Sudbury to Ely and Dereham

Finishing our tasks in Sudbury, we headed out in our rental VW Golf through Bury St. Edmunds to Ely.

Ely is located in Cambridgeshire in an area called the fens. In the 7th Century when the cathedral was built, the area surrounding was a bog over which the huge stones were dragged. During this trip, I have seen many amazing cathedrals and mosques and each time I marvel at how they managed the strength and delicacy required to build these structures. While visiting, we were caught in a deluge of rain so I hid under the huge trees on the grounds and was quite sheltered but hoped that lightning did not strike.

John used to work in this town so we spent time trying to locate the office but found that the space had been converted into a plant and pet food shop.

Then we visited the Ely Museum which was very unsophisticated and hands on. The building which houses the artifacts used to be the city jail (or as they Brits spell it gaol) from where debtors and others were deported to Australia and others were hanged for their crimes.

The artifacts included everything from a Roman found in his coffin, Neolithic Age tools, to fairly modern film showing how the eels in the bogs were captured. The eels are the reason for the name as which is pronounced as EE LEE not EE Lie. Buyers would come to the river's edge to buy this squirming mass for making into food stuff including jellied eels. Not a delicacy to which I would like to become accustom but it probably tastes like chicken.

Afterwards, we headed to East Dereham for a quick visit with John's mate Allan before we headed off to Swaffam to our first night out on the road at the Red Lion Inn which was not as adventurous as it sounds.