London Day 5-Bury St. Edmonds

When our friend and tour guide, Tom, said we were going to Bury St. Edmonds on our last day in England, I thought the name of the town sounded so cool. That is until... I realized that the name Bury St. Edmonds... is where they buried St. Edmonds. Then it didn't sound so cool anymore.

Before we went to the dead guy's town, we made a stop at Tesco, a popular grocery store in England. Tom needed to pick up a few food requests that his family had given him prior to his trip.

Apparently, one of the cravings of the family who used to live in England (Tom's family) was for Digestives. Digestives, one of the many things that cracked me up in England.

A digestive is supposed to be a substance promoting digestion. It was a cookie for the love of Pete made by McVitie's... which Paul decided sounded like dog food. Now, why in the world would they call a cookie a digestive? It did kinda resemble saw dust once you started chewing it up. But, it was a good kind of saw dust. It was kinda like a Keebler cookie with the chocolate on the top. After you swallowed the saw dust, you did sort of want more. Maybe saw dust is good for digestion. I don't know?!

We hadn't had breakfast since the place that had plastic coffee and rubber food. So, since it was morning and we were in a grocery store, Paul decided he wanted some doughnuts. But because he's cheap, he bought the ones that were a day old. Rich tried taking a bite... it was like leather. I'm not kidding. It took 5 minutes to get the first bite off the doughnut and into the mouth. It was totally not even worth eating, but the challenge made you keep going.

The sign above my head says: The Abbey Gate destroyed by the townspeople in 1327 rebuilt in 1347. I was still obsessing over doors. I liked that door. Clearly.
I liked that door too. I also have a fascination with openings like that. What does that say about me? And, while you're analyzing that maybe you can tell me why when I take a nap during the day, even if it's only for 10 minutes, do I have a dream that I am driving and I close my eyes and I can't get them back open? I desperately try to get them open and then I shoot up in a panic to get awake. So weird!
I like the way the sun was coming in through the trees.
I was a bit confused by the whole visit to this place. I think I was done touring. Don't get me wrong, I could have stayed in England longer, I just needed a rest. My mind didn't want to take in anymore.

The best I could make out of this place was there was a big parish built on this property. The people didn't like the way the parish was running the town so the townspeople revolted and burnt the place down. The Abbey Gardens is a beautiful garden/park area with the ruins of the parish. Don't quote me on any of that. I am still trying to figure out who St. Edmonds was and where they buried him.
The Abbey Gate
The cathedral on the grounds of the parish. By the way, I had also seen enough cathedrals to last me a lifetime. But, Paul had not. Before we went into the gardens, Paul and Sarah (Tom's daughter) said, "Hey! We're just going to run down and peak in the cathedral real quick."

Yeah right!

Tom and Rich had to go fish them out. They were on a tour with a priest... just talking away. They had even connected the priest to some family member of his back in our home town. Leave it to Paul!
The gardens was a peaceful, beautiful place. I can't imagine what it would have been like with the flowers in full bloom. They had just been planted.
Some of the ruins with the sun steaming in on them.

I thought this ruin looked like an obscene gesture.
And, that one looked like a duck. Sarah said, "The bird and the duck... right next to each other!" Haha!! Get it?
The place where the Magna Carta was drafted. The Magna Carta was the forerunner to the constitution... whatever that means. Paul tried to explain it to me, but I had already checked out.

After walking around the gardens, we headed over to the open market and the shops across the street. I didn't see any acid drops... just in case you were wondering.
How cute is that place?
Do I even need to say anything?
The smallest pub in England. It was called the Nutshell. It's 15ft by 7ft. It seats about ten people with room for about another half a dozen standing. We did hear that one time, they got 120 people in that place. Shoot me now! I could not have been one of those 120.

Paul, Tom and Rich peeked their heads inside to ask the locals where to eat in ol' Bury St. Edmonds. All at once the 4 guys seated turned and said, "Mason Arms!"

So guess where we went to eat? Mason Arms.

I was unsure of the menu even after we had finished eating. Just keep reading...
On the menu was a peanut butter, sweet chili and chicken panini. Is that not one of the grossest food items EVER!? So, I ordered it. Ok, I didn't. I was actually pretty sick of food, so I just ordered onion rings.
And, I know they look disgusting and like they are burnt BUT they were seriously the BEST onion rings I have ever had!
I'm going to let you read the dessert menu at your own risk. We were mortified and we didn't order that dessert of any other dessert for that matter. FYI... it does not say 'spotted duck'.
Guess what? I liked the door and that little place in general. I also liked the brick streets.

We left Bury St. Edmonds and went to another pub for dinner. I ordered onion rings, again. They were nothing like the ones in the dead man's town, darn it!

The next morning we got up and left. We flew from London to Dublin. In Dublin, we checked in and the lady said, "Go straight to your gate."

We looked at each other and we were like, "Why!? We've got a whole hour!"

So, we went and got some breakfast. I paid $5 for a Starbucks coffee... when all of a sudden I remembered... I can't take it with through security. Shoot! Thankfully, Rich's flight was several hours away, so I gave it to him.

We went to get in line for security and when we got there our jaws fell open and hit the ground. There was a sea of people. No wonder she told us to go straight to our gate. We had 30 minutes until our flight left and the line was moving no where fast. After sweating bullets for 30 minutes, they told us our flight would be held. When we walked onto the plane, one stewardess yelled out, "These are the last 2!"

6 flights and I almost missed 4 . Sheww!!

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