Wander & Wonder Travel Newsletter

Hey StoryHunter

There are many reasons to visit London – and one of the reasons is a place, that is complete the opposite of London.

If you hop on the train heading north for about 50 minutes, you end up in Cambridge.

It’s close enough for a day trip – but it’s far enough to feel like its own country.

And it is a very odd little city.

Thirty-one colleges are squeezed into a few streets.

Students push wooden boats along the river with poles.

And some of the strangest objects in England are standing out in the open.

There is also a good reason to go right now – September is usually packed with free events, and this is your chance to explore the fascinating parts of the city that’s usually closed off.

Read on to learn about:

🦗 The gold clock with a monster on top

☕ The world's first webcam - and what it filmed

🍺 The pub where two men announced the secret of life

New update: Many more languages 🌍

StoryHunt just became even more accessible around the world! 

The app interface is now available in 10 languages, making it easier than ever to explore, navigate and find your next story.

And the best part? All StoryHunt stories and tours can still be enjoyed in 170+ languages.

So wherever you’re from - or wherever you’re going - you can explore in a language that feels like home.

Destination of the Week

One of the great things about Cambridge is that it’s small - you can walk across the middle of it in twenty minutes.

But the classic thing to do is actually to get in a punt - a flat wooden boat that someone pushes along with a long pole.

From the water you see the Backs - the green lawns behind the old colleges - and on the way you will pass under the Mathematical Bridge, which legend tells that Isaac Newton built without a single bolt.

But it’s really the “university vibe” that gets you.

Those massive buildings bears a lot of history, and more than 120 students here have won a Nobel Prize.

You can almost feel your brain expanding a little bit when walking these streets.

Don't Miss

On a street corner in the middle of town hangs a big gold disc.

It is the Corpus Clock, and it is a clock - but it has no hands and no numbers. Instead, blue lights run around three rings.

And sitting on top is a metal creature that looks like a giant grasshopper.

It is called the Chronophage - Greek for "time eater". Its mouth opens halfway through every minute and snaps shut when the minute is gone.

It is eating your time. On purpose. In front of you.

The clock is also wrong on purpose. It speeds up, slows down, and sometimes stops completely. It is only exactly right once every five minutes.

That is the whole idea: an hour does not feel the same as the hour before it.

Did You Know?

In 1991, a group of computer scientists in Cambridge had a small problem.

There was one coffee pot in the building. Their desks were three floors away.

So they kept walking down the stairs, only to find the pot empty.

Two of them got tired of it. They pointed a spare camera at the coffee pot and wired it into the office network.

Now they could see the pot from their desks. Grey, blurry, updated a few times a minute.

In 1993, they put the picture on the internet.

And that was the world's first webcam.

Around 2.4 million people ended up watching a coffee pot in Cambridge before it was finally switched off in 2001.

The Trendy Traveler Tip

The Eagle on Bene't Street looks like an ordinary old pub.

It is not.

On 28 February 1953, Francis Crick walked in at lunchtime and told the room that he and James Watson had found the secret of life.

They had just worked out the shape of DNA in a laboratory around the corner.

There is a blue plaque outside, and the pub still sells a beer called DNA.

But that is not the best part.

Go into the back room and look up.

The ceiling is covered in names, numbers and drawings.

British and American airmen burned them into the paint with candles and cigarette lighters during the Second World War, so that somebody would remember them.

It’s a place where you sip a pint a reflect on the many aspects of life.