C....O....T....S.... W....O....L....D....S (and other places) All Stretched Out

We went on a driving trip recently. We worked our way around to lots of cute little English towns we wanted to see. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision to go. We knew we wanted to do something that weekend, we weren't sure what and this is what we decided to do. When I looked at all the pictures and all the towns we stopped in, I realized, we saw quite a bit. And if I tell it all in one swoop, it will be the world's longest blog entry. People will nod off reading it, heck I might even nod off writing it. So I am going to break it down into little pieces, chunkettes that might be easier to digest. So it will stretch out over a few entries (oh, now you get the title).

Bury St. Edmunds

This is a town in Suffolk county and for some reason Chizz has been wanting to visit there for some time. A monastery was founded in the area in the 600s. In
the beginning of the 10th century, the remains of St. Edmund were interred at the monastery and later the abbey. Hence the name. The abbey was closed in 1539 by Henry VIII during the reformation and stripped of anything valuable or useful. It quickly fell into ruins. You can walk through the ruins now which are in a beautiful garden. We spent some time here. We have been to quite a few of these "ruined" abbeys and this is one of the larger ones. You really get an idea for how big these properties really were. Strange, the abbey was ruined but their tennis courts remain in almost perfect condition. Hmmm. I took quite a few pictures of the abbey and the grounds so here you go!










This is the Norman Gate that is the entrance to the Abbey Gardens. It was originally built in the 12th century. It really is quite impressive.






Oops! We didn't mean to do that. We will rebuild it right away!!


Bury St. Edmunds is also the site where the barons of England got together and decided that they would force the Charter of Liberties (which later became known as the Magna Carta) down the throat of King John.

This is a picture of the Guildhall in town.I found it interesting to see the differences in the architecture in these towns farther out. There is much more of a Saxon or Norman influence. Instead of church spires like I see in London and the surrounding towns, out farther in the country you see Norman towers at the churches. You can see what I mean by the following picture of the cathedral in town.

Chizz was very excited to find out that Bury St. Edmunds is also in the Guinness Book of World Records. For? The world's smallest pub, The Nutshell. It was very cute but closed when we were there or else we would have had to stop for a drink.



We stayed a small hotel, very cute and old fashioned. I think except for the couple next door we were the only guests in the hotel. There was a very friendly waiter the next morning at breakfast, he loved Americans and absolutely loved American politics. Wanted to talk all about Hilary and Obama and what we thought that meant for the United States and the world as a whole. He also told us that our hotel had a ghost!!! She apparently was a woman that killed a prior (religious dude) way back in the days of yore. They hanged her and ever since then she has haunted the hotel which is built on the grounds of the old priory. I didn't hear her at all the night before, but we had spent a few hours at the pub across the street so I was "dead" too.

Stay tuned for more adventures. . . .