Peterborough

Peterborough is 37 miles north of Cambridge and coaches and trains run hourly between the two. Peterborough is promoted as the capital city of shopping with many high-street stores and numerous shopping centres.

Modern shopping centres, high street stores and traditional markets fill the streets of Peterborough joined by attractively landscaped pedestrianised sections. The Queensgate Centre houses over a hundred stores grouped around spacious malls and Hereward Cross and the Rivergate Centre both include major stores and a selection of specialist shops.

A choice of English and world of cuisine is available in Peterborough, a great selection of restaurants are available from Italian cuisine to modern sushi bars, you will find a large range of restaurants and cafes that will get your mouth watering, a perfect end to a hard day shopping.

Peterborough is home to one of the most impressive and inspiring cathedrals in Britain and is an easy day trip from Cambridge. The bus and train stations are just west of the city centre.

In 655 in Anglo-Saxon times King Peada founded a monastic church here, later, after much neglect the Benedictine abbot John de Sais founded the present cathedral as the monastic church of the Benedictine abbey in 1118, it was sanctified in 1237 and these days is well worth a visit.
Entering the precinct from Cathedral Square there is a breathtaking view of the early 13th-century western front, one of the most impressive of any in the UK, and the three storey nave is a striking example of Norman architecture.

The tombstone of Henry VIII's first wife Catherine of Aragon buried here in 1536 lays in the northern choir aisle. The tragic story of her divorce due to her inability to produce a male heir, led to the Reformation in England and the creation of the Church of England. There is a procession in the cathedral every 29th of January to mark her death.
Two standards in the southern aisle mark what was the grave of Mary Queen of Scots before her body was moved to Westminster Abbey by her son, King James.