at Jeffery Archer's house down the road.

The final joy was to head back into Cambridge and have tea and cake with UEA/Norwich friends who live and work in the city and admire their new extension. I've got extension envy now and am eying the back of our cottage. Please buy more pies. ;)

We haven't quite decided what'll be next month's adventure yet. But watch this space...

The eatery suggestions.
Enough for a month. Many thanks Deepa, Pina and Val x

Cotto
De Luca
Gattuso
Steak and Honour
Stir
The Waterman
No 30
Thirsty
The Petersfield
Calverley's Brewery
196
Backstreet Bistro
Trinity
The Chop House
Aromi
Pho
Tradizioni

The wooden shed by the river. An AirB&B adventure a month.

“Everything on the river was new to them. Only the evening before they had come down the deep green lane that ended in the river itself, with its crowds of yachts and its big brown-sailed barges and steamers going up to Ipswich or down to the sea. Last night they had slept for the first time at Alma Cottage.”

— Arthur Ransome

If you run your own business sometimes you get a bit over-focussed on the quotidian and if you live in a beautiful place, you sometimes forget to leave. So, we have decided to have an AirB&B adventure each month. Not necessarily far away, just a night or two, but regularly, to riffle up our molecules a bit.

Blog it someone said. So here we all are, settle in and keep an eye open for the egrets.

1. August. Pin Mill.

My sense of things geographic is notoriously scatter-gun. Most of Norfolk has been transfixed from the London train by the treat of the view of the bright morning light shining on the tidal river when you pass Maningtree in Essex. So when I booked this adventure I thought that was roughly where we'd be. But no, turns out we were headed to Suffolk and another river. No matter, Essex can be a different month.

Pin Mill is a beautiful little port village on the banks of the Orwell. It's famed for Authur Ransome having lived there and is nestled amongst National Trust woodland. Mostly what people do from there is mess about with boats and mend boats. What leapt at me though, from my phone and the AirB&B app was this little wooden building. There's an adventure.

A terrific man called David is going to feature a lot in this. Really our weekend turned out to be about David, his stories, and the river.

David lives on a metal house boat, permanently moored on the river in a community of house boats. He says he has no interest in sailing off to anywhere, he just likes to stare at the river, the woods and tend his garden. He has converted his wooden cabin on the bank into a tiny, comfortable mini house, with a veranda overlooking his jetty garden and the river. When the cabin gets a booking he's set the system to automatically block out the three days either side so he doesn't have to over-stretch himself on the breakfast cooking. David has finessed the art of convivial laid-backness. This also means book in time is midday but you don't have to book out till 3 pm the next day, so one night is like two days holiday. 

After calling in on cousins further up the Suffolk coast and relieving them of tea, cake and chutney, we drove past Ipswich and down to The Orwell. David met us at the harbour, with a beaming smile and led us along the winding river bank, on the edge of the wood, to his mooring and jetty.

Tip 1. Use the resident's parking space up the hill, as instructed. Driving down to the harbour and having to turn round again on a busy Saturday lunchtime because you missed the car park entrance just makes you look like a tourist and can lead to in-car tension. Trust me.

Tip 2. If you aren't reasonably nimble this isn't one for you. Not least because when the tide is fully in, the only way back to the harbour is via a metal ladder in the wall below the pub. Reader, I coped perfectly well. Feel free to use me as your nimbleness benchmark.

David lived in India, and as he says, he likes "stuff". So the cabin is richly decorated with music and film memorabilia and Indian fabrics. We are not talking boutique hotel luxury, you are essentially living between a wood and the river, but the cabin is super-comfortable with squishy leather chairs and every square inch is fascinating. Everything I wanted was there - a jug of fresh milk, a kettle, PROPER GROUND COFFEE, a cafetierre, tea and a shower.

We took ourself off to buy some bread, tomatoes, smoked fish and a nice bar of chocolate and had a restorative picnic lunch on the veranda.

Tip 3. The closest farmshop is the very busy Suffolk Food Hall. I recommend driving to the other side of the bridge and going to Jimmy's Farm Foodhall. Not only does this give you access to much nicer, ahem, pork pies, but I think the food there is generally much better and has more choice, especially if you are after local provenance.

After a sunny walk down the river the sun seemed to be over the yard arm (whatever that is) so we plied a willing David with a bottle of wine that we'd had the sense to keep about us for the purpose of a little light socialising, sat at the end of his jetty watching the wading birds as the tide turned and we slowly discovered all the things we had in common.

David's one of these people with, what Dennis Healy used to call, a broad cultural hinterland, so I suspect most people would easily find things in common with him, but he and OH have a very closely aligned interest, nay obsession, with music and collections of vinyl, so they bonded instantly. My connection was that he used to work in food, albeit on a very different scale. 

We'd booked into The Butt and Oyster, so made our way, possibly a little unsteadily, down to the pub, had supper and then back by torchlight, finding David had lit candles in the lamps on the veranda, and clambered up into bed, falling asleep listening to the river, the owls and the sound of rigging ringing against masts.

I'm an early riser and was in my element as I made coffee and sketched a little. There's no shortage of things to draw if you live amongst house boats on a river.  David cooked us a fine breakfast on his boat whilst OH* companionably criticised his vinyl filing system. This is how men like OH and David make friends. We LOVED his boat, living there is definitely the dream. He loves it too. David is a happy man.

*Other Half

We drifted through the morning reading for a while and went for a walk up-river, picking blackberries along the way. We could have got lunch en route but breakfast and the blackberries seemed to suffice until we got back to Pin Mill and an ice cream from the gallery, after looking at their exhibition of Arthur Ransome's photographs of the village.

After an hour or so more sitting by the river we walked back to the car with David and said our cheerios. 

As I had said to David over breakfast that morning, I think by choosing this as a our first monthly adventure we might have peaked early. The benchmark is now pretty high.  

Next month: A weekend in Cambridge and The Fitzwilliam.

Holkham

Things are afoot at Holkham, the North Norfolk Coast's stately home (that one with the world famous beach attached). 

I was on pork pies and sausage rolls delivering duty there yesterday and had a good nosy round. I came away impressed and pleased, I liked it before and, as with anywhere you are fond of, was that little bit apprehensive about the end result, especially having seen it as a building site over the winter when I dropped in for meetings. But it all looks just fabulous. Much improved and so much more appropriate for the destination that Holkham has become over the last few years, but still retaining oodles of character. The courtyard (where the Bygones exhibition was before) has been used to create a single smart cluster of resources for visitors.

The Courtyard Cafe is more spacious and the entrance has been swivelled round, so that you access it from the courtyard. The park opened to visitors, after the winter, this weekend and I know they were busy from the huge number of sausage rolls and pies they have got through in just three days. The ever-accurate pork pie barometer.  The family have always been keen to use local food, and the cakes have always been stunning, but in the alterations the recently appointed manager, Simon (who has come from some well known and very well thought of food places), has been supplied with a brand new pro kitchen that gave me equipment envy. 

Usually there on business of one sort or another, I'd never taken enough notice of the shop, where it was previously on the far side of the Stables courtyard, but it's suddenly got chic and spacious, housed in a beautiful, glass fronted, airy side of the courtyard and has some perfectly beautiful things. It is an absolute pleasure to browse round. There are some very covetable pieces of metalwork from Holkham Forge, a great range of doggy items, including leads from The Traditional Rope Company (who live and work in my village) and a lot more Holkham badged products than I'd been aware of before, including some clothing that I really had to drag myself away from, in the estate's tweed.

Being a long time ceramics fan, some very stylish black and white china in the kitchenalia area lured me in and called out  to me photograph it. When I got back to HQ my Twitter friend, Steven Moore, the Antiques Roadshow's ceramic expert, informed me that they are made for Holkham by the famous Staffordshire Burleigh Pottery (of which he's Creative Director), so not much wonder it's jolly nice! I reckon sales of that will be as brisk as sausage rolls.

The remaining wing of the courtyard is the new interactive Farm to Fork exhibition. Telling the story of agriculture on the Estate, one of the first things I saw was local food star Norfolk Saffron which rather delighted me. Holkham's all about the whole family experience and the exhibition, whilst fascinating as an adult, has also been designed as an education resource with lots of touchy feely and unexpected things for children to explore and learn from.

All in all, a great improvement. For visiting times and admission information click here.

Seville. The lesser known stuff.

Once in a blue moon we get a proper, going away with suitcases, holiday. Very nice. This time we went to Seville. Cured ham was only one of the reasons. 

The big touristy things to do in Seville, a city of flowers, elegance and trees, are well documented, you'll find The Alcázar and the Cathedral for yourself (and extraordinary they are too), but they are busy, so here are a few less well documented things you might like.

Tapas Tour - As soon as I mentioned Seville on Twitter we were swiftly steered toward Shawn of Azahar - thanks Rachel and others. Her tapas tours started with a blog and gradually became a business (file under living the dream), she's very well known and respected in the food world. Now, I'm really not a huge one for guides and the like but I'd unhesitatingly recommend doing a tapas tour with her. Really. Do it. We were in Seville for 4 (6 if you count the start & finish days) days and getting off the plane, having a rest then going straight out into the night with her to a pro selection of small bars, chatting with locals and drinking sherry around town, on the first night meant we hit the ground running and continued henceforth to nose round the food and drink of Seville with confidence. Shawn's a lovely Canadian (aren't all Canadians nice?) who has lived in Seville for decades. We went to places we'd never have found solo and ate and drank some wonderful food.  Quite a lot of it. She's also up for a cat conversation if you happen to be missing yours.

Reader, I took her pork pies.

Oranges are not the only fruit in Seville. But there are a lot.

BTW - Azahar means orange blossom. Slight regret, we were just too early for the orange blossom. There are so many trees around the old city that when the flowers are properly out the whole place smells sensational (Shawn says). I imagine it to be a lot like a big bottle of 4711 cologne. We were there around 20th of Feb, so for the full olfactory experience I'd aim for the end of the month or the beginning of March. The trees are ornamental bitter oranges, one of many legacies of the Moors. They are a beautiful tree shape and look exactly like the vintage orange tree china (you know the ones). I got a lot of pleasure from seeing the green parakeets chattering as they dodged in and out of the taller trees too. We haven't got parakeets in Norfolk yet.

Anyway, you don't want my nature notes, you want tourism, and make it snappy. So these are the little, less visited places.

La Casa de Pilatos

A palace that's been privately owned since the 16th Century. It's the Moorish Alcázar writ small and jewel-like, in the spring sunshine the colonnaded architecture is just beautiful and, with its beautiful gardens and ancient Greek and Roman sculptures, its a bit of an oasis. Only the very rich could afford water for luxuries like gardens in medieval times and you get to recognise that the palaces of Seville feature gardens as an exquisite status symbol.  I'm a push-over for ceramics, so could be quite happily parked and left staring at the exquisite medieval tiles, and anywhere that does bedding in the garden with violets is good with me. It is well worth timing your visit to get the included tour of the upper apartments, which are still a luxurious private residence. 

It was used as a set for part of Lawrence of Arabia, and The Duchess of Medinaceli (who deliberately avoided the indignity of being listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most titled person by giving some of her titles away), hosted parties there whose guests included Jackie O and Grace Kelly. She had nearly 100 properties and castles and set up a foundation to preserve them.  It's well worth reading up on the late Duchess, she sounds a remarkable person.

Gorgeous.

Hospital de los Venerables

Another calm and beautiful building, this is a church with what was a cloistered, tiled, infirmary for ailing priests attached. But the best reason for visiting is its tiny art gallery with what is now in my top ten favourite paintings, a luminous  Velázquez of a girl holding white bowls (St Rufina), which for its sense of presence and that stare, could be a Vermeer. Just utterly beautiful.

The Archivo General de Indias.

The main purpose of the museum is to house 800 million documents (count 'em) relating to Spain's Caribbean and South American history. We went there on spec and found a very entertaining exhibition, with lots of interactive stuff, mainly dedicated to explaining how the sinking of The Mercedes (full of gold pieces of eight) was OUR fault. As British, surrounded by real life Spaniards, this was quite exciting. The  21st century room of the exhibition had a vitrine with a great big heap of the pieces of eight, recovered by salvagers and then promptly reassigned to Spain by a Florida court.  The exhibition was temporary but apparently there's usually something equally good on. It's free to EU citizens and I'd suggest the audio tour would be a good idea unless your Spanish is up to scratch.

Centro Ceramico Triana

I'm a bit of a ceramics geek and since Roman times Seville has been all about ceramics, historically and economically, so was rather in my element here. There are stunning glazed tiles everywhere in Seville, if you look up to quite humble balconies in the street you'll often see the underside has been lined with colourful tiles and once you get your eye in ceramics are on every surface. So to understand more of the context of what you'll see a lot of, this modern museum is well worth a visit. It's in the Triana district, just over the river (which in itself you need to see to understand Seville). Triana has strong and proud sense of identity,  and I loved wandering in the indoor market and spotting artisan workshops dotted around the district. It's a quite different character to the Santa Cruz district where we stayed and where most of the touristy action is in Seville. I think if I came again I'd have an apartment in Triana and walk into Santa Cruz.

Sal Gorda

I won't steal Shawn's thunder by listing all the tapas bars we liked and went back to (they're all on her blog), but one we went to under our own steam, albeit suggested by her, was Sal Gorda. It is run by young owners, serves excellent modern food based on traditional tapas and we thought it pretty sensational and a good contrast to the old bars which we also loved.

Razor Clams at Sal Gorda

Where we stayed

This isn't one of Seville's small things, but we stayed in the huge Casas de la Juderia hotel in Santa Cruz, which is the old city. It's been created out of numerous beautiful small, ancient houses and courtyards in the Jewish Quarter and is highly recommended. All except the euro breakfast experience, which was cramped, had the worst coffee from machines and was a bit of an ordeal. I'd not book that and just go and find a baker or a tapas bar.

One bit of advice Shawn gave us was to peer into courtyards and look up. We did, a lot. Thanks Shawn.