Forest along the Beach

We decided to take the path through the forest back to the car. The day involved considerable walking, but it was thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening.

Wells-next-the-Sea

As it was growing too late to go to St. Peter’s in Great Walsingham (which is actually smaller than Little Walsingham) and the coast, i.e., the North Sea, was only a few miles away, we decided to head to Wells-next-the-Sea. Don’t you love English place names? This was my favorite shot from the many I took on the beach.

Slipper Chapel

Here we are at the Slipper Chapel. One theory is that it is called the Slipper Chapel because it was along the pilgrimage route from London and people would take their shoes off to walk the final 1.5 miles. It is on record that Henry VIII walked the distance “nudis pedipus” (if I remembered the Latin correctly). After the Reformation, Henry had the priory in Little Walsingham destroyed.

Sheep

What would a visit to England be without a picture of sheep?

Poppies and Mallow

And here is a sampling of the poppies and mallow growing everywhere along the countryside roads.

Sedum on the Wall

Sorry, I could not help myself. You are getting just a small taste of the photos I have taken of the flora. This sedum was growing on the wall along the road to the chapel.

Wedding Preparations at St. Mary's

We walked to the medieval church in Little Walsingham but there was a wedding about to start so we decided to walk the 1.5 miles to the Slipper Chapel.

From Under the Arch

Priory Ruins in Little Walsingham

Soon we were heading out of the city toward Little Walsingham, northwest of Norwich. Little Walsingham had been the second most popular pilgrimage destination in England after Canterbury. It was known throughout Europe. Most of it was destroyed during the reformation but before that Margery Kempe went there to worship at the shrine.

Art Nouveau Royal Arcade

We walked through this small shopping mall that must have been built when Art Nouveau was all the rage.

Norwich Castle

Our destination today was Walsingham, but first we had to stop back at the cell phone store in Norwich (remember not to pronounce the W) to get a new card for the cell phone we bought last year. Boy, was parking an ordeal! It must have taken me 48.5 zigzags to get the car into the tiny space between two concrete posts. This was about 6 tiers below the Castle Mall, which is next to Norwich Castle pictured here.

Map of East Anglia

I added this map of East Anglia so you can follow where we're going. The places too small to be already indicated are listed to the right. Today we hit Norwich, Walsingham and Wells-next-the-Sea. Remember that you can click on the image to make it larger.

The Sign

This sign is across the street from the cottage.

Across the Street

As you can see from this picture, our cottage is in a very rural area.

The Doorway

Like in America, you can buy a whole chicken already roasted. Since it was already after 7:00, one of those chickens became our main course. We each had our own pasta salad along with it and, of course, a sampling of Greek delights for dessert. This is the doorway to our cottage.

St. Peter Mancroft

By the time we reached St. Peter Mancroft, it was closed, as were most of the shops in center city. One excepting was a vendor selling Greek delights. He gave us a sample of one of the many desserts made with filo and honey and before long he was loading several samples into a plastic container for us to carry back to the cottage. On our way out of Norwich, we stopped at a Tescos to load up on groceries for the next several days.

The Labyrinth

We could not resist walking the labyrinth in the center of the cloisters on the south side of the cathedral. According to Meisha, in medieval times pilgrims used to crawl the labyrinth path while saying prayers as a form of penance.

Norwich Cathedral

A Boss up Close

Here is the boss of the Crucifixion.

The Ceiling with Bosses

Also of particular interest to Meisha are the bosses on the ceiling. She is hoping to find ones that uniquely represent scenes that can be linked to the Mary plays among the N Town Plays. As our tour was breaking up, she went about photographing some of them and I stayed back talking to the guide, who we later learned was Dr. Michael Honeybone, a retired college professor. Our conversation eventually swung around to our mutual interest in eighteenth century American history. While he was explaining the British perspective regarding the Boston Tea Party, I observed strategic parallels to the modern Tea Party and we expressed our mutual pleasure at the fact that the Supreme Court has upheld the vast majority of the health care plan. Suddenly the conversation turned to our purposes in being in Norwich Cathedral and I explained what I could about Meisha’s research. His delight was evident as we rush over to where she was and he explained to her that there was a CD with all the bosses photographed up close. But when he led us to the gift show and asked about the CD, we were told that they had been sold out long ago. At that point he invited us to get a cup of tea (I bought a ginger beer with chilies in it) while he ran off to pick up his own copy to lend to Meisha for her research. He told her she could keep it until she no longer needed it and gave us his address so she could mail it back. We are so very impressed with the friendliness of the Brits.

The Apse

Shortly after I had returned, we found ourselves invited to join a small tour group led by an amazingly knowledgeable gentleman. He directed us to the apse in the far rear of the cathedral, where he explained much about what had been destroyed during the Reformation and the English Civil War and why. He showed us a font that was perfectly intact except that every face of a saint had been chiseled off. He showed us places that had been restored by later generations.

Medieval Painting of Sts. Mary, Catherine and Margaret

While I ran back to feed the machine in the parking lot where we had left the car, Meisha found something of particular interest to her research: this medieval painting which depicts the Mother Mary in the center with St. Catherine on the right (with the wheel) and St. Margaret on the left.

The Organ

The organ was involved in one piece being rehearsed by the orchestra.

Inside Norwich Cathedral

When we entered the cathedral, an orchestral of mostly young people was rehearsing for a concert to be held that night. The first piece we heard was from West Side Story. Later, as we were getting ready to leave the cathedral, a very skillful a cappella choir of young people had replaced the orchestra, so we sat down to listen to one piece.

Entering Norwich Cathedral

As we were walking toward Norwich Cathedral, we stopped to look at the map. A rather friendly elderly man asked us if we needed any assistance. Since it was well after noon, we asked about a place to eat and he very graciously directed us to a pub called the Glass Room, a place he said with reasonable prices among the rather pricy places that attract tourist in this particular area. We found it without incident and after we had ordered at the bar and sat down, he looked in on us to see if it met our expectations, which indeed it did. After lunch it was only a few steps to the entrance of the cathedral.

Misericord Stall in St. Gregory’s

Next was St. Lawrence, which existed in the fifteenth century but has been stripped and is empty inside. So on we went to St. Gregory’s in Pottergate (‘gate’ means ‘street’). St. Gregory’s was being used for several purposes but still inside was this misericord stall. Since certain very long prayers required standing with arms upraised, misericord stalls were invented to allow the old and infirm to lean on was actually the underside of the bench folded up.

St. Margaret-de-Westwick

This first view of St. Margaret’s is from the south and the second from the west.

St. Margaret-de-Westwick

We both slept in a bit this morning—for who knows what reason—but soon we were off to Norwich (pronounced \nor-ich\). Our first medieval church stop along St. Benedict’s Street was St. Swithin, which was rebuilt in the fifteenth century, but we could not get in because some musicians were using it for a recording session. But we did notice the interesting obsidian-like stone that it and many of the other churches were made of. We soon moved on to St. Margaret-de-Westwick along St. Benedict’s Street, existed in the fifteenth century. The church is now being used as an exhibition hall, presently displaying a variety of nude drawings. This window depicts St. Margaret but is not medieval.

Are We There Yet?

The beginning of our journey to East Anglia went so smoothly that we were lulled into complacency. What’s in a little gate change at Dulles Airport? Then the announcements began coming in, followed each time with a cell phone call from Orbitz to repeat that same announcement—a 30 minute delay, an hour delay because a part is being replaced on the plane, another 30 minutes . . . We were supposed to fly out shortly after 10:00pm but we didn’t begin boarding until 2:30am, the beginning of our 7 plus hours across the Atlantic. Fortunately, once we arrived we were able to disembark rather quickly. Our wobbly legs actually rejoiced at the rather long and circuitous journey to customs. That’s where we encountered Mr. I’m-New-at-My-Job, who tried very hard to look official but who was having difficulty understanding why we had come to England. “I must speech with my supervisor,” he told us and disappeared for quite some time. Coming back with a nervous grin on his face, he conducted a rather elaborate ritual stamping our passports. More long distance walking followed to find the baggage claim and then on to the car rental desk, followed by more walking to the shuttle bus. A short debate ended with our decision to rent a car with a GPS. That turned out to be a wise move, if only to get us out of the London area, which still involved a few wrong turned until we got used to Margery’s (we named the lovely voice on the GPS after one of the mystics Meisha is researching, the one who did considerable traveling) instructional style, particularly on the roundabouts. After about 1,234 more roundabouts we found ourselves recognizing signs of the places we had come here to visit. A pit stop at a Tesco grocery store in Diss was required to use bathroom resources, to but a little food for the evening and next day’s breakfast and to tap itno cash reserves at the ATM. Before long Margery directed us to turn off onto a narrow country road, and another, and still another, until at last Meisha recognized a few landmarks from the information our landlady had given her. So here we are among a tiny cluster of homes in Hardwick.

Last Minute Preparations

In Owego and Berkshire last minute preparations are being made--Nancy reminded me to dig out my passport--to fly out tomorrow evening. Nancy and I will be going to Owego this afternoon to distract Everett while Meisha finishes packing. We've been duly warned about bringing our rain gear. Some time ago Meisha set up a Google Document that we have been using to collect data relevant to both the traveling arrangements and the research. I have been pouring over a Website that lists all the churches in East Anglia with a separate page for each, including photos and a narrative. This site has been amazingly useful in helping us decide where to go.

Our Little Cottage in Hardwick

Here are pictures taken from the Website where we did our booking for our stay in East Anglia. We will be about 18 miles south of Norwich in the tiny little village of Hardwick. It is centrally located to all the sites where Meisha has to go.