Lavenham, Suffolk, England

Photo’s are here or you can just click on the photograph above.

It was a crazy busy couple of weeks visiting family and friends back in the motherland after 5 weeks in Mallorca. We left one week-long extended heatwave of 100°F+/38°C+ behind us in the Mediterranean and flew straight into another for our first 48 hours in England! There are distinctly hot and sweaty downsides to a heatwave in the UK since it is a rarity to find AC outside of major hotel chains and the odd office block. For the average Brit, enduring a heatwave means opening windows and doors, hoping you get a through breeze and huddling around a small rotating fan which periodically puffs warm air towards you as you slowly melt into the furniture 😂

Our plans had been upended somewhat by the unexpected ill health of a close friend we should have been visiting for our first 3 nights so we made an emergency booking and spent our first night in our 2 month visit back to England in the (mercifully air-conditioned) Georgian style Buxted Park Hotel in Buxted, Ashdown Forest, in East Sussex. The historic hotel is clearly an upmarket wedding venue boasting a Victorian orangery, shady pillared terraces and extensive grounds. On a Monday evening at the beginning of July it was extraordinarily quiet so we had it pretty much to ourselves, sipping cocktails on the terrace and enjoying the sweeping views. We wandered down to the village for dinner at the lovely country pub, The White Hart, with its character cosy snug and huge open fireplace. The food was very good, if somewhat geared towards meat-eaters.

The following morning we drove the short distance to the south coast to Eastbourne to meet a friend for a couple of nights in one of the few parts of the country which was not spit-roasting in 98°F/37°C!

The beautiful weather and cool sea breeze was perfect for a couple of coastal hikes at Seven Sisters. We walked as far as East Dean on our second day for a pint at the well-known Tiger Inn (which serves Geoff’s absolute favorite beer – Tim Taylor’s Landord). It wouldn’t be a trip to Eastbourne without dinner at The Pilot Inn in Meads village which was exemplary as always (which coincidentally also serves Tim Taylor’s Landord 😊). Brunch was a little more challenging the following morning. We arrived at the highly rated Skylark cafe shortly after it opened at midday. Within 10 minutes we’d placed 2 unsuccessful orders and left again to search out better options. Apparently in the 20 minutes or so during which they’d been open for lunch prior to our arrival they’d run out of the soup of the day which was chalked up on the specials board. The waitress told us they had only had 2 portions of it available at the start of lunch anyway which rather begged the question why they had bothered writing it up on the board at all! To make things easier, I joined Geoff and Ali and ordered a goujon fish sandwich. Two minutes later our waitress was back at the table again to tell us they only had 2 portions of fish left so we abandoned Skylark out of irritation and walked a couple of doors down to Hyde Corner which turned out to be an excellent choice – the bakery was fabulous (I’m still day-dreaming about the millionaire’s shortbread) and the lunches and coffee were all amazing 😊 Highly recommended!

Once the worst of the heatwave in the southeast had somewhat receded we returned to Dave and Ali’s main home in Kent close to the very pretty village of West Malling where we hung out with members of their large family (sons, daughters-in-law and their various offspring) which is always an added bonus. We spent one evening watching Dave acting at the Geoffrey Whitworth Theatre in Crayford in a production of “One Man Two Guvnors” (made famous by James Corden back in 2011) whilst we fanned ourselves with theatre brochures to prevent keeling over from heat exhaustion in our seats. Since the sun was shining the following day (and you should never pass up the opportunity to go for a drive in the English countryside when the sun is shining!) we drive out to the Kent coast for the day with Ali to the pretty, historic medieval estuary town of Sandwich for lunch at the George and Dragon pub in town (excellent fish and chips). Sandwich lies on the River Stour and boasts an abundance of well-preserved buildings which are in a protected conservation area. Once an important trading town, it was one of Kent’s Cinque Ports (along with Dover, Hythe, Romney and Hastings) which together fell under the protection of Edward the Confessor in the 11th century. Surprisingly for a town which prides itself on its 21st century independent cafes and bakeries, absolutely none appealed for afternoon tea and cake so lunch was followed by a drive along the surrounding Kent coastline and through its various towns and villages in an increasingly frantic search for a cute tea shop. I scoured the internet whenever I had a sufficiently good phone signal: 4G/5G access is pretty dismal in England at the best of times and 3G is unimaginably slow (to non-existent) when you’re out on the road trying to do some last minute research. I did however find a tea shop name which sounded sufficiently appealing online and we followed the GPS somewhat blindly through the country lanes south of Deal. Our search culminated in the discovery of Mrs Knotts Tea Shop in St Margaret’s at Cliffe which is located in the bottom few rooms of a lighthouse overlooking the English Channel, close to Dover. Geoff had followed the GPS’ blue line down an increasingly narrow dirt track filled with pot-holes and barely wide enough for a Mini Metro to squeeze down let alone a large 4-wheel drive. I was certain we were completely off course but Geoff persevered where lesser mortals would have abandoned the task altogether. Eventually we arrived at a lighthouse and saw the board advertising Mrs Knotts Tea Shop. As we stepped inside we were greeted with the dulcet tones of Vera Lynn’s “We’ll Meet Again” playing on a gramophone in one of the back rooms. We sipped tea from mis-matched china in flowery patterns of lemon and greens and pink and blues in the Victorian-era front parlour. A portrait of a young Queen Elizabeth hung above the mantelpiece. I wouldn’t rush back for the cakes but the ambience couldn’t have been more perfect 😊

Next stop, lunch and a natter with Geoff’s nan at Parkers Garden Centre Cafe in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex. She is a remarkable lady at 96 years old and still keen to get out and about, enjoy life, catch up on family news and chat about our various travels. After a short drive northwest into the countryside of East Anglia we checked into the lovely gastro pub/hotel The Angel Inn in the village of Stoke-by-Nayland, not far from where my brother, sister-in-law and mother live so that we could catch up with them but keep out of their hair at the same time. It was an excellent choice. We would definitely return to stay at The Angel Inn not only for its historic charm, beautiful walled courtyard garden with lavender borders buzzing with bees. It was a perfect place to enjoy an early evening tipple in the sun whilst the butterflies fluttered throughout the flowerbeds. The food was very good quality and the rooms came with the unexpected bonus of AC which is surprising for a historic inn in a tiny blip of a village in the middle of nowhere!

We had fabulous sunny weather (without a ghastly corresponding heatwave) during our couple of days in the picture-perfect Suffolk countryside. There are beautiful thatched cottages painted in shades of orange and Suffolk pink with spectacular hollyhocks in matching colors as tall as our shoulders. It is such a beautiful county in the summer when the sun is shining. We walked a circular 6 mile trail starting in the posh and very immaculate medieval village of Lavenham (one of my favorite villages in England). The trail passed through the surrounding wheat fields, woodland and countryside via the tiny village of Brent Eleigh before returning to Lavenham where I would have talked Geoff into late-morning tea and cake at my favorite tea shop in the country (Lavenham Blue Vintage Tea Rooms) if we didn’t already have plans for a big dinner that evening with my brother Paul and sister-in-law Katie back at The Angel. I trust they appreciate the extent of the sacrifice made … 😉

Moving further inland for a couple of nights we visited Geoff’s family in the Midlands town of Melton Mowbray for the start of our second weekend of heatwaves. What are the odds of that?! Before arriving in Melton we detoured through the Northamptonshire countryside to meet some Brits who used to live in Texas, returned to England a couple of years ago and who have been Facebook friends for many years although I’d never actually met them. Geoff had met Jeanette many years ago when she was an instructor in the USA who was teaching an ITIL exam preparation class which Geoff attended 20+ years ago! Without her skills, Geoff might not have done so well 😉 Previous attempts for me to meet her and her husband in the flesh had been thwarted back in the US but now, all back in our native land at the same time, we had the perfect opportunity to meet them both in the glorious sunshine of an English summer’s day. Colin and Jeanette live in a fabulous country house (part of Winwick Hall estate) with their 3 beautiful Yankee kitties. Jeanette has created a beautiful English country courtyard garden with flower borders and flower pots overflowing with colorful annuals. It was a perfect afternoon to enjoy their garden and get to know each other over lunch and drinks on the patio. A thoroughly English afternoon in the countryside! 😊

It was fun catching up with Geoff’s family in Melton Mowbray as usual – we chatted into the small hours and tried desperately to ignore the start of the 4 day heatwave! I’ve never been to the city of Nottingham which is a 40 minute drive from Melton but despite the elevated temperature Geoff set his heart upon a trip to his favorite clothes store, Paul Smith, whose flag ship store is based in Nottingham. He spent far too much money but was very happy … after cheese and caramelized onion quiche and salad at the cafe at Hilltop Farm Shop back in Melton (and a slice of the best lemon cheesecake in the world) his dad and I were equally happy 😉 Geoff also squeezed in quick catch-ups with his old school friends, Lisa & Cheryel, in between family commitments.

We left the heatwave in the Midlands behind us and drove southwest where it continued (but at an even greater temperature) for our 2 night visit to Geoff’s old friend Tom aboard his superyacht, “Miss Conduct”, moored in Bristol harbour.

We couldn’t possibly visit England without a quick stop in the Cotswolds (one of my other favorite regions of the country) on the way to Bristol. We met Geoff’s Auntie Val in the village pub, The Edgemoor Inn, Edge on the outskirts of Stroud in Gloucestershire for lunch. The food was excellent (especially the Bakewell Tart and custard!) and the view from the pub terrace over the rolling hills and patchwork quilt of fields was stunning!

On the first evening with Tom we caught up with a couple of old friends from Bristol & Sarah (from Geoff & Tom’s Royal Air Force days) – we had drinks onboard the yacht and ate too much at the excellent River Grille and then followed it the next evening with a Sunday roast at Harbour House which was exceptional. Tom took us on a guided tour and we walked for miles around the city. We located my old law offices from when I was in private practice as a solicitor (which brought back palpitations 😂) and we meandered through areas of Bristol which had changed beyond all recognition since we lived there almost 30 years ago. We sat shooting the breeze at an outdoor cafe in one of our favourite areas of Bristol – Clifton (of Clifton Suspension Bridge fame) – over coffee and breakfast at Saffron. On our final morning we caught the tiny 2 minute ferry across the water which runs from a dock a couple of minutes walk from the yacht. We then circumnavigated the entire harbour area in search of a decent coffee shop for at least an hour but nowhere appealed until we had made it almost full circle back to the yacht on Wapping Wharf. We ended up at New Cut Coffee – which serves excellent coffee and even better iced ginger cake – and is literally feet from Tom’s yacht! 😂

It was a fun weekend catching up with Tom and various other friends 😊

Our final stop on the circuit of family and friends was with very old good friends, Barrie and Karen, who live in Hutton, North Somerset, a few miles from our former home in the village of Kewstoke (before we emigrated to the USA in 1999). Back in the day we used to spend most Friday nights with them at the local curry house after work (yup, a Friday evening curry and a few beers has long been an English tradition 😉). So, it was only fitting that we should return to our old haunt, The Curry Garden in Weston-super-Mare, which was noticeably more upmarket than it was 26 years ago and still serves fabulous curries. We ate dinner the following night at their local pub in Hutton, The Old Inn, which also serves excellent pub food. We had earned it after a ridiculously bracing walk with Karen (and Bobo doggie) on the headland at Uphill Beacon overlooking the Bristol Channel. To say it was bracing up the hill at Uphill is a massive understatement. We were determined to take a few selfies to capture the moment in the howling gale but all we achieved was Geoff looking just like Geoff, Karen looking somewhat disheveled and me completely hidden behind a rats nest of hair whipped into a tornado around my head 😂

After 2 weeks of catching up with family and friends it was finally time to start one of our long-awaited retirement dreams – exploring the Southwest Coastal county of Cornwall for an extended 6+ week trip. Leaving our friends behind us we detoured for a superlative lunch at The Farmers Arms, part of The Collective at Woolsery, a village in North Devon. The Collective comprises a gastro pub, village store, fish and chip shop, a manor house and local cottages – it is a new concept in regeneration which commenced with plans to save a 350 year old pub earmarked to be repurposed into flats. A Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur with original roots in the village had the money and vision to breathe life back into the village with an extensive overhaul. The food at the pub is sourced from their organic farm and was truly worth the detour! Highly recommended for the quality and presentation of their dishes and the beautiful courtyard garden.

Now we’re off to the most southerly point in mainland England – Sennen Cove (next to Land’s End) for the first 5 days of our extended explorations around Cornwall! 😊❤️