Woke around 0800. Hauled ourselves downstairs for some breakfast. It was busier than I thought it would be. We ordered boiled eggs and soldiers…we had to make our own soldiers, and Aki’s egg had broken and was all but empty of yolk…neither of them were big enough to sit up in their egg cups, and no teaspoons were provided…we are not looking forward to this evening’s tasting menu with any confidence! Drove to Hengrave Hall, where Tim and Lynn were hosting brunch at their cottage...they bought it a couple of years ago. It was apparently part of the 16th Century stable block, but is two-storey, with chimney breasts, which seems a bit over the top for our equine friends. It is part of the Hengrave Hall estate, which is a huge, magnificent Tudor era building, which was latterly used as a Convent and retreat, but now hosts weddings.
The cottage feels very small and cramped, despite, or rather because of, having two small reception rooms, a little kitchen, and a WC on the ground floor, and two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, though they use the larger bedroom space as a living-room. There's a small rear yard, and a paved yard to the side. It all felt a bit crowded, and a little dark inside. Tim gave us a tour, and we chatted to a couple of other guests before making our way back to the car, and driving in to Bury St Edmunds. Parked up near the football ground, and walked into town. Found a takeaway panini shop, and ate that for lunch sat below the famous electric road sign on Angel Hill, known colloquially as "The Pillar of Salt".
We had booked a town tour guide, Alex, and met him at the Pillar of Salt...in fact, we'd met him at the party last night, as he trained as a tour guide at the same time as Lynn did. He'd been a policeman in the town for several years. He walked us round the exterior of the Cathedral, and the ruins of the famed Abbey, which had originally held the remains of King Edmund, before Henry VIII came along and destroyed it all. The original gateway into the Abbey has since been converted in to very quirky housing.
We left Alex outside one of the old Corn Exchange buildings, now a Wetherspoons, and had ourselves a cream tea in the Market Cross cafe. Got back to the hotel late afternoon, and slept for awhile before getting up to go downstairs for dinner. We had a five course tasting menu to plough through as part of the VIP booking. It was nothing to write home about; pea soup, followed by pork terrine, a sorbet, then chicken in a mushroom sauce with fondant potatoes, and a chocolate brownie for dessert. There was a wine flight, which I didn't get involved with...of the three wines Aki tried, only one turned out to be half decent...I had a bottle of Peroni! Got back to our room in time to watch episode two of "Great Expectations"...
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