Cambridge

The whole ceiling is stone opened out like a fan, so it stands with no column down the middle. Seats at the carol service on the afternoon of 24 December are not sold ahead, so people queue from the morning. A screen hides the altar from the back half.

It is the widest enclosed court of any college here. By the gate stands a tree said to be grafted from Newton's apple tree. The clock strikes each hour twice, once low and once high. Students race a lap of the court before the striking ends.

The tale that it was pinned together without nails and could not be put back is not true. Iron bolts held it from the start, and the bridge standing now was rebuilt in 1905. Straight timbers make the curve, which only reads from below.

Entry to the university art museum is free, and its front steps climb like a Greek temple. A visitor tripped on a staircase in 2006 and broke three Chinese vases, so cases are fixed to the wall now, and low light downstairs changes how paintings read.

College lawns run along the river with one bridge after another crossing it. Most of the grass is roped off so you keep to the gravel, and the few days in spring when the crocuses open together draw the biggest crowds.

Walking the river from town out to Grantchester takes about an hour. The path runs through the meadows themselves, so you pass among cattle, and rain turns it to mud. At the far end an orchard has sold tea in deckchairs under the apple trees for a century.

The names on the ceiling were burned there with lighters by British and American aircrew in the Second World War. Two researchers announced the structure of DNA in this room in 1953, and a plaque says so. Tables free up once lunch is over.

A small museum holding the letters and kit left by Scott's Antarctic expedition. Two rooms are all there is, an hour at most, what was recovered from the last camp fills a single case, and the sign is small because a research institute holds it.

The football rules drawn up here in 1848 became the base for the later international code. Paths cross the square of grass on the diagonal, and students call the lamp post at the centre Reality Checkpoint. On summer evenings games start all over it.

On the hill at Madingley the graves of over three thousand American war dead fan out in arcs. One wall carries over five thousand names of men never recovered, and a bronze rosette marks any since identified. A bus reaches it in twenty minutes.

It rides a rise above the fens 15 minutes by train from Cambridge, hence the nickname Ship of the Fens. When the central tower fell in 1322, a timber octagon lantern went up in its place. A guided climb takes you up inside that lantern.

A gold disc fixed in 2008 to the corner of Corpus Christi's library, with a time-eating grasshopper perched on top. There are no hands or numerals; blue lights show the hour. It is built to run erratically and is exact only once in every 5 minutes.

A fighter station from the Battle of Britain, now a museum airfield 15km south of the city. The hangars hold Spitfires, Concorde and American bombers. On air show days tickets are sold separately.

The house of curator Jim Ede and his wife, given to the university and opened as they left it. Ben Nicholson paintings sit at the same height as beach pebbles, the arrangement unchanged. The house is entered on free timed tickets.

Henslow, Darwin's teacher, founded it on its present ground in 1846. The Winter Garden is planted with red stems and scented shrubs so there is something to see in midwinter. Walkers heading from the railway into the centre pass its gates.

Christopher Wren's library on the river side of Trinity, completed in 1695. Glass cases show Newton's notebook and the Winnie-the-Pooh manuscripts. It opens only briefly around midday on weekdays, plus Saturday mornings, and only during term.

The university church tower: 123 steps up, King's College Chapel roof and the market square lie below. Old rules made students live within set miles of this church, so it served as the measuring point. The stair is narrow; people squeeze past.