Road Trip Day #3, Ely, Boston & Stamford.

We had another breakfast with our host Robin waxing eloquent about many different topics.  We packed up our MINI and walked just down the street to The Oliver Cromwell House Museum.

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Goodby to our hosts Jenny and Robin.
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Leaving Cathedral House.
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Oliver Cromwell’s house in Ely.
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Apparently eels were a large part of their diet.
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We took a self guided audio tour of this small museum learning a lot more about English history and Oliver Cromwell.  He is one of the most controversial figures in the history of The British Isles, considered a dictator by some and a hero by others.  We voted him a villain at the end of our tour.
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An eery dark bedroom with a body in the bed.

Our next stop was back to the Ely Cathedral for a brief visit to The Stained Glass Museum.IMG_0548 (1)IMG_0544 (1)IMG_0557 (1)

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Finally on the road again, headed for Stamford.

Jim came up with a great idea to deviate a bit and stop in Boston Old England.  Boston is a town and small port in Lincolnshire.  Its most notable landmark is St. Botolph’s Church said to be the largest parish church in England.  Residents of Boston are known as Bostonians.  Emigrants from Boston named several other settlements around the world after their town, most notably our home town.  We arrived in Boston after noon, our plan was to experience the big market in the town square and then explore the town and visit the church.  The locals refer to St. Botolph’s as the Boston Stump.  We also wanted to see the Medieval Guild Hall now used as City Hall.  The market was quite small and disappointing, the Guild Hall was closed and the church is undergoing major renovations.  We found Boston to be a somewhat sad very blue collar town.

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The Boston Stump.

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The river at low tide when we arrived.

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We did buy some lovely olives and garlic cloves which we snacked on over the next week.
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A very humorous tiny auction.
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The church is quite grand for a parish church.

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The Guild Hall.
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The river looks much better at high tide as we were leaving.

We left Boston and drove to Stamford where we are staying at The George Hotel for two nights.  The George was and still is one of Englands greatest coaching inns.  Stamford is a town on The River Welland in Lincolnshire.  It has 17th and 18th century stone buildings and five medieval parish churches.  In 2013 it was rated the best place to live by The Sunday Times.  In 2014 Pride and Prejudice was filmed here and The Da Vinci Code in 2006.

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