Beyond the Cathedral in Ely

Yesterday I confined my post to the Cathedral. That leaves today to account for quite a bit else.

I don't usually write about food, but I've had a number of meals worth mentioning. For breakfast yesterday I had, in addition to really delicious granola, smoked salmon and scrambled duck eggs with brioche. The duck eggs were great but this morning I limited myself to the granola  - far too much of a good thing.

Last night I ate what I hoped would be a light meal in the bar of Poets House, where I am staying - mussel soup. There must have been 50 mussels in the plate. It was delicious  - and used up some energy shelling them!

Today I lunched at The Firehouse - a recommendation of my Elyte Cars driver. I ate late, so this will be both dinner and lunch- tomato and onion soup, roast pork and homemade strawberry ice cream. I absolutely cannot complain about food - mine has been uniformly excellent.

Yesterday, John, from Elyte Cars, took me to lunch at Peacock's - a small, busy tea place on the river run by a local using local produce. They serve a huge range of teas in China pots. I had lentil and ham soup and jasmine tea. John has been a mine of information about the local area and a great advocate for local produce and businesses.

It was a great setting, good soup and refreshing tea. I also got to see the river. 

Today I took a self-guided tour of Cromwell's House.

He and his family lived here for ten years before moving to London. The kitchen was especially interesting.

It is the only place he lived, other than Hampton Court, to survive.

 It is really well organised as a self-guided tour, giving you choices as to how much information you want to access. It also presents various views of The Lord Protector and leaves the visitor to decide. It presented a very sympathetic view of Elizabeth Cromwell.

At the end there was a 15 minute video on the draining of the fens that I found particularly enlightening.It made sense of a lot that my farmer-driver had told me. 

I dropped by St Mary's Church where a team of women were preparing for a wedding with (literally) wheelbarrow loads of flowers.

I am keeping my eye out for the wedding - which I assume will be this evening.

I should also mention the High Street - where I plucked up courage to test (successfully!) an ATM. You can see the wall of the Cathedral forming part of the High Street on the far right hand side.

I paid several visits to the Cathedral, including twice for Evensong. I will make the most of my last night in my room on the second floor of Poets House - under the roofline. The globe in the centre of the room is a large ridged glass one that throws interesting pattern on the walls and sloping ceiling.

Tomorrow I meet up with a cousin and we head for Norfolk - an entirely different adventure.