Apparently, years age, Ely was an island in the sea of the fens under water. They drained it, and nowadays continue to pump water. There used to be windmills everywhere, but now only a few remain. Its all a bit like Holland, I suppose.
So the folks and their kids went skiing in France over Christmas, leaving our friends to celebrate with us in their 16th century mansion.
That would be our room at the top right.
Lovely room ... but icy cold. That's five (5) thick thick doonas ... sorry, duvets ... on the beds. And there are 4 hot water bottles hiding in there. And still Peter slept with his jacket over his head so that he could breathe. We just couldn't believe that being indoors didn't seem to be much warmer than out of doors.
The room next door to ours had skylights
with ice on them.
There was, of course, a boiler - an old defunct one, and a newly installed one - which was apparently not fully operational yet.
So Peter and Crosby spent a lot of time working on the fire in the living room
which seemed to have very little effect on the overall temperature, despite its pleasant ambiance.
Obviously the kitchen was the place to be
and where we spent a lot of our time. Especially Susanne, who discovered that leaning on the stove was the best place to read a book.
Obviously, we couldn't spend all of our time indoors, we had to venture out eventually ...
Christmas lights in London
We took the train into London to have a look at the Christmas lights in Oxford Street, and all that area. Well, forget the lights - people in the 'burbs have better displays on their houses. But it was fun to push our way through the crowds and soak up some British culture, or whatever you call it. There were lots of houses with plaques on them telling us of famous people who had lived there, or done something memorable there.
We walked and walked, and when all our little legs were thoroughly weary we went to get back on the train. We had just missed the last one by about two minutes - at 4pm. Due to works being done on various lines we had to catch a train to somewhere else, and then a bus, and then another train, and finally change trains for the last little bit. You could say that was value for money getting all that travel on the one little return ticket!
Next morning I got up and went downstairs to find somewhere warm. The sun had just risen, and the moon was still 'up'. Very pretty, and cold.
Cambridge
We took a trip into Cambridge - now there's an amazing place. So many beautiful buildings, colleges and churches.
Kings College Chapel - you can see a queue of people wanting to buy tickets for the carol performance that day - just one of the many beautiful buildings in Cambridge.
Famous round church - one of two in England, if I remember rightly.
Punts on the river, obviously a summertime activity really.
Nevertheless it is a very beautiful place, and we had a delightful day wandering around.
Christmas Day at the cathedral
We decided to attend the service at Ely cathedral. Ely is not a very big place, and yet it has a very grand cathedral. Our friends explained that back in the day - when the place was mostly under water - Ely was the island that everyone came to and was very important.
I didn't take any photos - seemed a little impolite in a church service, especially as my discrete little phone makes a loud camera click noise. There were all the ceremonial bits - incense, and chanting and bobbing - and yet it was a very enjoyable (almost inspirational) service.
The building was, not surprisingly, very chill. And I was desperate for a WC. We hurried out at the end of the service and followed signs to two local public conveniences, but they were all locked up - well, who needs these things on Christmas Day?
Going to the races
We all decided to enrich our cultural experience with a trip to the Huntingdon steeplechase on Boxing day.
We were a little taken aback with the numbers of other people who apparently shared our clever idea - the queue into the racetrack car park stretched at least a mile down the A14, and we missed the start of the first race at 1.00pm.
Then we joined the queue paying to get into the grandstand area ... but the 15 pounds each almost sent us scuttling back home again. Then we discovered the Picnic area, for only 7 pounds each, and decided to stay awhile.
We were right up against the rail, and enjoyed the brief moment when the horses came pounding over 'our' jump.
It was well past lunch time and we just got too cold and hungry, so Peter and Crosby went to hunt for food.
Forty minutes in these queues yielded a few sausage baguettes and lukewarm coffee.
Horse down
Then there was another race, and we huddled together to watch. One of the horses coming over our jump stumbled and fell right in front of us. The jockey hurriedly extracted his leg from under his prostrate horse and, to cries of "stay down!", rolled himself into a ball to avoid the thundering hooves off the other horses. Finally he jumped up and went to remove his horse's saddle - but the horse just lay there on its side, twitching its head a little.
A horse float with "horse ambulance" on the side came rushing over, and some men approached the horse carrying what we thought was a very large stretcher. But in fact it was a screen, which they erected around the horse on the ground. The crowd watched and waited - many of us were expecting to hear a gunshot.
Suddenly they removed the screen, and there was the horse, standing up! The crowd cheered and clapped - although probably most of them weren't as surprised as we were, they would have seen this before.
Back to the mansion
When we got back to Wilburton there were a lot of cars parked at the mansion - the chaps had all come to use the mobile hide (which is stored there) to go and do a bit of pheasant shooting. We could hear the 'pop! pop! pop!' of them shooting off somewhere in the fields.
Apparently they popped 59, a 'good' day's hunting, I suppose. And a brace of pheasants were donated to the folks at the mansion.
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