Duxford - Imperial War Museum

 One of Jeff’s Fathers Day gifts from the girls was tickets to Duxford.  Duxford was a Royal Air Force base during WWII and was a vital part of the Battle of Britain.  It was built during WWI and used as a training school and then a fighter base.  The fighters here during WWII were mainly for protection of London.  It is now Europe’s largest Air Museum with over 200 planes on exhibit and flying examples of many WWII planes.  There are 8 hangers of which all but one house planes.  The only one without planes houses land warfare.  To say it was a great day for Jeff would be an understatement!

And for the small price of $3,800 you too can have a 30 minute ride in a Spitfire!

One thing that I thought was neat was the Concorde is here and you can actually walk through it.  Very cool.  There is also a mock-up of the Operations Control Room where they walk through what took place during the Battle of Britain.  It was very interesting.  We actually saw the Spitfire, the B17, the PBY Catalina, the de Havilland Tiger Moth, and the T-6 Texan (they call it a Harvard) take off and fly.

This is a beautiful museum and is done exceptionally well!  I’m so glad I was able to benefit from this gift, but Jeff and Lindsey were in their element and loved every minute of it.  

The North Sea and Flower Fields

 Well quarantine is over so we’ll be out and about more now.  Today we headed for a Sunday drive to the North Sea.  There are a number of beaches here but they are quite different than our beaches in the states.  The sand is not white and there’s lots of shells and pebbles.  

There are little beach huts all along the beach.  They are privately owned and used mainly to change clothes, eat and take a break in.  There are about 100 along the stretch of beach we were on. One was open so we could see inside.  I’m sure they’re all different inside though.

On the way there we passed some lovely lavender fields and poppy fields.

We stopped at the town of King’s Lyn on the way home.  A port town with cute restaurants and shops.  Tide was way out so some boats were not even in water - but would be in just a few hours.  We also passed Sandringham, which we plan to return to and visit.

One thing I love about England is they do not tear down old buildings and replace them with new - they use those old buildings in wonderful, beautiful new ways.  We think things are old in VA until we visit here!  

Pubs

 In the states we usually consider a pub to be a bar, but here in the UK they are basically a place to get a great meal.  Families eat there and children are always in the pubs eating with families.  Of course there are drinks too, but the atmosphere is entirely different than a bar at home.

There are pubs around every corner here in Bury St Edmunds.  There is one to the left of her house just a few doors down and one right up the hill to the right.  She has eaten at the one up the hill and says it’s very good.  Hopefully we will find out soon ourselves.

The smallest pub in Britain is also right up the street from her house.  It is called The Nutshell and is really tiny.  The placement of tables outside gives them the ability to serve more customers.  Jeff wants a shirt from here before we leave!

We headed to the grocery store today - Waitrose - to get a few items and Jeff was tickled at how tiny this barbershop was.  It is probably the smallest one we’ve seen.

We have two more days of quarantine and then we will be out and about.  Can’t wait to share more with you guys.  Meanwhile - Jeff is in his element with his camera and so many beautiful things to take pictures of.

That’s all for today folks - more to come as we enjoy this beautiful country.

Daily Walks Around Bury St Edmunds

 Hopefully this will change soon, but for now we still have to quarantine for a bit when we arrive in England.  So we are taking lots of walks and visiting the market, which is allowed.  

Grocery shopping here is interesting.  They do not use preservatives here so you buy groceries every few days.  Also, most folks walk to the store so you don’t want to buy more than you can carry home.  Things are packaged different too and your amounts are in grams so you have to do some math if you’re using a favorite recipe from home.  Baking is different too but most things are fairly easy to figure out.

The flowers and gardens here are absolutely amazing and beautiful!  It’s fun just walking around every day to see the area.  The town Lindsey lives in is so quaint and very English.  There is a beautiful old Abbey here with gardens all around it.  It’s quite large and you could spend hours there.  There are window boxes everywhere and bright colorful doors up and down the streets.

Every Wednesday and Saturday there is a market in the town center and it is delightful!  All kinds of fruits, veggies, meats, cheeses, and lots of other good things.  Town square is literally right up the road from Lindsey’s house.  We enjoyed the market on Saturday.

Lindsey has a beautiful walled garden behind her house and her flowers are gorgeous too.  She has a gardener who comes every other week to cut the grass and take care of the flowers.

We are enjoying her home and her cute little town.  Bury St Edmunds is the #2 town on the list of best little towns in England and we would agree!