A Friendly and Heady East Anglian Visit (6/23/25-6/25/25)

After our quick stopover in Windsor/Eton, Bob and I made our way to Cambridge to continue the early Beth Birthday Tour with a visit with our friends Susan and Peter. They met us at the train station in Cambridge and walked with us the few short blocks to their home. It is always good to visit with them, and the weather ended up being very agreeable.

We arrived about 3ish, and we also got reacquainted with one of our favorite cats, the regal Hugo. Here he is enjoying a tuna lolly after dinner.

Bob made a salmon salad for our dinner, Peter made an Eton Mess for dessert, and we ate out on their lovely deck.

It was a great start to the visit. The next day was full of new visits for Bob and me — Sutton Hoo, Aldeburgh, and Snape Maltings. All sites in Suffolk County, which along with Cambridgeshire and Norfolk are in the East Anglia region of England.

Sutton Hoo — Sutton What? Bob and I were ignorant of this huge archeological discovery but were quite happy to get educated at this beautiful National Trust site, which provides a good overview of how Edith Pretty got the whole ball rolling in 1939 by asking an archeologist friend about some large earthen mounds she had seen on her property. Long story short, a lot of artifacts were discovered, including an Anglo-Saxon burial ship for King Rædwald. More of this interesting story can be found in the movie “The Dig” with Ralph Fiennes and Cary Mulligan, currently on Netflix.

Me, Peter, and Susan in front of Edith Pretty’s house
on the Sutton Hoo estate

A replica of the Anglo-Saxon burial ship

The viewing tower which overlooks the mounds

The mounds where different relics were discovered

Bob with the first of 4 big heads for the day,
(3 included in the blog)
an artistic version of the Sutton Hoo helmet

2nd big head sculpture, the Sutton Hoo helmet

After our visit to Sutton Hoo, we drove to the town of Aldeburgh on the coast of the North Sea for a walkabout along the coast and high street. Beautiful!

Looking over the stone filled beach and sea

A cute old building along the coast that served as the town hall
for over 400 years and is now the Aldeburgh Museum

Finally, we headed back towards Cambridge but made a stop off at Snape Maltings. Snape Maltings sits on the banks of the River Alde with converted Victorian buildings, formerly used in the malting of barley for beer, that are now home to shops, galleries, a cafe, a restaurant, and a concert hall, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1967.