I’ve traveled to cities large and small, old and new, in my 73 years.  In all of my travels, my very favorite city is an old one, a college town in England that has been settled for around 2,000 years.  I first went there in 1984 with my first husband.  We liked it so much, we rearranged our schedule to add an additional day to do more sightseeing.  I went there again in the summer of 1991, to attend a summer program put on by a college in California.

The city is Cambridge, England, and its college is one of the oldest in the world, having been started in the 14th Century.  I studied Medieval English Society, and had a wonderful time.  Here are some of the structures of Cambridge.

Trinity Hall was the College we stayed in, and learned that its original purpose was to train Canon Lawyers.

This building has a very distinctive exterior, with bands of brick alternating with bands of stone.

These are only two of the many bridges over the River Cam (yes, the city’s name comes from Cam Bridge!), which winds through the city.  It is a very shallow river, and if you happen to fall in, there’s no way you could drown!  The shallow-draft boats are called “punts”, and a very popular pastime is punting on the Cam.

I took this photo from the wall surrounding my college.

An old city in America is Philadelphia, which dates from the 1600s.  We have been there a few times, since my husband grew up in Camden, New Jersey, right across the Delaware River from Philly.

This Philadelphia landmark was built in the mid 19th Century, and has just completed an extensive interior restoration to its Gilded Age splendor.  It was originally two mansions that were combined into one.  Today, those two window air-conditioners are gone, since the school has had a new central heating and air-conditioning installed.

I am an Art Deco fan, and I especially was drawn to the front doors of a bank building not far from Curtis.

The oldest city I have ever visited was Jerusalem.  Many of its structures are over 3,000 years old.

This city structure dates from before Christ.  Excavations are still going on, discovering structures even older.

These are both sections of the original City Walls of Jerusalem.

Next week, we will be going to Bellevue to watch the fireworks for Independence Day.  Bellevue is a quite new city, with some beautiful new buildings.

This structure is in Bellevue City Park, where the July 4 celebration is held.  It’s a pretty simple, but elegant water feature.

Here’s the Link to Cee’s Original Post for this week.