Mostly Photos

September 13 In Norwich then to Cambridge

Ten years ago on this date we arrived in London, having to take a bus to Vancouver Canada in order to see if our Air Canada flight would leave after the terrible 9-11 attack - it left three hours later than scheduled. No flights were allowed in the U.S. for several more days.

The view from Norwich Castle, founded by William the Conqueror.

Looking down on the courtyard area with protective ditch.

The Cathedral we visited yesterday

The earthwork for the keep (castle), called a motte

The market area, a warren of small shops, including a butcher shop.

A market has been here almost 1000 years.

Not a relative... that we know of since the Matthews left for America in 1664

We visit Anglesey Abbey, a country house and garden.

House not open but we enjoy a very good National Trust lunch and walking around the gardens.

Jean with the dahlia chart.

After stopping at our B & B in Cambridge, we make a quick trip north from to Ely

For a small town (pop. 15,000), it has a magnificent cathedral

We arrive in time to sit in on evensong

September 14 Cambridge Tour

Cambridge market

We go on a walking tour, this is Eagle Tavern which american pilots often visited

We see the Cavendish Laboratory where Ernest Rutherford studied and worked.

Crocodile was a nickname for Rutherford, so it appears on this building at the original lab site.

The Queens College Old Hall dining area.

President's Lodge (1400's) in Cloister Court

Mathmatical Bridge across the River Cam, part of Queens College

Next we visit King's College Chapel - one big chapel!

Founded 1441 by Henry VI, finished during reign of Henry VIII

Henry the VIII's seal or symbol in the circle on the rood screen

Below this seal is supposedly Anne Boleyn's head hanging from her hair tied to a ribbon

Inside sculpture

View from the chior area

King's College from the back

River Cam

We saw an American couple on the river that we met in the morning who were renting a punt.

From this bridge we saw them passing below us and Jean asked why he was rowing, not punting -

he said he did... for a few minutes.

The strange grasshopper clock in Cambridge

What is going on over on the left?

A street guitar player in a litter can, nice naturally amplified sound!

Our B & B - nothing special

September 11 to Colchester

We leave Seattle with a bang on September 10th (starter engine dies on 747 causing 30 min delay). Our British Air flight arrives Heathrow at noon on September 11th, 10 minutes late.

Car rented, we drive to see the Cressing Temple medieval barns near Braintree.

Built in the 1100's by the Knights Templar, a Christian military order, active in the Crusades.

One of the two barns is considered the oldest in the world.

Display in one of the barns on construction methods.

Nice walled garden, we gather a few hollyhock seeds.

The new building beyond the apple tree was built using a medieval technique called compass geometry

Explanation of the carpentery technique.

We arrive in Colchester where we stay the night (photo from web)

Railway station guest house, those are our two windows upstairs, had the steepest and smallest treads of all the places we stay.

An actual chef made the excellent breakfast the next morning.

September 12 To Norwich

We visit the village of Kersey on our way to Norwich.

The water on the road is a stream that crosses the only street.

Not a tourist town, but very scenic

We decide to hike up to the church - we never found any village church that was closed, often with no one there.

A surviving medieval part of the church

Thatched B&B in the town

Another view of the street, that's our rental Saab on the right

We head further NE to visit Sutton Hoo, the site of an Anglo-Saxon ship burial with many artifacts.

It's a National Trust site and we purchased a year's membership since we will visit many of their sites. We later also get an English Heritage membership for the same reason.

We visit the museum, and take a walk around the area. A "sand" cast of one of bodies executed in later times, it's basically a stain left by the body of which a cast can be made.

Mound 17 is the large mound in the picture, where the ship burial was found.

Floating in the sky (courtesy of Tom) is the most famous artifact, a ceremonial helmet (reproduction) that was on display at the museum.

We now head farther out to the coast, near Great Yarmouth to see a Roman Fort

A photo from the web of Burg Fort (right foreground), near the village of Burg Castle

The wind is blowing fiercely through the old Roman fort walls at the main entrance.

The Roman name was Gariannonum.

View from the fort across the estuary towards a very large windmill, originally used to pump water out of the marsh land

The wall on the left has collapsed as the tides washed away the bank over the centuries.

Click any photo to see it larger.

Remains of a turret at a corner. There are courses of narrow red brick, then split flint rocks set in mortar.

This church near the fort had some interesting windows

This one notes the death of Herbert Laws, an officer on a ship that was anchored at St. Pierre, Martinique in the West Indies on May 8, 1902. He was there when Mt. Pelee erupted and killed 30,000 people including those on ships in the harbor.