Fwd: [MCINERNEY] An update from July 14 -18

this was meant for the blog!

Sorry about the gap in communication but we have been so busy - we never seem to sit still so that by the time we get home from all day excursions, I am too tired to concentrate on writing. My apologies!

So from July 14 which was last Tuesday week, we have done a few things. We walked from our house to Wicken Fen which was about 6ks and then back again. The Fens are what East Anglia is all about - they are marshes - good places to bury bodies. Daniel reminded me of this - something you read in novels when you wanted to dispose of a body, throw it in the fen, it would sink and that would be the end of it - nice. Through the area we were staying there were lots of man-made canals and they drained the land for agriculture so it was interesting to go for a walk - with a pamphlet in hand, of course.

In the afternoon, we went off to visit another old house - Ickworth House - and Italianate property with a Rotunda as the main part of the house - magnificent as usual with beautiful furniture and the rest. They all have these amazing libraries with thousands of books and beautiful desks and lounges in the room where you can loll around and read. I am not sure whether you lolled in those days…After that we drove a bit further to visit a town called Lavenham which was full of medieval houses. It was a market town so quite spread out but the houses were so interesting and well-kept. And that was it and then home for tea after the visit to the pub to use the wifi.

We found not having wifi access a bit of a nuisance so will always check for that when we book accommodation.

July 15 - We drove to Nottingham for Emma’s grandmother’s funeral and then had lunch at Bottesford where she had lived with Emma’s family. It was good to catch up with Liz and Paul although the circumstances were sad for the family.

July 16 - Thursday today and Dad went off to play golf in Ely - about half-hour away - and I caught the bus into Cambridge and walked around for a few hours. It was great, catching a bus is always interesting as it takes you through villages you wouldn’t drive through normally. My walk around Cambridge was interesting as well as there are all these amazing buildings. A lot of the colleges weren’t open as it is the end of the school year here but I did visit the Wren Library where I had to line up for 20minutes to get in but it was worth it. Besides being a marvellous room, there were all these old books under covers such as the original handwritten manuscript of Winnie the Pooh (not old but interesting to see the handwriting and notations where he made changes), an 8th century psalter, a lock of Isaac Newton’s hair?? as well as his own edition of Principia Mathematica. There was an 8th century copy of St Paul’s epistles, a page from the first Gutenburg bible, Brothers Grimm books and 8th,12th and 14th century books. The books were in glass cases and you had to lift the red covers to see them - from whence came the saying ‘ to keep things under wraps - what do you think? There was also this huge life-size statue of Byron carved in marble meant for Westminster Abbey but was rejected by them and ended up in the library here. I think they might have liked to have it as they had the first letter ever written by Byron at the age of 10 - the handwriting was perfect.

After my walkabout, I took the train to Ely and met Dad. We had a bit of a walk and then visited the Ely Cathedral which is jaw-droppingly large and stayed for a bit of the Evensong. There was an American choir visiting and the singing was beautiful in that environment.

July 17 - Today we started off at 7.00 to visit Newmarket to see the horses walking through the town to the training grounds. It was only 20 minutes away but when we got there was not a horse in sight wandering the town although there are 2 race tracks and is surrounded by green fields with training tracks. We did find them eventually after a few enquiries just on the edge of town and there were hundreds of horses going in and out of stables for a run so the trip was not in vain.

We then went on for a drive along the Norfolk coast. We stopped at a delicious deli and bought pork pies for lunch and sat on the Norfolk Coastal Path looking out over the reeds and a windmill in the distance. Windmills are another feature of the area - a bit different to our steel windmills - they have a brown wooden base and large white wing-things. We also visited another mansion called Oxburgh Hall- it had a moat. The reason we are visiting all these places is that we have the National Trust and Historic Houses Association memberships so we are making sure we get value from them!

After the long day, we visited our favourite pub to use the wifi and have tea. The meal lived up to our expectations.

July 18 - Saturday was our long trip up to Blairgowrie to meet up with Claire, Andy and Abigail. The house is fabulous - we have been lucky with our accommodation so far. and this one has wifi!

Love to all. I will stop here and do the same thing for our trip to Scotland.

Mum xxx

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