Aldeburgh Amble

 

Unfortunately the nasty cold and sore throat that Joff travelled with shows no sign of departing, and my energy is at a low ebb, so we're pacing ourselves.

Today we made the hour drive to Aldeburgh. A pretty and characterful town that reminded me somewhat of Deal.

Under consistently, you might even say relentlessly, grey skies, we sat and sampled the excellent local fish and chips before heading for two-mile-distant Thorpeness.

Part way along the shingle is Maggi Hambling's famous oyster shell. From a distance it looks like nothing at all, but up close it has presence. We liked it.

The rather less appealing sight further north along the coast is Sizewell. It seems we're never far from a nuclear reactor.

We took our time along the gratifyingly flat coast path to Thorpeness, where we stopped for tea and cake by the mere.

The whole village was constructed in somewhat whimsical fashion from 1912 onwards, starting with the mere and a boathouse. It was all dug by hand, is only knee deep, but covers 60 acres. All inspired by Peter Pan, apparently. The houses are variations of mock tudor, though there's also a windmill and a water tower disguised as a 'house in the clouds', overall giving the effect of being miniaturised and dropped into a model village.

Retracing our steps to Aldeburgh we stocked up on paracetamol,  and headed back.

Em x