We have clean clothes!

Our luggage did arrive this morning, just before 11:45, and it was like Christmas as we dragged the bags up the stairs to our room and became reacquainted with our clothes! I did have a slight casualty because my bottle of shampoo, which I had carefully wrapped in a plastic bag, had come open and had evidently been mashed around enough that the shampoo came out of the bag and on my skirt, a blouse, and 3 pairs of my socks. I had to rinse out the skirt in the bathroom sink and ended up having to put the suitcase in the tub and using the handheld shower head to wash it out. I left the suitcase hanging upside down over the tub when we left the house today.

We had a wonderful 2 1/2 hr drive to go to Pam's sister's house, who lives in Bury St. Edmunds. Doug and Diane are older than Pam and Roger, and very, very nice also. They took us down to the Cathedral and Abbey Gardens. It is the ruins of a very old abbey, where there was a huge wall at one time that surrounded the grounds at one time. At each gate there had been a church, and the monastery was inside the grounds. Now, there are a few of the churches still being used. We went into St. Mary's church, which is one of the largest parish churches in England. They say it had been here for nearly 900 years. The church is beautiful, with stained glass windows all around, and an "angel roof" where you can look up to the high ceiling and see 11 pairs of life-sized carvings of angels over the big aisle down the center. The pews were beautiful - the ends have what they called "poppy-head ends" which swooped up into the shape of a crown, it looked like. Doug was telling us that they were very rare, because in many churches in England things like that were destroyed in the old churches because they were determined to be too fancy, or decadent, for a church. There are tombs and memorials all around and in the church, just like most others, but one of the most interesting is the grave of Mary Tudor, Queen of France, who was Henry VIII's sister. We didn't get to go into the Cathedral, which is the fanciest and most elaborate on the outside, because it was locked.

Then we wandered the gardens, where they have beautiful, award-winning flower gardens all over, and we walked by the huge walls of the ruins of buildings that were inside the abbey walls. I took lots of pictures - I won't be able to put them in here tonight because we're at Doug and Diane's house. I'll get some of them on here for you as soon as I can.

Then, the highlight of the trip - at least Doug and Roger thought so - we went to the smallest pub in England. It's called the Nut Shell, and has been there for years, and I guess it's pretty famous. We HAD to go into it - couldn't have passed that up. We had the 6 of us in there, and there were 4 other people there already, and it was starting to get crowded. I took a picture standing against one wall, so you can see how small it was. It was hilarious - they have money all over the walls - not sure why - but people have taped bills and coins from countries all over to the ceiling, walls, and door. Also hanging from the ceiling is a mummified cat, what looks like a foot bone, and several other strange things. The guys had a drink, the women had orange juice, and I took a picture to remember it. It was funny!

We also saw the place that Charles Dickens stayed in when he wrote the Pickwick papers, and they say he used the hotel as part of his setting in it - I haven't read it, or if I have, I've forgotten what it is. The other claim to fame is the brewery started by the monks all that long time ago because the water wasn't fit to drink, so they had to start their own brewery. They still have a big brewery there that makes some kind of famous ale, I think.

Well, that's my report for today. Not as much rain, just little drizzles here and there while we walked around, and lots of old churches and big manor houses to see along the road to come to Bury St. Edmund. (Sorry - forgot to tell you it's called that because St. Edmund, who was a martyr of some kind, is buried there, and people used to make great pilgrimages there to his shrine. Even the king (don't know which one, right off the bat) would insist on getting down off his carriage and walking the last mile in honor of St. Edmund. More tomorrow, and hopefully, pictures. Goodnight!