The Fitzwilliam Museum : Cambridge, 2017

On the third day of our trip to Cambridge we spent the morning at the Fitzwilliam Museum. Well...some of the Fitzwilliam Museum. The entirety of the Fitzwilliam is pretty huge and there was no way my ME-brain was dealing with that much information, especially after two busy days, so we decided to look at just the rooms on the ground floor (we managed all but rooms 28 and 29).

Grecian Vase. Photo by H. Bailey

We entered through the disabled entrance, which is at the side, meaning we missed the splendor of those columns at the front entrance, *sigh*. Like at every other stop on our trip we drove there to conserve energy and we somehow managed to snag a bit of street parking right opposite the entrance - a delightful piece of luck when considering the general state of Cambridge parking. This win was maybe slightly dampened by us repeatedly ending up facing the wrong way down a one-way street - the same one-way street - when we were driving there. Cambridge needs better roads, I've been twice now and both times we ended up completely driving around in circles.

Manuscript Illustration. Photo by H. Bailey

The Fitzwilliam is impressive, but busy, and not as in people busy, but display busy. One room had hundreds, if not thousands, of porcelain dolls piled up in cabinets for you to look at. Even a non-ME brain must struggle with that (...my mumma confirmed this). There was so much to take in I can't comment on all of it, I can't even remember all of it. Some of the rooms slipped out of my brain right after we left them thanks to wonderful brain fog. However, I can give you a piece of advice I now know in retrospect: come up with an action plan of the rooms you are most interested in beforehand and just focus on those or you too may end up spending way too long looking at thousands of porcelain dolls (I realize I may be exaggerating the amount of dolls slightly, but there were a lot, okay!).

Photo by H. Bailey

My favourite of the rooms were the ones displaying near-eastern pottery from Turkey and Syria (which I unfortunately can't find any pictures of). They were absolutely stunning...do you think the Fitzwilliam would agree to donate some to me for my future house? No? Bit of a big ask? Okay then, it was worth a shot. The seven-year-old in me also quite enjoyed the weaponry room. Swords made for purely decorative purposes have incredibly intricate designs on their hilts and the craftsmanship is amazing (again, no pictures!). The rooms with sarcophagus...es? (sarcophaguses? sarcophagi? ... hang on a sec, let me google...okay, it is sarcophagi - the rooms with sarcophagi) were my least  favourite. Ever since I was little, as soon as I'm near one of those my whole body goes on high alert. I blame Scooby Doo, it set unreasonably high expectations for sarcophagus = rampaging mummy.

Sarcophagus Detail. Photo by H. Bailey

Our visit ended in a trip to the museum shop which is pretty big and felt a lot more open than many museum shops which can be cramped and difficult to process. The shop is also right by the cafe, however, we decided to venture out of the city for lunch. The Fitzwilliam is definitely stunning and has a good variety of displays for you to choose from depending on where your interests lie - we didn't even get to any of the paintings on the 1st Floor. If you struggle with brain fog, however,  don't try and visit it all in one day and definitely have an action plan before heading in!

Manuscript Illustration. Photo by H. Bailey

Photo by H. Bailey

Photo by H. Bailey

Accessibility (1 = not very good; 5 = brilliant!:

Wheelchair 4/5: 
All of the floors are wheelchair accessible and can be reached by lifts. I think there is just one gallery that isn't accessible. The displays were generally easy to maneuver around, although some were a little high and so difficult to see sat down (a common problem). The disabled entrance is on the left of the main entrance, and you will, unfortunately, miss those marvelous columns.

Sensory Input 3/5: 
The building itself is quite spacious, most of the time, and it was quite quiet when we were there as well - most of the rooms only had a few people in. A lot of the displays are very intense though, with lots to take in, which meant that mentally I tired quite quickly.

Food & Facilities 5/5: 
There is a cafe on site, by the shop. We didn't stop here but it's accessible. Depending on the time of day it could end up being quite noisy and busy. There are toilets, including disabled, on the Lower Ground Floor.

Travel 3/5: 
There is a small amount of disabled and Pay & Display parking on the street but not much. You can get a bus which stops outside of the museum. You can get buses and taxis from the train station which is a 20 minute walk away.

Overall 3.75/5: 
Our visit length was two hours, with ten minutes of travel time.

CAMBRIDGE TRIP DAY ONE: ST ALBAN'S CATHEDRAL

CAMBRIDGE TRIP DAY TWO: KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL

 *I currently have moderate ME, meaning I use a wheelchair pushed by someone else, and a walking stick. Please take into account your own physical capabilities when planning a trip, if you need to start small then start small. Look into what you can see nearby for when you're ready. Although, when at my best, I may be able to post every 1-2 weeks, that does not mean I am well enough to travel that frequently! Many of my posts come from a backlog of trips taken over the past few years.