On to Jolly Old England

This time we flew back to Stanstead airport on purpose.  Our friends live in Ipswich and Stanstead is the closest airport as well as the only airport out of Carcassonne the nearest airport to where we stayed! The first photo is a picture of the ancient wall of the Carcassone - not taken by me - but I thought it worth sharing.

​The thing that struck me - from the airplane - besides how low to the ground we flew the entire flight - was how much greenspace there is in England. The first photo was taken not far outside London. I think you'd have to be forever away from the Dallas Metroplex to find green space like that! 

Our friends who we haven't seen in person in about ten years picked us up. Our first night we had dinner at a nearby pub - actually we had dinner in a lot of nearby pubs LOL - but I got a kick out of the name of this one! You'll have to click on the page to see the name! 

Our first day in Ipwich prooved fascinating for me - as we were walking along I saw two tudor buildings at the end of the street and thought - what a great English photograph and posed my hubby and friends so I could capture the two buildings.  But then as we kept walking, the wife went right up to the door, pulled out an old fashioned skeleton key, and opened the door of the orange building - oh my oh my oh my!  This sucker is 600 years old and they bought it and are in the process of restoring it! 

I can't describe how it felt walking through a building that was carbon dated back to the year 1430 - Every corner was awe inspiring.  It was explained to me that the carvings were there simply to show the owners wealth. The more intricate, the more money. And during the repairs, they collect things that were left behind. I believe they determined the shoe was only two or three hundred years old - I was flabbergasted. 

I teased my husband. So many castle dungeons in Ireland but none were as intriguing as the 600 year old basement of this place. I barely dared peek at the stairs. Maybe next trip I'll shore up the nerve to actually walk down there! And what would be a visit through Ipswich without another lovely pub for supper - and I took a picture of the salad - it was a beet root salad (I love beets) and a buretta cheese. I have never had it before and I loved it!  Who said the English don't know how to cook! 

If I have any #HarryPotter fans here, pop back next week for our photos from Day two in England!  In the meantime, I'm back to working on Sweet Obsession, chugging along as best I can. I got a good chunk done in France at Olivia's, and more done on all the plane rides. I sure hope everyone is loving the series so far! This sucker was a long time in the planning stages and went through so many iterations before becoming the series it is. Please let me know if you've read and how you're liking it! 

​Until next week - ta ta!