Saturday morning saw us all fresh & ready to go on a full day's drinking around Cambridge.   After a big breakfast in the hotel we (Al, Andrew, Matt, Mark, Asun & me) walked towards the city to the pub that was closed yesterday:

The Empress is a Bohemian place which feels like a proper pub in a residential back street.   The friendly lady behind the bar was happy to see us & told us about the Romsey Town t-shirts & the cats.   More friendly was one of the cats called George who took a shine to us.   Lots of board games were to one side & giant samosas were in a glass cabinet on the bar.   4 types of pizza were for sale too.   The beer was a little pricey at £3.10 a pint but in good condition & the pub was an excellent place to be drinking it.

Wells Eagle IPAⁱ for Al, Milton Empress Bad Boy Aleⁱ for Mark & me, Thwaites Original for Matt & unrecorded pints for Asun & Andrew.   In many other towns this would easily win best pub of the day.

Onto a pub so good we had to repeat it: The Kingston Arms.   A few more people in today & being lunchtime we were wanting food.   The recession busting menu meant that 6 of us ate for £41 even though only a few of us had the cheaper items.   The pork pie & cheese was superb.   Again, friendly staff who remembered us from yesterday & 10 ales to choose from.

Here we had Crouch Vale Brewers Gold for Al, a Oakham Ahkenaten for me (see yesterdays description on this £2.00 beer), An Elgood's Barleymead for Andrew, a Buntingford Polar Star for Matt & unrecorded beers for Mark & Asun.   Followed by a Tom Wood's Best Bitter (ordinary English style ale) for me, an Elgood's Barleymead (full bodied beer with some malty sweetness) for Al & more unrecorded beers for the rest.

Back towards the city & across the main road to the Live & Let Live - a traditional pub in a residential street with an interesting etched glass window of a dog & a cat that appears to be the pub's modern logo.   We had time for a pint before the pub closed at 15.00.

Bays Gold (malty-sweet, fruity beer) for Al, Nethergate Umbel Ale (a lovely dryish, full bodied pale ale with corianderⁱ) for Mark & me, Oakham Inferno for Matt & unrecorded beers for Asun.

A longer walk through the city centre to The Mitre & our only dissapointing pub of the weekend.   A modern chain pub, but done out fairly tastefully in darkish-red wood with a real fire.   8 real ales on tap.   Service slow, but since there was only 1 barstaff at the time (mid afternoon on a Saturday & a busy pub) this wasn't suprising.   We had 1 beer each mainly due to the bobbins condition of the beer - served too warm & on the turn, like the barrel had been open for more than 3 days.   Alex joined us again at this point but we advised him to not have a beer until the next pub.

A Morrissey Fox Brunette (the only beer that could be finished, a reasonable beer, a good malty body without being too sweet) for Mark & me, Morrissey Fox Blonde for Asun & Andrew (warm & sweet unlike any other pint of MF Blonde I've tried before), Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted (again, warm & the worst served B&T I've ever tried) for Al & a Davenport's The Fall for Matt.   Apart from the Brunette, these beers were mostly unfinished.  

We went for a punt in the river between The Mitre & the next pub (probably not 100 yards apart) to work up a thirst.   Money well spent & good fun.   Would be safer if completely sober.

The Pickerel has games machines & a huge telly with Sky sports on, but otherwise a regular pub with all wooden panels & furniture.  Standing room only in here.   3 real ales but the only one worth noting is the Orkney Dark Island (a dark, full bodied beer with a good chocolatey, fruity flavour) had by Matt & myself.

We walked further through town & uphill to The Castle which was 4 deep at the bar & absolutely packed (tea time crowds).   We walked out without drinking & towards a curry house.   Walking past an Everard's pub we couldn't help but walk in:

The County Arms had 5 real ales, all kept well & several tables to chose from to eat & drink at.   This is a smashing modern style pub & it seems scandallous that this isn't in the Good Beer Guide - however I've read some pub review sites & they have very mixed reviews on the place.   The food was good pub grub & the pizza excellent.   Staff were very friendly also.

1st round: Everards Beacon for Andrew, Everards Tiger (big bodied, balanced, ESB style beer) for me, Everards Gaffer's Gold for Al, Everards Original for Matt, unrecorded beers for Asun, Mark & Alex.   2nd round: Everards Original (good malty English-style bitter) for Andrew & me, Everards Beacon for Matt.

Back to The Castle - which had emptied considerably in the hour or so we had been over the road - which is an Adnams pub with 7 real ales (4 of them Adnams).   All the beer tried was in good condition.

1st round: Tim Taylor Landlord for Al, Adnams Kolschⁱ (almost certainly isn't made in Cologneⁱ or served like a lager, but had the taste character of a kind of Kolsch-like beer served at ale temp & gassiness - ie a fruity, pale ale), Umbel Magna for Andrew, others didn't record their beers.   2nd round: Umbel Magna (big bodied dark ale with coriander - great) for me, unremembered beers by the rest.

A good walk downhill & back through the city centre to The Eagle.   A Greene King pub with unremarkable GK beers kept reasonably.   WWII memorabelia throughout the pub, but the real claim to fame apparently is that Watson & Crick announced their model of DNA here.   Ridley's Witchfinder Porter is about as interesting as GK beer gets, which Al & myself had.

Just around the corner is The Anchor, which is a modern massive multi-level pub serving the ever ordinary Greene King beers.   Good views of the river from here.   1st round: GK St Edmunds for Al, GK 1209 for me, other beers unmemerable.   2nd round saw Al on the 1209 & me on whisky.

We said goodnight to Alex & got a taxi back to the hotel where Mark & Asun crashed out - leaving Al, Matt & me to invent a game of pool that can be played by 3 people in the bar.   A Smoothflow Boddingtons for Al & Matt & a bottle of Staropramen for me.