Silly Saturday in Saffron Walden

I just love this picture of Daniel.  I have oodles of silly face pics from this good-humored boy of mine, and thought I'd share one of my favorites. :)  Many thanks to Jim Leonard, a friend here, who gave Daniel this very British hat...I mean cap...

So, one Saturday we decided to go to a typical village near Cambridge that was not really known for anything too extraordinary.  We found ourselves in Saffron Walden, so named (we learned once there) because it was the center of the saffron industry in England in the early 1500's, and "Walden" was the name of the Abbey here from 1190 onwards.

We love country churches.  I don't know what I thought we'd find in a place called Saffron Walden, but the largest parish church in the county of Essex dating from 1250 was not quite what I had in mind. 

Then, we went to this quaint museum which had a big sand pit with replicas of actual artifacts found in the area cemented to the bottom, and the children had to use paint brushes to carefully brush away the sand to discover the artifact...just like real archeologists!  I think we could have stayed here for HOURS...

These castle ruins also were a surprise in our supposed-to-be-NOT-extraordinary village.  Turns out they date back to around 1135.  Oh my.  (The young boy on the right is Daniel Robar, the delightful son of some friends of ours here, who we invited to come along for the day.)

 

Pastel-colored homes...thatched roofs...suspended street lamp...

And even not-supposed-to-be-extraordinary villages have bakeries...

It was a good day in Saffron Walden.  I just hope when Brits come to the States looking for typical small towns, they don't look for cathedrals, castle ruins, and thatched roofs! :)