While the Robsons headed northward, we had two days in Cambridge with many possibilities. Top of the list was visiting the village, the setting of the PBS drama “Grantchester.” The storyline has a country vicar solving crimes in conjunction with the local police detective (Robson Green). The crimes are not as wicked/weird as those on “Midsomer Mysteries” or as silly as “Father Brown,” just complicated tales of finding justice for the citizens of Grantchester.

Committed viewers were attached to the first vicar, Sydney (James Norton) of the beautiful locks. But he abandoned his flock, both in Grantchester and those watching on TV, with some fabricated excuse such as moving to America to be with his new love.

You know how hard it is to break in a new minister when you were really attached to the old one, even after they abandon you.

Yes, Grantchester fans have been slow to warm up to new vicar Will (Tom Britney) who seems a little (a lot) immature. After three seasons, for those of us who continue to go to Masterpiece church on Sunday night at 9:00 pm, Will has begun to grow into our affections after a string of bad behavior and recovering from a crisis of faith. Perhaps redemption is possible even for TV vicars.

Cambridgeshire transportation is mainly by bus. I read about bus routes for the Stagecoach bus line and bought Day Plus pass for 2 days. Surely that would get us to Grantchester. When we asked the “Ask Me” person about how to get to Grantchester, she pointed to a bus that would take us to city center where we could catch another bus.

At the bus station, the bus company which took us downtown was not the bus company that went to Grantchester. We needed a different day pass to get there, we had just missed that bus, and the next bus would come in an hour.

A little frustration led us to sightseeing in suburban Cambridge from whatever bus was going anywhere and coming back. This was a very interesting ride through neighborhoods and commercial areas with grocery, restaurant, antique, and kitchen shops. With just enough time to eat tasty, hot samosas at the ChaniWalli Indian street food truck, we caught the right bus, we thought, to Grantchester. The samosas were very good but only whetted our tastebuds for Indian fare.

Bus 18 left on time and we looked forward to wandering the TV familiar streets and sights of Grantchester. People got off and on along the route. We thought we would soon arrive in the middle of the village—probably beside the church and vicarage. We just rode and rode through beautiful countryside. We saw two new residential developments along the bus route. Suddenly we were at the end of line at St Neots, a charming old town with a history fair on the town square sponsored by the local museum—but not Grantchester.

I had neglected the first test of travel by not asking, “Where do we get off the bus?” The answer was the “Burnt Close” first stop outside Cambridge. At 3:00 an express bus arrived to take us back to Cambridge with the bus company where we first bought tickets. Back at the hotel, we took a short rest to soothe our soul’s disappointment in the day.

For dinner, we went downstairs to the Station Tavern. The people sitting at the table next to us left their shopping bag. After 30 minutes, they came rushing back in a flurry to retrieve. New people at the table, Tim and Allison, struck up a conversation. We joined them and heard about their interesting life stories which entertained us for an hour while waiting for their train.

After a good night’s sleep, Sunday morning brought new hope for visiting Grantchester. The new problem was that many bus routes, including Bus 18, do not operate on Sundays. We walked out of the hotel and took a taxi to Grantchester thinking it was a failsafe plan.

And it was. The taxi took us to the front door of the Grantchester Church, actually the St. Mary and Margaret Church. The church had a special song service sponsored by the Friends of Grantchester Church. We arrived at 11:10 and the service began at 11:15. Now we understood why we had been frustrated the day before. We were meant to come on Sunday.

The choir was in full voice, and the sermon was given by a visiting retired Archdeacon.

His message was that service to others is the central purpose of religion. The church sends part of the money earned from filming the series to support a community in Rwanda.

The vicarage next door sported a new coat of paint and was covered with purple wisteria, an idyllic vision. As we were snapping pictures, a couple stopped to say the idyllic vision had been created for the TV show that finished filming last month – and that the wisteria festoons were plastic. All the world’s a stage! We also had a nice conversation with two women from Birmingham who tried to teach us to say “Bumminam.”

The taxi driver recommended the Orchard Cafe for lunch so we walked down the High Street into a wooded park where tables and chairs were set around in an apple orchard with a busy sandwich shop,

We had lunch and rested in the park for a spell before walking back up High Street. We saw a couple of the local places—settings used for outside camera shots. The flowers at the Red Lion were actually flowers.

A young man, who was selling coffee and pastries from his van set up at the Cambridge Distillery, called the cab for us. Several customers drove up and drove away with his wares giving us an idea. Coffee and Bakewell pastry were tasty treats while we waited.

After a short rest at the hotel, we headed to the Cambridge University Botanical Garden a few blocks away.

We wandered through the various settings of plants: rock garden, Fens garden, scent garden, fountain, grass maze, stump throne, etc. The croc-trunk-odile was an interesting feature. The time was really relaxing.

Leaving the gardens from the opposite end gate, we headed back toward the hotel hoping to find dinner on our route, but we managed to take the long road home. This wrong turn led us to a wonderful dinner at Tiffin Truck, a sit-down Indian street food restaurant which was exactly what we wanted. We ordered dosa, a delicious Indian crepe filled with potato/vegetable mash for a starter. We have found dosa only at one Indian restaurant in the US. Saag aloo and butter chicken rounded out dinner.

A walk back to the hotel finished our 15,000 steps for Grantchester day. The rest of the evening involved packing and preparing to visit Judith and Andy in Birmingham tomorrow.