The last Saturday before Christmas sounds like a bad day to go shopping in Cambridge. There will be no-where to park and you will sit for an hour in traffic before you even start. 'Not this week though. The wintry weather kept people at home so Nick and I had a clear run into town and parked-up straight away.
It was very cold but the roads were dry and gritted and the snow that now covered most of the country had missed us out. However, when we were in the outdoor market, a few flakes started to fall. We spent an hour in the Grand Arcade shopping centre, then emerged to find ourselves in a swirling, Dickensian Christmas card. The medieval colleges looked absolutely beautiful but the roads were already white and we looked like a couple of abominable snow-men after a just a minute outside. We were faced with a 15 minute walk back to our car, which we found completely iglooed up.
Traffic was light but crawling along at round 30 mph even on the motor-way. Fifteen minutes out of Cambridge the snow more or less stopped and it didn't snow at all in Huntingdon or Peterborough. This was just as well because on Sunday we planned to go on our annual steam train trip aboard the "Santa Special" on the Nene Valley Railway.
We slept in late and then had to be out of the house in less than half an hour, but the roads were good and we just made it in time to meet Santa and join our friends the Lambtons on the train. We do this trip every year but never tire of it.
You can see some pictures by clicking HERE. The best ones were taken by Nigel Lambton on his Nikon.
Nick's band is playing in Hereford this week, but the roads over there are worse than here with deep snow and ice and some steep hills to negotiate. He set off by train on Sunday afternoon, but was stuck in Birmingham for hours. He got there in the end though. Getting home again might be even more difficult with more snow expected on Tuesday.
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