A short break away

John and I are away for a short break in Norfolk. We left London this morning and headed north on the A1 as far as Peterborough. When my parents were alive and we were visiting them we travelled past Peterborough but we never visited the city, so we decided that we'd take this route to our destination and do some exploring. I wasn't fully engaged with the idea of exploring when we left home this morning as it was raining heavily. I'm so bored with rain and I feel like I've developed webbed feet and may start quaking some time soon. Fortunately by the time we reached the city the rain had stopped and the sky wasn't too grey. We knew there was a cathedral so we decided to start there. Here's the front of the cathedral.

The inside was fairly stark except for the ceilings. Here's a view down the nave. Unusually the nave is open all the way down to the high altar.

I get side tracked very easily when visiting places and today I was side tracked by the ancient heaters. There were three (or four) of these down both sides of the cathedral length and they were sending out a lovely lot of heat. Since it was cold outside, with an even colder wind, it was a joy to slowly walk past them and feel the heat they emitted. 

The ceilings were very beautiful and very high so that my neck felt stiff from looking up. Sorry this photo is blurry but it shows the colours.

This one is rather dark but in focus.

This fanned ceiling was amazing.

This ceiling was in the chapel behind the altar

The bit that was missing from the visit for me was the textiles. There were some flags of the local military regiments and tapestry cushions on the seats in the choir, which were a great modern design but no other textiles on display. I found this very unusual and also a little disappointing.

The cathedral has a long history having started life as a monastery in 655 AD. Katharine of Aragon, first wife and Queen of Henry VIII was buried in the monastic church in 1536. Mary Queen of Scots was buried in the monastic church five months after being executed at Fotheringhay Castle in August 1587.  Her remains were later reburied at Westminster Abbey. You can read more of the history of the Cathedral  HERE 

We enjoyed a cup of coffee in the cathedral cafe and then took a walk around the city. The only other picture I took on the walk was of the corn exchange

This evening we've had a delicious meal at our hotel and I'm now going to do half an hour of stitching and then a little reading before settling to sleep. I've bought the baby quilt and Constance with me to work on in spare moments. I'll stitch some of the binding this evening.

We've several plans for tomorrow but they depend on the weather. Hopefully I will be able to post again tomorrow evening.

Lyndsey