Sunday, June 13th - Robin's here!

(Sorry that this is so delayed.  My "public" has been clamoring for the next blog!!   :)   I took the computer with us to Paris to add pictures to this entry and then blog our Parisian adventures while there.  Discovered there that the pictures I needed for this day had not been loaded on by my photographer, so I can blame him for the delay.  Our Paris trip will be next and since we walked about 8 hours a day, I didn't have the energy by the time we got back each night to get it done so they are going to be late, too!  Too much fun.  Hope this doesn't confuse the chronology too much - that's why I'm dating the titles!)
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Sunday, June 13th -

Robin's here!  John has 4 younger brothers and Robin is brother #2.  We are so glad he is here.  We plan to leave tomorrow (Monday) for four nights in Paris but today we are taking Robin to places he hasn't been yet.  He comes to London frequently on business but never as a tourist so we are going to do touristy things!  We started out with a cruise on the Thames.  John was really intent on taking Robin to see the Thames Barrier.  This is the second largest flood barrier in the world  (the first is in the Netherlands) and would prevent London from being flooded by exceptionally high tides.  The barrier parts will remind you of the opera house in Sydney.  You'll know why in a few paragraphs why we don't have a picture of it!

So we got on the cruise boat, sitting of course on the top so we can see everything.  We had a great guide on the boat who cracked some pretty good jokes about places along the river - none of which I can remember, of course!!  Going under the Tower Bridge is a highlight of the ride.

We had decided to first take the boat that only as far as Greenwich - the barrier is beyond that - have lunch at The Trafalgar, a very popular pub, get on another boat after lunch that would go on to the barrier and turn around and go back to Westminster where we boarded.  We had a great lunch of fried fish bait!  Whitefish, little tiny herring fried in batter - Trafalgar's signature dish for a couple of hundred years or so- brown bread and butter and of course, the pint!

Sitting next to us was the cutest little 14 month old boy who didn't know how to do anything else than smile!  Big tike!  And his name was Tycho!!!  An old Finnish name.

When it was time to catch our boat, we got on and the darn thing did a U-turn and started back to Westminster instead of the Barrier!  John was very put out!  We found out that we got on the wrong boat.  Robin couldn't stop laughing.  At least John got another picture of a favorite pub -

So back to the starting point we went and on to the London Eye!!!  This is the carousel wheel that dwarfs a lot of London - it's a lot higher than Big Ben!  Robin nor I are big on heights but I had been on the Eye before and knew it was very manageable.

Getting in to the pods is a little tricky because they are constantly moving, but they are moving so slowly that you step in as they move along.  The personnel keep us moving so it all seems so easy, you get into the pod and find your place - right in front of the window or sitting on the bench in the middle so you don't have to get near the edge!  This picture is at the loading dock where people are getting off and on the moving pod.

The views from the pod are extensive and on a sunny day, even better.  John took this one of Parliament through the struts of the Eye's frame.

Sometimes the view of the next pod is one of the most intriguing - if you don't mind heights.

Robin spent the first half of the trip sitting on the bench in the middle of the pod - the same place I was on my first trip.  We're holding each other up in this picture!

As we were going down, he made it to the edge and the rest was easy. 

On our walk back through London, we hopped a bus to Hammersmith and Robin realized we were in the neighborhood where he often stays on business and wanted us to experience a great little pub back in the mews area.  The mews are areas all over London where the horses and carriages were housed along with the footmen and their families.  If you could see the houses here, which are now worth millions, you would see the doors to the stables which are now garages and the doors to the residential part of the buildings which are upstairs and several stories high.  They surround this little pub and hide it from the rest of London. 

Home to pack for Paris.   We leave tomorrow!!

Lazy days; Crazy foot!

It's Friday, June 11th and we spent Wednesday and Thursday being lazy and productive at the same time.  Lazy in that we sat at our computers for hours, me writing and doing research, John doing I don't know what!  Posting his pictures on facebook, I think.

Today we plan to go to the Tate Britain Museum and he is planning our route, he says that's what he's doing!

On Wednesday and Thursday, we were up early but didn't get out either day until 2:00.  Sort of nursing my foot as an excuse.  Wednesday, we had lunch at 3:00 at a recommended Indian restaurant, Chula, in Hammersmith.  Although we were at the tail-end of the Noon to 4 lunch buffet, it was still warm and delicious.  No dinner that night was necessary!  Then we took a tube trip into London to find the elusive location of the seminar I am taking tomorrow, Saturday, on travel writing! 

Yes, just for kicks I am taking a course on travel writing taught by a bona-fide travel writer,  and who knows?  This blog has been a lot of fun and I have learned a lot.  Not only how to do it, but I have learned a lot because of all the side trips I have taken on the internet to make sure I am giving you correct information - which is why this takes so long.  I get very interested in what I'm checking and one link leads to another and 30 minutes later, I realize the time has flown by.  So when I found the information on a seminar given by a travel writer on travel writing, I thought why not??  John's brother Robin arrives tomorrow so they will have the whole day to do boy things before we meet for dinner, perhaps at The Anchor on the Thames.   That's a great pub with great atmosphere.  Shakespeare and all his cohorts used to go there, but we hear the food has gotten really bad, so maybe just a pint and a look across the river at St. Paul's and up the river for a peek at The Globe Theater - solidly booked for the next month or so. Soak up some local color.

Anyway, after locating the seminar location, we went to Covent Garden where the London Transport Museum is located.  John wanted a DVD on the history of the Underground that he had spotted on a previous visit and I wanted little London presents for friends.  It's always fun spending money on others!

I love Covent Garden, all the hustle and bustle of London, all the history, all the street actors - The Bronze Man who looks like a statue until he moves and scares you to death - see him back there in the crowd?   The sword swallower, the Houdini character - and all the colors of all the vendors of quality and junk!

However, my foot was giving me a fit again.  Don't know what this is all about but it hurts!!  One of the reasons, really, that we have been getting out so much later in the day is to try and give this foot some healing time before traipsing off on it again.  It's a long walk from the house to the tube station so I tried to take it easy.

Yesterday, Thursday, same sort of routine but out a little sooner and off to the Tate Modern.  I'm not a big fan of modern art, I'm more an Impressionist fan myself but it was pretty exciting to see original Picasso's and Miro's.  And there was one very large Monet that just made me sigh.

I love the humor of this shot that John took!

As I said, not being a big fan of modern art, my purpose was to see the building more than the art and I wasn't disappointed; it is awesome.  What a trite word for such an incredible space, but it is.  Kids love it.  On the ground floor, the entrance space is like a huge driveway (and probably is because some of the art and sculpture on display would need a space like this just to be delivered!).  It is a temptation to children to just RUN!  How clever to make the delivery zone a playground!  I was standing on a bridge over this area and this little fellow, running with glee, was the last of a pack of children to run through the space.

The building used to be a power station and it has been converted into this incredible museum'  To quote the Tate website:  "In the late 1980s it became clear to Tate that its collection had outgrown its home on Millbank. It was decided to create a new gallery to house Tate's international modern art, and a search began for a suitable site to build on, or a building that could be converted.  The redundant Bankside Power Station   proved an astonishing discovery; a building of enormous size, great architectural distinction, superbly sited opposite St Paul's Cathedral and in a fascinating and historic, if neglected area, next to the rebuilt Globe Theatre. An international architectural competition was held, which over seventy architects entered, including some of the world's most distinguished. The final choice was the young Swiss practice, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron."

The same architectural firm is now involved in adding 3-4 times that space behind it.  Models of the new addition show that it will be worth a visit once again just for the architecture.

I did fall in love with some of the textiles and this was one of them.  I think, looking at this picture though, I realize that you have to be there to appreciate it!!  This stood about 12' high and I was dwarfed by it.

Here's another by the same artist.  I can just hear my designer friends now - "Come on, tell us, - who's the artist?!"  Her name is Magdalena Abakanowicz; she calls them Abakans and your client better have a mighty big house. Here's another and the rope is obviously suspended from the ceiling but you can barely see the tie.

Then there was this one:  I don't recall the name of it - something like "statue with rags".
I called it "Laundry Day"!  Isn't that more appropriate?? 

Now this one was very close to home.  You know John drives a VW camper and we camp quite often.  Well, the camper we have now is our 3rd one.  The first one we got in 1976 was a 1972 which nowadays would look about like this.  We belong to a club of VW campers and some of them do look like this! 

It had many sleds leaving it like lemmings and I never could quite figure out what that was all about.  But then, it's art and we're not supposed to understand it!!  Little do our friends know that they are driving art!  I haven't quite figured out the sleds which looked like lemmings to me but they were "pouring" out of the back.

Anyway, we spent about 2.5 hours at the Tate and I could have spent the day.  John's opinion wasn't quite the same; I won't repeat it, but he did say that he was glad that he had come.

We left and went to a rather modern pub on the Tate grounds and on the Thames for a snack and a pint.  Folks were on the riverside porch wrapped in blankets the pub provides.  Yes, I said blankets.  It's still very cool here - yesterday was in the low 60's and very windy.  If you look closely you can see two men on the left side with blankets and the fires lit in those towers to keep their outdoor customers cozy.   (Sorry for the blue tint.  I had the camera on the wrong setting.  That's why John takes the pictures!) 

I don't normally like contemporary pubs but this one was terrific.The view of St. Paul's was great.

Actually, when we were in the Tate Modern, I saw another great view of St. Paul's through a double paned window which was dirty so this isn't so great but it's a great view across the Millenium Bridge (which crosses the Thames) from the Tate to St. Paul's.  Whoever thought of this is a genius!

After leaving the pub, we expected a quiet walk to the tube station to head home but forgot about the 6.5 km marathon going through the city during cocktail hour!  Here they come over the Millenium Bridge -we all had to move over to one side to let them by.

It was a lot of fun to be there at the finish line - the end of the bridge - to cheer them on.  I found it hard though to imagine doing a marathon after your work day!  Seems to me that the work day is the marathon!

Today, Friday, we got out early - 12:00!!  Headed by tube right to the Tate Britain.  Now this is my kind of art museum: Constable, Gainsborough, Hogarth, Turner, van Dyck, sculptor Henry Moore.  After five hours, my feet just ached but my mind and my heart were filled with the beauty and the God given skills of these artists.  I don't think I have ever had the privilege of seeing this many of my favorite artists all in one day.  I mean an entire room full of John Constable's work!  It was a very fine day.

This sculpture by Henry Moore is the one picture I took in the Tate Britain today and I got in trouble for that!  The Modern didn't seem to mind your taking pictures but the Brit sure did.  So no pictures of Constables.

We left the Tate and walked down the Thames toward Parliament.  It was an approach I had never seen before.  Usually I am across the river or coming up the other side from Westminster Abbey.  This approach was breathtaking and as we approached it on the tower side, we were close enough to see the intricacy in the building's surface carvings.  It's like a cathedral and it's hard not to just stand there and stare at it.

Across the street there was a field of totally different kinds of buildings - in fact, an entire village of them - a tent city in protest of the Iraq war.  You might want to click on this one to see it up a little closer.  There is always something going on in London!

And finally -  here's a sign we spotted in a church a couple of days ago that I wanted you to see but forgot to include.    Don't you  just love it?   My dogs would. 

A day of surprises along the road

It's Tuesday (well, really, it's Thursday, rainy and grey, but I'm writing about Tuesday !) and we reluctantly decide to leave the East Anglia area and head back to London but not without many stops along the way.  We know we want to go to Southwold (I think that's pronounced Suthold here) and Aldeburgh (pronounced Albrah), two picturesque seaside villages.  We had been to Aldeburgh years ago on another airfield quest and had the best fish and chips ever while sitting on the beach wall.  Wouldn't mind doing that again! Southwold had, by chance, been referred to us a few days ago by new friends, Ken and Vera, not knowing that at the time we were closeby.

I say we reluctantly left East Anglia because it's one of the most "comfortable" areas in England to me.  I said to John a few minutes ago that "if I had to live in England" (at which he chuckled - more about that later!), I would want to live in East Anglia because it's a slower pace, it's not as "touristy", and there's not an M road anywhere! But you can easily get to a cathedral city, Bury St. Edmonds, the shore and lots of historical and picturesque sights without the battle of others trying to do the same.  Or having to get out of London to start on another outing. 

On our way, with Southwold as our first destination, we were quite willing to take side-trips to anything we saw that might interest us which is why John managed a prompt U-turn when I said "There's a sign for Framlingham Castle!  Wanna go?"  Down the little curvy town streets we went following the signs that finally took us around a hairpin corner and BOOM there's the castle, hidden before and now in full view.

Framlingham is a 12th century fortress and was where Mary Tudor rallied her troops in 1553 to secure her throne.  If she hadn't, a lot of lives would have been saved, but that's history.  Despite the fact that the castle walls have been standing for 800 years I was still nervous as we did the wall walk - in the pouring rain!  Very English event. (I mean, what if they should suddenly collapse - I have gained a few pounds over here, you know.)

Many school groups were visiting and it was fun to watch their excitement as they learned the history of their country and how people lived in the castle and, for instance, retrieved their water from the well.

Knowing more about Framlingham now gives me a point of reference and a visual picture as I continue reading and studying the Tudor era that I love so well.  I am right now reading Mary Tudor, England's First Queen by the historian Anna Whitelock so I'll be right there with her during that phase of the book.  If you would like to know more about the castle (because we still have many places to go today) use this website.   http://www.castlexplorer.co.uk/england/framlingham/framlingham_links.php#maine

From there, we continued out of Framlingham through the beautiful countryside of rolling hills and fields of rape now sagey yellow rather than golden.  I suppose it has to go to seed before it's harvested and therefore eventually loses its brilliance.  I miss those patches through the fields and now what had become marshland.  We were in the Broadlands, an area of England we had not seen.   Suddenly I saw on the left of the skyline a magnificent cathedral and it's another "Turn around, John!  We have to see this!" moment.   Turning around meant losing sight of it but I was sure I saw a road signed "Church Street" which seemed a logical place to turn.  Still not seeing it but turning there, anyway, we found ourselves in a hidden muddy car park and the cathedral right in front of us.

From a distance, it had appeared to be a ruin.  In fact, I now recall John asking why we had to turn around and I remember saying "Because it's a ruin and we have to see it!"  Well, it wasn't a ruin at all - because it's clerestory windows were clear glass instead of stained, in fact all it's windows just about and you could see through them, from a distance, it looked like it had no glass just openings as if it were in ruins.  We had found the Cathedral of the Marshes in Blythburg.


Stunningly bereft of color, the interior of the church appears to have been whitewashed by the marshy air and deterioration of it's wood.

In 1577, a fierce storm and lightening caused the tower to fall and destroy the bells and the font and it wasn't repaired for almost 200 years.  With delight, we discovered that the end of each pew had a carved figure that had not been destroyed during the Reformation.  However, the large beautiful angels at the apex of some of the crossbeams were used as target practice and shot up.

There is a re-creation of one over the door painted in the bright colors that would have been there in the beginning.

We discovered a TINY circular staircase in the corner by the front door inviting us to go up to "the priest's room" restored in the 60's.

We curled our way up the tiny stairs into an amazing large room in comparison - probably about 14' x 14' - with an altar, several hand-made benches and large windows overlooking the front doorway.  There was also a peephole into the sanctuary but you couldn't see much other than some who might be entering.  The room was whitewashed and there was a coffee mug on a shelf!  We read that sometimes this is used as a chapel for weddings but I can't figure out how the bride could get up and down those stairs in any kind of a dress.  I could barely manage it in my jeans.

Outside, the cemetery had been designated a wildlife center which is apparently being done around many churches and cemeteries as open areas begin to disappear.  However, since this church yard was in the middle of a huge marshland, it seemed the only wildlife taking advantage of this space was the rabbits who had tunneled all over the cemetery.  In fact, we saw several scurry as we walked around.  Guess these rabbits won't have to worry about development like the ones in Watership Down!

Amusingly, there was also signage to toilets through the cemetery, down a wooded path almost into the marsh it seemed where there were two what appeared to be porta-potties but with flushing toilets and individual sinks!  I made John go in and look!

The signage made it clear that these toilets were meant for the public as well as church attendees!  Grateful public like me...

Off again to Southwold and not seeing major buildings like castles and cathedrals any more, we finally arrived in this delightful and once again colorful seaside village.  Broadstairs was colorful, we will find Aldeburgh to still be colorful, and Southwold continued this tradition.  By the way, speaking of colorful buildings, Suffolk County, the area in which we were in and had been in since Rattlesden, is known for its pink houses.  Suffolk pink it's called and it is suggested that when these cottages were being built in the 1500s and later that the materials available for building were chalk, sand and heavy clay.  For coloring, there was ox blood and sloe juice from sloe berries (had to do some research on that one!).  I'd heard about the blood for coloring, but not the sloe juice - from which you can make sloe gin which might account for all the men around Suffolk not being bothered about living in pink houses!  

Don't miss the thatched roof!  There are more of those Suffok than anywhere else we've seen this trip.

Anyway, many were also pargetted which was a method of decorating the exterior by slabbing on thick areas of plaster and carving flowers, animals, and other designs into it and then carving away from the outlines making the figures 3 dimensional.  Most we saw were quite beautiful and a testament to the pargetter's skills.

The first area we headed for in Southwold was the waterfront and we came across a long row of the beach huts some of these towns are famous for.

Then we headed to the harbor which is really more of a widened area in a river whose mouth wasn't far from us out into the sea.  The fishermen's huts and the fishmonger's stalls were opposite in appearance, being weather stained and drab but having colorful and delicious interiors of fresh fish and FISH AND CHIPS!

Yum - here we go again.  But since we were headed to Aldeburgh to relive my waterfront experience there with the fish and chips, we only ordered one serving.  That's a fried cod about 10" long sitting on a large bed of french fries, ooops, sorry - chips!  Very, very good and since we were sitting outside on the harbor, good competition for the Aldeburgh goal.  And there was competition for our meal as well!

After driving through the once again quaint and curving streets and seeing the pink and yellow, blue and cream houses and John longingly gazing at the Adnam's brewery which sits right in the middle of town, we decided to move on to Aldeburgh.

It's only about 30 minutes south unless you have another sighting - and this was John's turn (I was so proud of him!).  He spotted the ruins of an abbey off to our right and made a quick swerve onto its drive.  He had found Leiston Abbey, a gorgeous ruins of an abbey I had never heard or seen reference to.

Once again I stood in awe at the size and grandeur of what man had built to the glory of God.  In this case, you could only imagine what it might have looked like in its beginnings and why men would want to isolate themselves away from society and family to worship Him.  Good works need people to be done.

The clouds and sunny blue skies only added to the beauty of this place.  Our weather had improved greatly since morning but I could imagine that cold and rainy weather over these hills would make the abbey a cold and formidable place of self-sacrifice from worldly comforts. 

The day was slipping away from us and we wanted one last look at Aldeburgh and old memories.  Aldeburgh has a shingle beach.  That means that instead of sand, it's beach was of rocks and we wanted to hear that sound we loved so much of the rocks rolling over themselves as the waves went in and out.  Unfortunately, the tide was out and there wasn't a lot to hear.  I've tried to describe it before as a bubbling, frothy kind of noise but it's hard to do.  We knew we would have a long wait for the tide to come in enough to record it so we did the next best thing and went to the pub we had stayed at on our last visit, The Mill Inn.  (By the way, we decided today to start a list of pub names just for the heck of it and on our first day, we collected over 20 names of pubs we passed or signs we saw.  Wonder how long it would be if we had started on day one!)

The pub was very quiet in comparison to the night we were there when there was a wake celebrating the life of one of the lifeboat mates.  Aldeburgh is again an ancient town brought to prominence in the 1500's when a natural harbor began to form.  It is known for its lifeguard station that has been in existence for 180 yeaars.  One of their mates had died and they were celebrating his life in the pub they all frequented.  In fact, they were so rowdy that the publican came over to us and asked us to please not be afraid of them, they had just buried a mate and they were celebrating his life.  Since we had reservations to spend the night there, we decided we wouldn't be!  But Tuesday afternoon it was dead silent (not to coin a pun at this point!) and sort of boring.  We like it better lively!

It was time to do one last thing before we headed home - the fish and chips!  Now, you are thinking - you have already done that today.  Yes, but!!!  Remember we only ordered one serving in Southwold and that's all we are going to do here so all together we had one serving each.  The restaurant takeaway area opened at 5:00 and when we arrived just a few minutes early, there was already a line.  And of course we ate it on the sea wall along with all the seagulls who joined us! 

Our trip back "home" was  uneventful until we realized that Gertrude once again was going to take us the shortest route home rather than on the highways.  We were going through downtown London!  Poor John.  His driving skills are wonderful over here but it's not everyone that gets to drive in London down Piccadilly and past Harrod's.  Not too busy an area!! We hit the beer and wine when we got home at 8:30.

Monday, June 7th - Serendipity plays out....

The next morning we set off to revisit Rattlesden airbase and visit the memorial that was planted about twenty-five years ago by grateful local citizens.  It's a beautiful stone placed on the road side and behind the hedge is one end of the runway.

We went on to explore the base again and when I climbed the stairs to stand up on the "porch" of the tower, probably where the commanding officers would have stood as they counted the number of planes returning vs. the number of planes that left, I could almost feel the anguish they must have felt as they found out how many of their men were returning ... and how many were not.  The place felt almost sacred.  No, it did feel sacred.  How many planes returned with engines burning, landing gear not down meaning the airman in the ball turret knew he was going to die, men injured and shot up?  As we stood there, the sound of a plane in the distance whispered over the field, the same sound that all on this post would wait to hear many hours after the squadron left.  It was almost ghostly, spiritual, and yet it was 65 years ago.

This shot is from the tower looking toward the runway which runs near the tree line in the distance. 

What looks like an ordinary runway leaves a heritage of extraordinary events.


An avenue of Quonset huts was still there, each hut numbered.  We could only peek in one small one whose windows were at eye level and it is now someone's wood working shop.  Funny how time moves on, isn't it?

It was time for us to move on, too, and see if we could find the museum in Buxhall.  Find it we did with a hand-painted sign on the road "Granary Crafts, Tea Room and Bygones Museum" and when we got there, it was closed!  Reciting our story once again to the white haired man trimming the hedges, we found out it was his collection and he would be happy to show it to us but his wife had gone off with the keys and we should return at 2:00.

It was now around 11:30 and having to be back in this area at 2:00 meant we could not move on with our day as planned, so back we went to Rattlesden to its other pub which we had been told served no food and was where the drinkers went!  We had now traversed the same roads about 4 times, each time saying "We've been here before!"  It got to be a joke for us.  Since this was only a drinking pub, lunch for us was two bags of crisps (what we call potato chips; chips here are what we call french fries), a bag of cashews, 1/2 pint of Adnams Spitfire ale and a diet Coke!  We have found that our nutritional needs here are often compromised by our adventures. 

Unfortunately, we just missed meeting a very elderly man who, as the "drinkers" there told us would probably have enjoyed talking to us all day.  We were sorry about that.  They soon will be gone and their stories with them.

Returning to the Granary Crafts, our host and his wife (with the keys!) were waiting for us and showed us into the back of the shop where there was room after room of the most amazing collection of bygones, for sure!

We were directed to a small room on the right where his collection of local WWII memorabilia was displayed.  And here is where the serendipity occurs - on the bulletin board was a picture of Uncle Robin and his crew of "The Paper Doll".  Granted, it's a picture John already has but to think that it would be in the back of a craft shop located on Lower Street, Buxhall.  It literally brought me to tears.  What respect it shows once again by the English people of the role our country played and the sacrifices these men made.  A casual conversation had led us to a touching display of loyalty and recognition of "our boys" and the role they played in this country's war.

Frances Robin Graham, 1st Lt. and pilot, stands on the far left with his crew.

After profusely thanking our hosts for their concern and hospitality, we moved on to Lavenham because we had heard there was a pub called The Swan which might possibly have signatures of American servicemen on its walls.  Lavenham is known for its half-timbered buildings, it's Norman church and it's history as a wool town and once one of the richest cities in England.  One after another, the streets are lined with homes and shops built in the 15th and 16th century.  Whenever I say something like that, it just sort of boggles my mind.

This house has a herringbone pattern in brick in between the studs.

And this is one of the main streets in the town.  Amazing, isn't it?  The Swan is on the right and includes all the timbered building you see to the curve. 

We were so tired when we arrived in Lavenham (remember that late night we had last night?), so we found a parking space, put the seats down and zonked out for about 30 minutes!  When we woke up, we realized we were on the corner where The Swan Hotel is located. Since the hotel had the same name as the pub we were looking for I felt it made sense to go inside.  There are many pubs named The Swan in England so this could just be another repeat but it's worth a look.  When we entered the lobby of this very swank hotel whose buildings are around 500 years old, there was a framed notice on an easel that we were welcome to look around and please visit the Swan Pub where servicemen from WWII had signed the walls!  We found it and it was really touching to not only see the signatures but to see how the hotel had taken precautions to protect them by putting a glassed frame over the wall. 

Since the pub with the signatures turned out to be about 10 miles from Rattlesden, we realized that it was unlikely to find Robin's amongst them, but John photographed them all to look over closely at a later time.

 
This is the interior of a meeting room and you can see how they remove the walls but leave the framework so you can see the interior beauty of the structure.

One of the most famous buildings in Lavenham and probably in England is the Guildhall.  This was built as a community meeting hall and 500 years later is still being used for the same reason.  It is also a wonderful museum of the town and the wool industry that made it rich.  This fireplace is so big I can almost stand up in it.

One of the architecturally outstanding buildings in Lavenham is the church, of course, as in many towns.  This church particularly reflects the wealth of some of its citizens.  It's called a "wool church" because it is the wealth of the wool families that built it.  The chancellery dates back to the 14th century but most of it is 15th and 16th century. 

 Although many of the churches are very similar, I never tire of going in and experiencing the awe I feel as I contemplate how these massive buildings were built, the skills and patience of those artisans whose efforts created these sacred, quiet and soaring spaces for generations who want a place to worship.

After visiting the church, we walked down the street to The Cock - that's a bird, folks - for dinner and returned to the B&B for a quiet time of reading and writing in the lounge.  We were so grateful for the precious things and places we had found today.