Day 11 - Yesterday, we set off to Snape on the bus, to a quaint little car hire place, and hired a car for the day (we preordered a car for three separate days while we are here). The car didn't come with a Suffolk map or sat nav, so fortunately we had a couple of basic google maps we had printed before we left Australia.
Our idea for the days with the car, is to visit some of the local villages. We set off for Saxmundham, which is a pretty local village, not far away. We then drove through interesting countryside to Stowmarket, which is a bigger town but has some very old historic parts. We had lunch in a funny little cafe which made delicious home cooked tasting food. We headed back to Snape via country (B) roads but not being totally familiar with the road signage, we managed to miss a turnoff so we had to travel a fair distance around The bypass to Ipswich on a A road, so it was a while before we got back to the country roads again. We had a pleasant drive back to Snape through some very small villages. We didn't do too badly, given the lack of proper maps! We dropped the car off and went back to Aldeburgh on the bus.
Day 12 - Today we set off on an organised Aldeburgh Festival coastal walk from Kessingland to Britten's birthplace in Lowestoft. We started the day in a coach from Aldeburgh to Kessingland, then set off on a coastal walk to Lowestoft. The walk along the Beach was hard work, along the shingles (pebbles). At the end of the lengthy walk on the shingles, we visited Pakefield church which was a strange configuration, consisting of two altars and two chancels and two naves, so it was like two churches joined together. There used to be a dividing wall which was removed, creating this funny arrangement.
We then walked along a foreshore path to see the house where Benjamin Britten was born and lived till he was 21, in Lowestoft. At lunch, Benjamin Britten's nephew, Alan, talked about Britten's formative years in Lowestoft and talked about the history of the house (which is now a B&B bit the owner has apparently made the house to look similar to what it was in Britten's time. Alan said his 104 year old mother said she could remember the house and agreed that the current owner has kept it as authentic as possible.
After lunch we walked through the centre of Lowestoft and to the ancient old town. We chatted with Alan Britten, and he seemed to very interested in our love for Britten's music and reminisced with us about time spent with Benjamin in the days that he lived in the Red House, not far from Aldeburgh.
We clocked up about 12 kilometres on the walk today, which was very enjoyable.
