After four days in Provence, we caught another train (four, actually...) to make it to Ely, England. It was such a long day of travel, and we collapsed with relief at the home of our friends Lizzy and Sofi.
Lizzy is a very talented artist and Sofi owns a tea shop where we spent a delicious lunch. I don't want to sound too cheesy, but it was really inspiring being around such creative entrepreneurs!
Ely is in Cambridgeshire, about 80 miles from London. It was incredible to have Lizzy as our guide. We learned so much about the "Isle of Eels," which really used to be an island! We visited the Ely Cathedral twice during our visit. Neither Kristie nor I are religious, but the building was beautiful and full of soooo much history.
Ely felt familiar...like the Northampton of England. (Yes, I know they do actually have a Northampton, but Ely felt like our Northampton.) Friendly, relaxed, accepting...but with English charm for dayyyys.
I have one more England day to share with you -- a punting adventure in Cambridge -- but I've been thinking about a question my mother asked me after we got back from Spain five years ago. Given the choice, would you revisit a place you've already been, or decide to go somewhere brand new? My answer was always somewhere new...until now. There's no way this was our last time in Paris, or in England. After all, we spent only about an hour in London (having lunch with my old college roommate before our train back to Paris and the airport). I've been entertaining this thought lately of traveling with my brother and sister to England and Ireland someday. Our ancestors lived in Cambridge, and it would be amazing to go there with them and revisit our roots. I guess that's the problem with travel...the more you do it, the more you want to do it more! So I'd love to know what you think...would you rather return to a place you've visited, or travel somewhere brand new?
