Cambridge is a one-day-wonder for visitors of any age

I reached a sobering personal milestone last weekend. It was the first time I've attended a wedding at which I was older than the mother of the bride.

Not by much, mind you. But it still felt like a step into a new and more marginal generation. The days of the weddings of my peers are now mostly over. (Though we do have two this year to celebrate.) It's time to turn our attention to the kids. I don't feel that old. Perhaps that's why I drank and danced with quite so much passion. Especially when those '80s classics came on.

Fortunately, there was plenty to distract me from broody contemplation of advancing years. The groom, our nephew, was giddily happy. His bride is a glorious addition into our family and her family and friends were great fun. The venue showed off the potential of the English countryside at its best to host special occasions like this.

British farmers and estate owners have had to sweat their assets for decades to get by, so it's no longer a surprise to see them venturing into the hospitality industry. Indeed, it sometimes feels like every barn in the country that pre-dates the 20th century has been tastefully restored and turned into a party venue. I've been to several excellent wedding receptions beneath their ancient timbers. But I've never seen a whole ensemble of farm buildings re-purposed as well as South Farm in Shingay. If you ever need to throw a party or a big corporate event in South Cambridgeshire, this is your venue.

I'd guess the L-shaped farmhouse, which has been beautifully restored, to be late Georgian. Though with places like this it's likely bits and pieces are much older. Three farm buildings to its side, set in a rough "C" shape, form a complex around a mostly-enclosed courtyard. on the other side of the house are beautiful gardens I'd guess get a lot of use in the summer. The primary facilities are a barn and a dairy, both beautiful buildings of dark timber framing and white walls, the dairy a smaller version of the barn across the courtyard. They're linked by a covered walkway which looks onto a working farm yard full of decorative animals like exotic ducks and a white peacock.  Suspiciously clean sheep grazed in a little pasture on the other side of the dairy. I suspect there might have even been some heritage breed pigs rooting around somewhere. If I ever win the lottery, this is pretty much the set-up I want when I follow in Marie Antoinette's footsteps to create my model farm.

Our bridal couple had the good sense not just to pick an excellent venue, but to marry on a Friday in a bit of the country rich with tourism opportunities. Thus Saturday saw us exploring Cambridge with Danish cousins.

With its stunning architecture, rich history, cultural blockbusters and exceptional parkland, Cambridge could easily keep a visitor busy for a week. Beyond students, there are enough affluent permanent residents to make it a great place for shopping and dining. But it's also, rather surprisingly, a tiny town at its core that allows a tourist to get a feel for the place and hit the highlights in just one day out.

We drove and left the car at the sparkling new multi-story car park attached to the Grand Arcade shopping mall. At £26.80 for the full day on Saturday, it was no bargain; but it was incredibly convenient; especially if you have dogs you want to get rid of half way through the day. You emerge in the heart of the historic centre, a stone's throw from the market square and Trumpington Street (the main road along which many of the most historic colleges sit). You're even closer to the tourist information centre in the Guild Hall on Peas Hill, where you can pick up the official Cambridge tourist map and mini guide for £2.50. If you're only here for a day or two, this is all you need ... and is particularly useful for its clearly-marked walking tours.

The logical starting point is King's College Chapel, a rare survivor from England's lavish, pre-Reformation days. In architectural language, it's the world's best example of late perpendicular English gothic .... a style that proves the English could be just as giddy and frivolous as any Italian painter or French designer. The fan vaulting here transports you to a magical land of fairies and elves; I think you have to leap forward 500 years to Gaudi's Sagrada Familia to find any other building that's so delicately otherworldly. It has also, by some miracle of fate, retained both its original stained glass and rood screen, features ripped out of most English churches in waves of religious violence in the 16th and 17th centuries. The iconoclasts left this chapel alone, meaning you can enjoy it pretty much as it was when Henry VIII dropped by. Except for a delicious Rubens altarpiece donated and added last century which complements the comforting opulence and rich colours.

The chapel is also famous for its traditional church music. You can hear some, and save yourself the £9 admissions fee, if you hang around for the nightly evensong service. That, however, wasn't going to fit into our one day blitz. Following the tourist office's walking route, we sauntered down Trumpington Street peeking through gates into quadrangles of various colleges, all blessed with their own distinct architecture. Some Gothic, some Georgian, some Victorian, some a mix. There are even a few modern additions, though most of the town centre retains its film-set antiquity.

The sight that pulls the most visitors in this stretch, however, is the most modern: a striking mix of timepiece and public art display called the Corpus Clock, installed in 2008. Looking like something that should be in Hogwarts, this series of gold disks turns steadily, topped by a giant, grasshopper-like creature who's eating the minutes as they tick by. He's called the chronophage ... literally, "time eater", and he's there to remind us how quickly the days go. A poignant message for university students, who will need a couple of decades to grasp it properly.

Turning right on Silver Street brings you to the River Cam, where you can gaze at the Mathematical Bridge (a sophisticated 18th century exercise in geometric design) and catch students piloting tourists in flat boats called punts. A circular walk from here takes you along a bit of the river known as "the backs" where you can saunter through parkland and look over the water to some of Cambridge's showiest architecture and most famous colleges. The view of Kings College chapel and quadrangle from this side is one of the quintessential views of the town. Eventually you turn right again and return to the town centre, where more enticing peeks down lanes and through gates remind you that much of the magic here is still the preserve of students and teachers, screened from prying tourist eyes.

Time for lunch. At least a third of the stalls in the market square now offer food. From giant woks of oriental delights to Indian curries, sausages to burgers, you can get anything you fancy here as dedicated vendors vie for gourmet street food stardom. It's a very long way from the clothes, housewares, fabrics, bric-a-brac and music stalls that occupied the square when I worked my first British assignment here in the early '90s. We were looking for something more atmospheric, and desperately needed to sit down for a while, so headed for The Eagle.

It's rare to find a properly traditional pub in a high-traffic tourist area, but such is The Eagle. A coaching inn dating back to 1667, it's still a pleasing warren of smaller dining and drinking areas with traditional decor. The old courtyard is now, inevitably, a beer garden with heat lanterns to work the space throughout the year. The back room, known as the RAF bar, has a more modern history. Cambridge was surrounded by both American and British air bases in World War II, and this is where many of the airmen relaxed. The walls are covered with their graffiti and insignia from diverse flight groups and operations down the years; it's still a point of pilgrimage for modern flyers and aviation buffs. Scientists hung out here, too. Yet another piece of modern history sees The Eagle as the place where regulars Watson and Crick announced they'd discovered DNA. The pub has a home-brewed ale called "Eagle's DNA" to celebrate the fact.

In addition to being picturesque and historic, it's also a great place to eat in the best pub tradition. Fish and chips, burgers, curries and pies loom large on the menu, but all seem to come from the heart and hands rather than the freezer. Pies are even proper, hand-raised versions rather than the stew-with-a-pastry-lid shortcuts that are more typical these days. Unsurprisingly, The Eagle is as popular with locals as it is with tourists, so booking a table in advance is a very good idea. (We didn't, but got lucky when a large group didn't show.)

We'd contemplated a postprandial meander along the river through Jesus Green and Midsummer Common, tipped by the tourist office as a beautiful walk. But the weather was closing in so we left the dogs sleeping in the car and went for an indoor option.

Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum is far more than your typical university collection. It's one of the great museums of the world, packed with Old Masters, Medieval and Renaissance treasures, priceless classical antiquities, spectacular furniture, exotic Far Eastern collections and rare manuscripts and coins. With over a million objects on display, an art lover could spend days here. But since it, like all of the UK's National Collections, is free ... you can pop in and have a quick wander to get a feel for the place. (Donations are appreciated.)

The Fitzwilliam also features one of the grandest museum entry halls in the world. It's a 19th century neo-classical pastiche worthy of a Roman emperor's most opulent fantasies. Mosaic floors, multi-coloured marble walls, towering columns, classical statuary, sinuous ironwork, monumental stairs, balconies for posing, all topped by a magnificent stained glass dome. The hall just reopened last year after a multi-year restoration and is noticeably improved, with the stained glass gleaming and gold leaf glittering. It's one of the best rooms in Britain. Even if you're not interested in art, step through the front door to drink in this wonder.

I could have spent hours wandering the galleries beyond, but soon it was 5pm, the museum was closing and we had to get back for the third consecutive night of wedding festivities. I might have joined the parental generation, but my best days aren't that different from those in university. Consume culture and wonderful sights during the day, consume food and alcohol with fun people at night. Life is good.

If you're spending more time in this part of the country, you might want to visit the magnificent ... but very different from each other ... stately homes of Wimpole and Ickworth.  The more technically inclined (or those interested in World War history) will love the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, one of the best aircraft museums to be found anywhere in the world.