Orford

The small boy is leaving on an epic trip to New Zealand tomorrow, so we had him for the day since we won't see him for a few weeks. The weather was forecast as 'heavy rain', but it looked sunny outside so we decided to go for a walk. We drove out to Orford, on the coast. It rained and snowed intermittently the whole way there (lovely day for a walk!), and while we didn't exactly follow the path we set out to, we had a great time.

We visited Orford church, where there's this Britten dedication:

Because the weather was so foul (it started to snow again), we turned back from the walk through the fields and went to Orford Castle (managed by English Heritage). Having worked for the National Trust, I understand that these properties take a lot of upkeep and need a lot of money. However, it was £12.30 (about $25) for the three of us to get in. And that did not include the audio guide (don't remember how much) or the guidebook (£3). Dunno...maybe the audio guide was free and I wasn't paying attention - a lot of people had them. But there was NO 'interpretation' (the NT/EH term for 'stuff written about where you're standing') anywhere in the castle - just little headphone logos with the number you were supposed to key in to the audio guide thingy. So the fact that the dimly lit stone room labeled #12 (nearly the same as the previous dimly lit stone room #11 and not far off #13) had something interesting happen there 500 years ago was lost on us. At least it wasn't snowing in the castle.

Here's a pic John took from the roof:

And here's mine, from a different angle:

We walked down to the quay, where they were having a spring tide. We've had a lot of rain in the last few weeks, and the boardwalk was underwater. Lovely bench, though.

Here's part of the harbor - there's more water than there usually is!


I love this one:

We were all feeling v. cold, windswept and hungry, so we stopped at The Jolly Sailor for lunch. James had a burger, I had fish & chips, and John had plate of chips. Decadent. Oh, and I had a 'half' of Broadside (a v. tasty Adnams brew). And then wanted another 'half', as John was the designated driver so I could be free to be the designated drunk.

Here's the blustery sky over the harbor and Orford Ness: