For my friend’s birthday we arranged a day trip to Cambridge, which is about 45 miles away from us and can be reached in an hour. I prebooked a private parking space, through JustPark, a new experience for me. For £4 we were able to park the car for the day in a gated car park just a 5 minute walk from the centre. It was so easy and convenient, certainly something I’d recommend.

After parking we made our way to Restaurant 22, which held the top spot on Tripadvisor. The restaurant was very classic in its styling and its menu.

We were served some delicious warm flavoured breads, which were accompanied by a selection of flavoured butters. I had pork for main and a rich chocolate dessert. All the food was delicious and impressively presented. It felt really luxurious without feeling pretentious, a real special occasion restaurant.

We walked off our meal strolling around Cambridge, taking in the beautiful buildings. Although we didn’t go punting we enjoyed walking the River Cam and watching the boats, especially the ones who felt brave enough to punt themselves.

After my standard stop at Fudge Kitchen (because seriously, I’ve never tasted nicer fudge elsewhere!) we decided to take advantage of the beautiful sunshine and stop for a drink somewhere. We happened upon Foy, where we enjoyed some wine and chatter.

After becoming a bit peckish post alcohol we stopped at Crepe Affaire and grabbed some savoury crepes to takeaway. Like the classy ladies that we are we ate our crepes sitting on a brick wall. They were really good and totally hit the spot!

Now the reason we felt it wise to line our stomach was because our next stop was the Cambridge Gin Laboratory. This place was so impressive and set up like a proper lab, we even got white coats!

Now I should just put in a disclaimer here, I hate gin, HATE it. However the day wasn’t about it, it was about my friend, and if forcing gin down my throat was going to be what it takes to be a good friend then so be it. I have to say I thought we would get maybe a couple of gin cocktails but actually we must have ended the evening about 14 measures of gin down! It didn’t help that because one of us was driving we had to share her cocktails out to keep her in the safe driving limit!

Although I struggled with the drinks the whole experience was amazing, the staff were so friendly, we had such a laugh and I totally enjoyed my whole evening. We used a whole host of scientific methods to produce some spectacular cocktails, now I just gotta find a tequila lab!

Now feeling pretty pissed we toddled over to Smokeworks, where I made the bad decision to eat blue cheese and pork loaded fries and croquettes. The food was sooo good but lets say it didn’t taste so great coming back the other way when the gin caught up with me later on in the night!

A classy end to a classy Cambridge day!

Steps walked: 17,536