Arrival

I have been a week here in England and the weather has been fantastic, sunshine every day.
My arrival was delayed a day because of some incorrect information given me by an Air Canada rep as to where I was to check in my travelling companion,J.J., the Labrador Retriever. It was not a routine delay as there was a time limit on J.J., with medication administered in Canada. He had to be in the country within 48 hours. Through Gmail chat and a web cam I was in contact Louise and she was able to arrange a flight the next day for J.J.
It was great to see everybody and settle into a beautiful house in a small village with pigeons (a lot bigger than their Canadian cousins), grouse, pheasants and peacocks wandering around the grounds.
I had a day to catch my breath before we set out Saturday morning for Norwich. There was a geocaching event sponsored by Jeff's group scheduled for Sunday so we thought we would spend Saturday sightseeing.
There was a huge market in Norwich and with being the Christmas season, the crowds were spectacular. We were able to see Julian of Norwich's church and her cell attached to the church. It was interesting to see that the construction was mainly of fist sized rocks bedded in mortar. Later repairs used quarried stone.
Because of the crowds we gave the Cathedral a miss for another day and had a pub lunch with J.J. quietly sitting beside the table.
Our accommodation for the night was a Bed & Breakfast that was part of functioning railway station. The boys, Alexander, J.J. and me were given the room facing the tracks and we sent some time out the windows waving at the passengers on the passing trains. I didn't count the trains, but I am sure there were more trains stopped at that station in 2 hours than in 24 hours at the Kingston station in Ontario.
The crossing barriers were stilled closed manually for each train, one of the few remaining in England.
After a full and delicious breakfast we headed back into Norwich for the event and spent a couple of hours walking around the town following coordinates.
Monday through Wednesday were spent acclimatizing and catching up on the news with the Hague family.
Thursday Louise and I travelled to Ely to view the Cathedral. The trip wasn't too traumatic as I am getting use to the cars being on the "wrong" side of the road. Jeff and Louise purchased a Volvo SUV with plans to take it back to Canada, so it is left hand drive, which makes the experience of the passenger even more interesting as you are facing oncoming traffic.
The Cathedral was breath taking both inside and out. I found it very interesting to view a cathedral that was founded over 1000 years ago and to see physical evidence of what Cromwell (an Ely boy) and his followers did to the cathedral, especially the Lady Chapel where the windows were destroyed and the sculptured figures had their heads knocked off, much like Charles I.
After another pub lunch and a bit of shopping we headed home with a side trip to pick out a Christmas tree. Louise decided to pass on the £60, 4 foot trees and we decided we would look tomorrow.