June 16.Suffolk Coast

 Today we continued our whirlwind tour of Suffolk, checking out of Hintlesham and heading east towards the coast. Our first stop was Sutton Hoo. Short version - the wealthy owner in the 20's hired a man to explain the hummocks on her property. They turned out to be a graveyard and one contained the 1400 year-old remains of a wooden boat (mostly just the iron rivets) used as the grave of an Anglo-Saxon king and his valuables.

A high perspective from viewing tower

We pressed on and stumbled on Snape Maltings. On the outskirts of Snape, there were a series of huge buildings used to malt barley and now a concert hall and shops. They happened to be holding the annual Aldeburgh Festival. This seems to be a collection of largely-grotesque art works which we were told were very significant.

Distant Henry Moore sculptures

The first place we reached on the actual coast was Aldeburgh. This is a pretty village now famous for being pretty and consequently pretty expensive. We had lunch, strolled the pebbly beach and looked in the boutiques.

Our last coastal stop, a bit further north, was Southwold. This is famous for similar reasons. It's quite appealing even though there is a nuclear power plant on the horizon. The pier was pleasantly old-fashioned and we also went to Adnams, the large regional brewer on the High Street.

Southwold Pier

After this we turned inland and ended up in Beccles, at Waveney House where we're staying the next two nights. It's on the River Waveney, so the far side of the river is Norfolk. This is definitely a pub rather than a manor house, and so a bit shabby and down-at-heel compared to our last place. I booked it largely because the view of the pub on the river looked nice.

June 13. Whitstable

 Even considering that England is coming into summer, the weather is unseasonably good. It was sunny and about 25℃ today! We took advantage of this to go along the coast to Whitstable. Judging by the crowds, everyone else had the same idea. But the sun was shining on the water, there were small dinghies racing out towards the horizon and this was a good time for a seaside icecream.

Whitstable Harbour. Vintage lifeboat and large number of Con-trails

Still a working harbour, despite the tourists

We walked up and down the highstreet, then went to the Whitstable Oyster Brewing Company right by the sea wall. This was my major goal for the expedition, to try the oyster stout, made with whole oysters. This may have controbuted to the strong mineral flavours, accompanying the smoky and woody quality.

On the way back we picked up the hire car that Lynn and I will take away tomorrow.

June 12. Minnis Bay

We're still catching up with things after the cruise, so this morning was spent washing and ironing. So, that's an exciting update.

This afternoon we went east. Through Minnis Bay, which is the next village east, though we really didn't spend very long there, then to Westwood Cross shopping centre again.

On the way back we detoured to Goody Ales, the english equivalent of a craft brewery. Similar to the Australian ones, in a shed in the middle of nowhere, but different in that the beers (and even the ciders) were flat and, at best, coolish. Mostly you need to adjust your expectations, then it's fine. At least it is unseasonably warm and pleasant weather.

May 28. Shepherd Neame

 Today's outing was to the Shepherd Neame brewery in Faversham, the oldest brewery in England. Faversham is a shortish drive towards London, and in the pleasant weather it seemed to be a lovely old market town - there's one of those old market buildings in the centre, open at the bottom with a closed building above it.

The brewery itself occupies about a block and the tour was pretty long. I suppose if you have to pay they feel obliged to give you your money's worth.

Safe in our high-vis vests.

At the end of the tour there was a tasting - it was pretty interesting, but Lynn enjoyed this even less than the tour.

At the conclusion we staggered around the corner to one of the many local Shepherd Neame owned pubs for lunch.

April 28. Canterbury

Another pleasant and sunny day, so late morning we went into Canterbury. The reason was so Lynn could go to the bank and get her app sorted out, but it was a nice excuse for a walk around. Which was lucky, because the bank wasn't very helpful and the problem wasn't solved.

So we walked down the main shopping area,  and then through the gardens along the River Stour which was full of people sitting in the sunshine.

Great Stour from St Peters St.

Westgate Gardens with Jacqui Harris

Wandering back into town, Lynn and Jacqui went for a coffee at Tiny Tim's Tea Rooms while Tom and I were briefly distracted by The Foundry Brewery and Distillery, which tended towards mondern craft beers rather than the local Kent ales.

Lynn and I slept in the afternoon as we're still getting over our jet lag.