A Day in Bury St Edmunds

This is the cathedral in Bury St Edmunds. beautiful is the only word to describe it.

Friday we took a tour of the City of Bury St Edmunds and the cathedral. It's hard to believe that this was all built a about a decade after Columbus came to America.

This tower was just recently finished a few years ago.. 

If you don't look up you'll miss something.

This is just the left aisle.

All of the windows are stained glass and each one is different, on one side the glass depicts the New Testament and Old Testament is on the other side.

Brody wanted me take a picture of the bird.

 The original gate to the abbey was destroyed by the townspeople, during a riot with the monks. But  then later rebuilt in the same spot.

 This is the entrance to the garden.

This is the back side of the cathedral.




King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in England, he pushed out the monks that lived there.

 This is a picture of the Abbey in Bury before it was dismantled. It's hard to believe but the cathedral that still stands and is the smaller building on the lower right of this picture. The townspeople actually did the dismantling of the larger buildings and the most of the walls which were much older than the cathedral. Some ruins are all that's left.















Yes this grave says 1183 to 1211
















 The gardens are beautiful and I was told that by next month it will be in full bloom.











How cool would it be to go to school here and play outside near these ruins and garden. Pretty awesome. I sure hope that my kids appreciate all they will experience in this beautiful country.




New friend.



I want to picnic under this tree someday.



The rose garden..





This was a hospital helicopter that landed pretty close to us.



 The village of Bury is a bit larger than Mildenhall, with lots more shops and there is a newer area called the Arc where we will be going to later this week.

This building is directly across from the cathedral but I don't know what it is. It's so pretty!

 

Mildenhall, uk

We finally arrived in England after an exhausting flight. We sat on the plane for 2 hours before it took off. And thankfully, we had someone pick us up at the airport. I believe Sydney slept for 12 hours straight when we finally got to our room.  It took the rest of us, about 3 days to get caught up on our sleep.

England's roads are scary and the weather is unpredictable you have winter weather in the morning, spring at noon, summer in the afternoon, maybe some rain and then it feels like fall at night.

We found out  quickly that the homes are small, there are no closets except in the newer homes. I found some beautiful English homes with the Ivy hanging on them and large wooden beams inside but the energy rating on them was terrible. I'm cold enough now, I don't want to freeze to death in the winter.

My pictures are not that great I didn't feel like tweaking them but they will do.

The roads are very narrow and there are no shoulders. England has 3 speed limits. 30 mph in the villages, 60mph is the national speed limit, and 70 mph on the larger roads.

This is a small village called Mildenhall. It has a swimming pool, supermarket, schools and market day every Friday.

 

 



 

 

We would be so lost without our GPS. Funny thing about the GPS you don't generally enter the street name but the postal code. The GPS will also tell you if there is a traffic camera. There are more traffic camera's in England than any other country.

 

 

 

Mildenhall is famous for the discovery of the Mildenhall Treasure in 1942. The treasure was a hoard of Roman silver objects buried in the 4th century. In 1946 the discovery was made public and the treasure was acquired by the British Museum.

This is St Mary's church and it's the largest church in the area where we live. The church is also the tallest building in Mildenhall and it catches your eye immediately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We ate a small pub on this street and the food was delicious. American's eat a lot different from the Brit's, we ate and left in about 1 hour and 30 mins total time which is pretty fast. The British order their food and have some wine while they wait, then they eat very slowly, and then order tea and dessert and the whole process takes about 2 to 3 hours.

 This is Market Cross and the market takes place here every Friday since the 1400's.

3200 miles later

3200 miles, that's how many miles we put on the rental car by the time we turned it in. We dove to Missouri down through Texarkana and down to Lake Charles, La. Then towards New Orleans, and then back to North Carolina, luckily our passports and visa's had come in. And then we drove north to Virginia.

We stayed at our friends house and took the metro to the National Mall. It was nice to see it at night, we always go in the day time but it's so different at night. 

The World War II memorial is my favorite. 

Brody is still too young to understand the memorials and what they represent. He asked if Medusa had done this to the soldiers, he's so funny.

The day before we left we found out that our Louie was not going to be allowed to fly because his breed, and short nosed breeds were not allowed to fly until September. Luckily we have someone watching him and I will be trying to get him over as soon as we can. I was so mad with the airline for not telling us that he couldn't fly when we made the reservation. It would have been nice to get a phone call or something.

Home Sweet Home

This is a four generation photo. My husband with our son, his father, and grandfather. We are not often together.. so it was nice to get this photo. 

Mick was going to grow a beard while on leave but he shaved about 3 days after this photo. Every time we go on leave, I try to get him to grow his beard. 

Our last night in Louisiana we went to Mandeville, LA and we had dinner at The Rusty Pelican, which has great food and a good atmosphere. After dinner we let Brody play at the park near Lake Pontchartrain.

I love this picture, my son stands with his hands in his pockets all the time too. 

It would not be a complete trip without seeing an alligator

Louisiana is hot, muggy, humid and the mosquitoes will carry you away. But one look at the oak trees covered in Spanish moss and the beautiful Acadian houses, the wind blowing off the water and I want to live here again. I want this life again... God has a plan for us and right now and I don't know what it is, but  if I'm meant to live here again I know it will happen.

Psalm 19:1 the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.