Moving on – again

Well, we were really sad to leave Vickie and Peter’s Old Barn Guest House this morning. Here we stayed the longest, five days, as I wanted sufficient time to ride the train into London for three days. The train ride takes an hour each way, which naturally cuts into your sightseeing time. That left us with an additional day to visit local sights before we had to head north. But after five days Vickie had become an old friend, and Peter and I had had time for some lively discussions about politics and other stimulating topics.

It was somehow appropriate that the skies were gray and dull this morning with a hint of rain as we hugged and shook hands and reluctantly headed for the car. I am really, really going to miss Vickie’s home-made yoghurt each morning as well as the delightful home-made bread. In appreciation of all her kindness, we left a small present for her in our room that we hope she likes.

This morning we went ahead and ran without the GPS as I was pretty sure I knew about where I wanted to go. Our initial goal for the morning was the city of Cambridge. Although I didn’t have any particular place I wanted to see in Cambridge, I figured that it would be fun to just stroll through the streets. The expressways in the UK here are pretty darn easy to navigate. The signs are very clear, and if you make a mistake you just go to the nearest roundabout and swing back the opposite direction.

Connie is not really a fan of the roundabouts, but I think they’re fun. Many times you don’t even have to slow down much as you thread your way amongst the oncoming traffic. Occasionally, I get beeped at for changing lanes in the roundabout, though often the lanes are not really marked. But I’m getting pretty good at charging right through without a second thought.

It turned out that our dead-reckon navigating was just fine as somewhere just after lunch time we landed right in the middle of old Cambridge. A few minutes later, we had found a parking garage, parked the car, and headed out on foot to stretch our legs and see what there was to see. Cambridge being a college town there were lots and lots of three distinct things: college kids; businesses that catered to college kids; and – what’s my favorite? – right on! Book stores. Naturally, we took full advantage of the latter.

Concetta had just last night been reading about Vita Sackville West and Harold Nicholson, the owners of the Sissinghurst Castle and gardens. Well, since the two had written some 80 books between them, we thought it would be a cinch to find at least one of the couple’s books in Cambridge. Well, it was not to be, but we did find some bargains which should insure that the balance of our evenings in England will be filled with great reading.

After strolling the old town, buying yet another Scottish “flat” hat (I lost the last one in Tisbury), and picking up some presents, we started scouting for a place to have our afternoon tea. We’ve grown a little weary of pubs so we were happy to find a wonderful café with a French flare that served up some very fine food in addition to our usual tea. Then, as the afternoon was flying by, we headed for the car and our drive to Thurlby in Lincolnshire.

Naturally, before we had reached our destination we had already run into a historic site that we just had to see: an archaeological site called Flag Fen. At Flag Fen they have discovered some pretty incredible bronze age, iron age, and Roman artifacts. We got to see how my British ancestors were living 3,000 years ago, as well as stroll a piece of Roman road. In addition, they have reconstructed some of dwellings that these early Brits inhabited, which were

pretty cozy inside since the day had gotten progressively colder. (See the “I’m cold” expression on Connie’s face top right). But the thing that impressed me the most was the wooden cart wheel they found on the site. At 1,300 B.C., it is the oldest wooden wheel ever found in England (see photos of ancient wheel and reconstruction of what it would have looked like when new, photos 2 & 3).

After our brush with antiquity, we headed back for the car and the last couple of dozen miles on the highway before we reached Thurlby. Thurlby is a very rural village on the edge of flat-as-a-table-top farming country. But by the looks of the brochure there is lots to see around here, including touring the magnificent house where they filmed many movies, according to our hostess, that require those Elizabethan estates as a backdrop. I snapped a photo out the bedroom window when we got here, since the sun was shining, and you can see what I can see right this minute.

Our new B&B is very nice and we’re the only guests at the moment. Wendy’s router is sorely in need of a signal booster as I can’t get on line from the room, but must go to the landing. The router is only about twenty feet away so it must be very weak. So, while I figure out how to get all this into the ether, I’ll say

ciao, tutti.