Cherie's Place

For breakfast I once again chose a few items from the Full English option. On this occasion my plan for a smaller breakfast didn’t work, the chef added extras of the items I had chosen so that my plate was full!

After breakfast we checked out of the hotel  and drove to Bury St Edmunds in order to visit St Edmundsbury Cathedral. It was one to add to my Cathedral passport which details my pilgrimage to British  Cathedrals since the passport was launched in 2020. Starting the pilgrimage  off was a bit of challenge, shortly after the pilgrimage passport was launched England and other parts of Britain were put into lockdown due to the Covid 19 epidemic.

At the Cathedral, a lady from the tourist information area pointed out some highlights and suggested we also visit the nearby St Mary’s church where Henry VIII’s sister, Mary Tudor is buried next to the high altar. She also told me to look at the spectacular Angel vaulted ceiling.

We enjoyed our tour of the Cathedral where we learned that the tower and crossing were quite modern and completed in the 1950s. We had enough time to visit St Mary’s where we were greeted by one of the guides who shared detailed history of the building including the location of Mary Tudor’s (Queen of France & Duchess of Suffolk) tomb. Mary Tudor was married to Louis XII of France until his death after which she married the Duke of Suffolk.

Besides the two beautiful church spaces the town of Bury St Edmunds is delightful. We didn’t have time to explore the town but we had just enough time to visit the Abbey gardens before continuing our journey to Windsor.

We broke our journey for lunch in The Old Butchers at Balsham a place recommended on the Extra Mile website. On arrival we found the menu was not as extensive as the website suggested but the food (in my case a cherry flap jack with yoghurt topping) was both excellent and delicious. The weather was warm and sunny allowing us to sit outside.

The remainder of the journey to Windsor was tedious; lots of motorway and duel carriageway driving. On arrival at the hotel we checked in and found that we had been booked into the same room we had stayed in on our previous visit. Initially we were a little dismayed, we had been hoping to stay in the annex near to the car park and station. We also remembered the bed being a little on the small side, which it is not.

Later I realised the problem was the mattresses were tired which meant I kept rolling into the middle (small bed space). The mattresses have been replaced and are now super cosy.

We chilled out in the hotel room, cooling off from the muggy heat before enjoying our free pre-dinner drink in the hotel bar. Then we walked the short distance across the bridge into Eton where we dined in the Cote Brasserie. Before returning to our hotel for the evening we had a nightcap in the George Inn.

Tags: Abbey Gardens, Balsham, Berkshire, Bury St Edmunds, Edmusbury Cathedral, Hotel Christopher Wren, Mary Tudor, St Mary's Church, Suffolk, The Extra Mile, The Old Butchers, Windsor, Windsor Bridge, Windsor Castle