Day 10: Cambridge .. To Bristol

We spotted this house on the way to Cambridge. Cute.
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Our flight touched down at Stansted airport around midnight.  We didn't see our cousin Irene at the arrival hall.  Since my niece prefered to go back to Oxford, therefore I arranged her to get on coach/bus to Oxford first.  Fortunately, there was a bus ready to depart for Oxford.  Making sure she knew which bus to get on, I walked back to the airport.  I waited for 2 hours before my cousin showed up.  While waiting, my mind peacefully worked on Plan B, which was, 1. get a good night sleep. 2. call my nephew to get my cousin's phone number.  If failed, then check into a hostel in London tomorrow morning, 3. visit the London museum. 4. fly home to USA.  Just when I was about to take out my blanket for my sleep, my cousin showed up...  She is still the same, unchanged for the past 10 yrs.

King College in Cambridge
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From there it started our non-stop catch-up of our lives......

While waiting, my mind peacefully worked on Plan B....

One of the mistake we made was that we checked into a hotel for 53 pounds a night in which we only stayed for five hours (with a 3-hour sleep).  We could have easily park the car somewhere and slept.  :-)

Cambridge - My dream university.  I heard of this university when I was 14 years old through one of my favorite writers..  For many years I secretly dreamt of being a student there and rowing boats in this soothing river running through Cambridge....   But I didn't row the boat when I was there due to the time constraint...   I like this university town better than Oxford..  We literally saw no blacks for the three hours we were there.   We talked about the real-estate in England too...

The famous river in Cambridge
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The drive from Cambridge to Bristol was memorable.  We had a wonderful dinner with Irene's boss.  One of the seafood dishes he ordered was new to me.  Her boss was quite an interesting but a typical businessman as well.  He loves leisure traveling.  That was the main discussion of our dinner that night.  He drove a sport car.   I felt nothing in the car even when he made a sharp U-Turn except to laugh and compliment him being a cool driver.  He took me home to his place first while Irene needed to visit another friend.  While waiting for Irene to come home, we chatted about business, mainly his business.  We spent a night at his place.

Time constraint. We didn't row the boat... Cambridge.
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The sharing between Irene and I during the brief two-day gathering shedded light on the lives of some successful (businesswise) Chinese men and also of women in England.  See, that is what makes traveling meaningful and educational.