Now that I’m retired it’s less important to keep our trips to London brief. It occurred to us that when we are able to get tickets for two Arsenal matches a weekend apart it would be possible for us to travel outside of London during the week. In planning for this trip, we looked at possibly going to Sicily or Norway between the two matches. However, my husband got the idea of visiting East Anglia, the area in England northeast of London. He did some work with Chat GPT to plan out the trip, ultimately settling on a trip that would involve touring from bases in Cambridge and Norwich. We’ve done very little touring outside of London and were both excited about seeing more of the country.

So bright and early Sunday morning we headed over to Liverpool Street Station with our suitcases to confirm our plan with the train ticket agent. My husband had scouted out a train pass for train routes in East Anglia that allow 3 days of unlimited travel in a 7-day period. We also needed to buy tickets separately to get from London to Cambridge. The ticket agent helpfully uncovered that a one-way ticket was more expensive than a round trip ticket, so we bought the round trip ticket with the intention of not using the return trip.

One of the things people do when visiting Cambridge is take a punt boat tour on the River Cam. When we arrived at the Cambridge station mid-morning, we encountered an employee of a punt boat touring company who was speaking to another tourist about the fact that it was expected to rain in the afternoon and that would not be a good time to take a tour. So, upon arriving at out hotel and leaving our bags at the desk, we set out to see the city center and River Cam and scope things out. Our hotel was walking distance from the city center and we were able to look at the lovely old buildings and churches and shops as we walked along.

Once at the city center we followed a path along the River Cam where we encountered a great many punting companies soliciting business. We ended up selecting a tour from Cambridge Punt Company. The operator suggested we bide our time until the tour started by visiting Fitzbillies bakery and ordering the Chelsea buns. It was a messy but delicious suggestion.

Upon arriving back at the Cambridge Punt Company’s dock we boarded the boat. A punt boat is kind of awkward to board. The seats are near to the bottom and you sit with your legs stretched out in front of you, lounge style. Our boat could hold 8 -10 people. The guide stands at the back of the boat and uses a big pole to muscle the boat along the river. It looked like a tremendous amount of work. But that is work for someone else. For me it was delightful, floating down the river past university buildings and hearing all about the river and the town and Cambridge college.

After the punt tour we walked around the city center some more and then returned to our hotel. They were still not quite ready to check us in and suggested that we get lunch at The Old Bicycle Shop, which was a few blocks away. This pub actually is in the same spot as a historic bike shop where supposedly Charles Darwin bought a bike in the 1800s. It was a Sunday so they did have Sunday Roast, which I happily ordered. My husband had risotto. We both had dessert, Eton Mess for me and Sticky Toffee Pudding for him.

The pace of service and eating at The Old Bicycle Shop had been on the leisurely side and we found that we had about an hour before the Fitzwilliam Museum was to close. The Fitzwilliam museum has collections of objects and art and is operated by Cambridge University. It was started with a bequest of art, books, and money by the Irish-born British Parliamentarian Richard Fitzwilliam in the early 1800s. We walked the few blocks to the museum and went our separate ways inside it. My husband really enjoyed the exhibits on ancient Egypt. I spent some time in the exhibits about domestic objects before moving on to look at the art collection. The exhibit mostly included artists I’m not familiar with but it does have some paintings by Degas, Seurat, Renoir, Picasso, and Cezanne. Yes, I have heard of them. I found the paintings below to be interesting.

We were shooed out of the exhibit at 5 p.m. with our fellow museum goers into a driving rain. By the time we got back to our hotel, The Gonville Hotel we were drenched. But our room was ready and our suitcases had been ferried to it. We changed into dry clothes and tried to figure out dinner plans. Hopefully dinner plans that did not involve going out again into the rain. In the end we went to the Gonville Bar where they were serving a limited menu that was good enough for us. I had a delicious white onion soup and my husband had a chicken sandwich. The Gonville Hotel is nothing fancy but we found it charming and well located.

In the morning we headed back to the train station with our Anglia Plus passes and took the train to Ely. The main attraction in Ely is the Ely Cathedral, built in the early 11th century and still in active use. Upon walking out of the train station in Ely we could see it towering over the village. We walked though town, stopping into the Almonry Kitchen just outside of the cathedral for breakfast of scones, clotted cream, and strawberry jam. Really yummy. As I’ve explained before, my husband is always alert to Italians we might meet as we travel so he can practice speaking Italian with them. The Almonry had such a person on staff so my husband started his day happy.

The Cathedral offered audio tours so we could proceed at our own pace and listen to as much or as little as we chose. The audio guide was very well done and I highly recommend using it. We learned all about the history of the cathedral which stood on the grounds of an Abbey founded in the 600s by Etheldreda, the daughter of an East Anglia King. More about her in a later post. The cathedral architecture heavily reflects influences of the Normans who conquered England not long before building occurred. But England history has been tumultuous and the cathedral has been impacted by all of it. Fascinating tour. We spent way more time there than we had planned.

To keep our day on schedule we decide not to tour the Oliver Cromwell house in Ely but we did walk by it and snap a photo. Oliver Cromwell was a controversial figure and Parliamentarian who participated in and led incidents that resulted in overthrowing the monarchy in the 1600s. He was ultimately named “Lord Protector,” kind of like a President. But he behaved pretty much like a King. He was a complete killjoy, outlawing everything fun in England. Fun fact: after he died (of natural causes) and his son, who was named the new Lord Protector was himself overthrown, Oliver Cromwell’s body was dug up and publicly hung. His head was cut off and publicly displayed on a roof for more than 20 years.

Good times.

We walked back toward the train station and, in the few spare moments we had, walked along a fen by the River Ouse.

Our next train ride was to a town called Bury St. Edmunds. We stopped to have lunch in a chain called Harriet’s Cafe and Tearooms. We had been wandering about the town trying to find someplace that looked interesting and that place appealed to me. I’d been noticing throughout the trip how much tea rooms seemed to be taking on greater prominence in the towns away from London. Maybe they just attracted more of my attention outside of London. In any case I did have delicious tea with milk along with my cheddar cheese sandwich.

Our main destination in Bury St. Edmonds was Abby Gardens, a lovely garden near the St. Edmundsbury Cathedral. We did spend some time in the Cathedral, but the real attraction is the visible ruins within the garden of an 11th century monastery.

In our final stop in Bury St. Edmunds we wandered over to the Greene King Brewery. We had hoped to tour it and sample their beer, but it was closed, at least for the day. A man passing by told us it had been recently closed permanently. With all due respect to the passerby, it looked like an active brewery. But not on the day we were there, so back to the train station and back to Cambridge for a relaxing dinner at The Pickerell Inn, a delicious and beautiful gelato at Amorino, and a good night’s sleep.

Our footprint in East Anglia by this time looked something like this: