All those other oceans
Jun. 26th, 2021 01:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12Yesterday, Matthias and I returned after a week away on holiday by the seaside. We went to Southwold, on the Suffolk coast, which is an easy trip for us on public transport (2 hours on the train, half an hour on a bus). The two of us don't tend to holiday in the UK — in fact, apart from trips to visit friends elsewhere in the country, and occasional weekends in London, I don't think we have ever used annual leave to stay somewhere within the UK. Last year, of course, we didn't leave the country — but we didn't leave Cambridge, either! All our holidays were at home. We really couldn't face another year like that, and when we were planning when to claim our annual leave, Matthias remarked that he desperately wanted a holiday where we went somewhere, I remarked that I was desperate to see the ocean, and he (who is the booker and planner in our household) investigated a bit and suggested Southwold. It was a really good decision.
We booked a tiny holiday cottage, which ended up being right in the centre of town — a minute from the beach, a minute from the high street. (There's not much 'town,' so this was not particularly hard to achieve.) It wasn't possible to collect the key until 4pm, but we arrived at 2pm, and spent the gap in time eating lunch (outdoors) in a cafe, and picking up supplies from a nearby deli. Once we were able to get into the house, we did so, after which point I immediately went on a walk to get the lay of the land and commune with the ocean. As you can see, the weather was pretty standard British seaside summer.
The next day was Sunday. After breakfast, we walked through fields, along the tiny river harbour (still a working fishing port, lined with tiny fishing boats unloading their catches, plus fish and chip shops selling their wares out of huts along the water) to Walberswick, the next village over. We took the foot ferry across the harbour to wander around Walberswick itself, under an ominously stormy sky, before heading home for a dinner of cheese and charcuterie.
We had had plans for the Monday, but woke to a cold, rainy day and decided instead to spend most of our time indoors — reading, watching a couple of episodes of Lucifer, and generally lazing around. We did walk out to the pier in the rain — I love a grim, British seaside pier!
By Tuesday, the weather had improved significantly. I had made a lunchtime booking for one of the seafood places along the harbour, so we headed out there, then went back across the water to Walberswick, the starting point of a 16km circular walk. The walk took us through fields and forests (where we encountered a very strange group of people and dogs on a dead-end dirt road, standing around two cars filled with junk, plus several bags of said junk which they'd scattered along the road), and along the river estuary. This walk also took us through the village of Blythburgh, which had the most over-the-top creepy angel as its village name shield thingy.
Wednesday was another quiet day, mainly spent reading at home while Matthias watched football/soccer. We did go outside to walk along the beach, where I put my feet in the water, but didn't quite dare to swim.
Thursday was our last full day in Southwold. Our intention was to do a one-way walk out to the village of Kessingland (which appeared to be around 12-13km), eat a picnic lunch, then catch the bus back. However, although we diligently followed every twist and turn of the map, moving whenever told from 'public footway' (these things are the bane of my existence in the UK: they exist all over, but they never tell you where the footway is actually going) to road and back again, we actually ended up in a place called Covehithe. This is a named village on the map, but what it really is is a ruined church, a collection of five or so houses, and a really lovely beach. At this point, we'd been walking for three hours, our destination was apparently two hours away, and we were overheated and hungry, so we ate our lunch on the beach, and then walked all the way back to Southwold along the beach itself, which halved the journey. It was so hot that I actually went swimming when we got back — my first time in the ocean in the UK since 2011!
On Friday, we had to be out of the house by 9am, so we packed up quickly, gulped down breakfast, and began our return journey, stopping over in a place called Woodbridge that has a pretty river harbour filled with boats. And then it was back to Ely, and home.
I'll do another post in the next couple of days about the books I read while on holiday, because they were a great bunch, several chosen on the basis of reviews people in my Dreamwidth circle have posted.
We booked a tiny holiday cottage, which ended up being right in the centre of town — a minute from the beach, a minute from the high street. (There's not much 'town,' so this was not particularly hard to achieve.) It wasn't possible to collect the key until 4pm, but we arrived at 2pm, and spent the gap in time eating lunch (outdoors) in a cafe, and picking up supplies from a nearby deli. Once we were able to get into the house, we did so, after which point I immediately went on a walk to get the lay of the land and commune with the ocean. As you can see, the weather was pretty standard British seaside summer.
The next day was Sunday. After breakfast, we walked through fields, along the tiny river harbour (still a working fishing port, lined with tiny fishing boats unloading their catches, plus fish and chip shops selling their wares out of huts along the water) to Walberswick, the next village over. We took the foot ferry across the harbour to wander around Walberswick itself, under an ominously stormy sky, before heading home for a dinner of cheese and charcuterie.
We had had plans for the Monday, but woke to a cold, rainy day and decided instead to spend most of our time indoors — reading, watching a couple of episodes of Lucifer, and generally lazing around. We did walk out to the pier in the rain — I love a grim, British seaside pier!
By Tuesday, the weather had improved significantly. I had made a lunchtime booking for one of the seafood places along the harbour, so we headed out there, then went back across the water to Walberswick, the starting point of a 16km circular walk. The walk took us through fields and forests (where we encountered a very strange group of people and dogs on a dead-end dirt road, standing around two cars filled with junk, plus several bags of said junk which they'd scattered along the road), and along the river estuary. This walk also took us through the village of Blythburgh, which had the most over-the-top creepy angel as its village name shield thingy.
Wednesday was another quiet day, mainly spent reading at home while Matthias watched football/soccer. We did go outside to walk along the beach, where I put my feet in the water, but didn't quite dare to swim.
Thursday was our last full day in Southwold. Our intention was to do a one-way walk out to the village of Kessingland (which appeared to be around 12-13km), eat a picnic lunch, then catch the bus back. However, although we diligently followed every twist and turn of the map, moving whenever told from 'public footway' (these things are the bane of my existence in the UK: they exist all over, but they never tell you where the footway is actually going) to road and back again, we actually ended up in a place called Covehithe. This is a named village on the map, but what it really is is a ruined church, a collection of five or so houses, and a really lovely beach. At this point, we'd been walking for three hours, our destination was apparently two hours away, and we were overheated and hungry, so we ate our lunch on the beach, and then walked all the way back to Southwold along the beach itself, which halved the journey. It was so hot that I actually went swimming when we got back — my first time in the ocean in the UK since 2011!
On Friday, we had to be out of the house by 9am, so we packed up quickly, gulped down breakfast, and began our return journey, stopping over in a place called Woodbridge that has a pretty river harbour filled with boats. And then it was back to Ely, and home.
I'll do another post in the next couple of days about the books I read while on holiday, because they were a great bunch, several chosen on the basis of reviews people in my Dreamwidth circle have posted.
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Date: 2021-06-28 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-29 01:54 pm (UTC)