Excursions

Mom, Dad and I went on a few short trips or outings while the kids were at school. The American WWII Cemetery that my grandparents probably visited when they were over here for the 50th anniversary of D Day is just a few miles west of town, but I did manage to take a wrong turn on the way out there. The Ely (pronounced eelie, because there were, probably still are, alot of eels in the water, main source of food) Cathedral is a few miles north. Norfolk is to the north and west, it's a very nice town and it's in every historical movie and tv show I've watched since I visited it.

Cemetery

This is a cemetery and memorial for Americans dead or missing in Europe during WWII. It's very nice, with the official flag for every American state, and a huge metal map of all of the fronts of the war, where the men were attacking and where from. What a huge endeavor. It's a much bigger part of daily life over here. Sophia is learning about WWII in her class just about every day. I don't think it's only because she has a male teacher.


We asked if they might be able to guess where my grandfather was stationed over here during WWII. He pointed to the map of all of the active airfields during the War. They were everywhere. We might get enough information to figure it out, or maybe Grandpa remembers.

Ely Cathedral

We walked around and peeked into the cathedral. Then found a very nice park with a walk down to the river that looped back up through the business district. This has historically been the business and religious hub for the closer region, and played a role in starting one of the colleges, I believe it was Jesus College.


I was a nice leisurely visit out of town between trips to Mayfield Elementary. Mom and Dad picked up the kids for me on a few occasions, so I was able to run a few errands with a car and without kids. Very handy.

Norfolk

Thanks to the map Dad brought along with a walking tour of the town, we passed through a very cute "shopping street" with a mustard store in it. This brand of mustard has been around for along time, there was a poster of all of the different bulls that had been used over the years. I picked up a few postcards that looked like this one.We visited the keep (above, what remains of the castle, this picture taken from what might have been a moat, the original bridge that crossed it is just to the left), and the cathedral, and found a place to have cream tea. There was a dungeon tour that we passed up, and the tour of the top wasn't available because of construction. Something we might want to come back to. The shopping is very good here.

Evensong

No pictures, but we went back to King's College Chapel for evensong on Tuesday night before Mom and Dad left. I had to sit on the other side of the screen, because I was a little late parking the car. The singing and organ music was beautiful, the prayers not very audible for me, but all a great experience of something that has been going on for centuries! I might just bring home a cd of the music, I've seen it in the local stores here.

The trips we researched and almost took were to Stratford on Avon and Warwick Castle (one of the better looking ones around), the Duxford Air Museum, and possibly Wales. These remain on the list of things we might yet do.