For the Dickinson Humanities 210 class, there was an optional trip to hike across Suffolk for 3 days and for some reason, unknown to me, I decided to sign up. In the end, it was an incredible experience! We had wonderful weather, walked through beautiful landscapes, and saw classic “English” towns. The first day, we were dropped off at what seemed to be an “undisclosed location” and were told to start walking! At first as we were walking though field, after field, after field, I was a little concerned that this trip was going to get really old really quickly. But in a way, it was quite relaxing just walking through the English countryside. I also had some great company and got to know people on the program a lot more. That day, we stopped at the cutest pub in a random town (I don’t even remember seeing a sign for the town’s name) and had some lunch. Todd and Jimmy played some darts and then we were off again towards Clare. The first day was also a little rough as we did 8 miles in the morning and then 14 after lunch but we finally made it to the small town of Clare.
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| The group on top of probably the highest "hill" we climbed. Suffolk is pretty flat. |
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| Todd and Jimmy playing darts at a Pub. |
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| Again, we were excited to have finally reached our destination. |
The next day, we continued our journey to Long Melford. This was personally my favorite town. For a small English town, there was quite a bit to see. First, we stumbled upon Kentwell Hall, which was stunning! We stopped here for a bit to feed some ducks (and greedy fish) and walk around the grounds. We then continued to walk into town and while most of the group went to look at a church, a friend and I decided to tour Long Melford Hall, which was a beautiful estate! That night, we stayed at another cute Pub/Inn and sat in the Pub all night talking!
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| Kentwell Hall |
On Sunday, we were to finish our trip with a shorter day, with about 8 miles but things started getting iffy. We got lost a couple of times, figured out that we were walking on private land, and almost got shot. But in was worth it because we ended up in THE CUTEST ENGLISH TOWN EVER for lunch. Lavenham is a small town in Suffolk that has the most original Tudor structures of any town in England. The Guildhall was the most famous but just walking around, they were everywhere! We ate at a cute tea shop and then finished up our journey. We got really lucky with the weather and just as we reached the bus, it started raining! I can speak for the whole group that we were glad to get on that bus after an enriching but EXHAUSTING weekend.
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| The "Crooked House Gallery" that was indeed, very crooked. |
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| The Guildhall |
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| We encountered a lot of wildlife on our journey. |
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| It always made our day when we ran into some friendly faces! |
Cheers!
