From Lowestoft to London

Time to depart Lowestoft. John managed to get us some coffee – after an hour of walking the town. We headed off, watching the traffic jams heading away from us- towards the coast for the long bank holiday weekend. With time to spare, we decided to make a stop in Chelmsford to see the cathedral where Thomas Hooker preached and lectured. His themes were too liberal for the Bishop and so Hooker and a group of sympathizers set off in 1632 first for Holland and eventually Boston, finally settling in Hartford, CT. Using the Park and Ride, we got into the city and found the cathedral.

It was quite grand in scale- but lacked the beauty of the Lowestoft church.

Back on the road with London in our headlights. Not sure what to expect, we made our way into London – with multiple maps in hand and keeping our eye on the road watching every sign. The British have an odd and very irritating habit of signing to places and not to cardinal directions. So, if you're on the A40 and want to go west, you need to know the towns that you're heading toward – and the towns on each successive sign may change. Add to that the cars with no compass! We did great until we missed the turn for the A5 and were suddenly trying to navigate the streets of London, hoping to find a street name that we recognized. We finally saw Dyer Street and figured out that we could make a few turns and find Brooksville Avenue. We arrived to an empty house – except for Lewis, their 2 year old black lab. John tormented him by talking to him through the mail slot. We waited and finally left a note on the door and headed for the local pub. We had no sooner gotten our first drink than we saw Alice and Zach walking down the street with their luggage. Their train had been delayed for 2 hours.

We had some drinks and dinner at the house and met Lewis, who had, with proper introductions, become our new best friend.