September 21, 2022
Day 16: Harwich to Ipswich
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It looks like today's entry is again going to begin with breakfast topics. I guess that is sort of natural, since days do usually begin with breakfast.
We had put a container of fruit outside our ground floor door, to stay cool overnight. There was also place there to lock our bikes, which the pub had recommended we use. But we dragged the bikes into the small room with us instead. The fruit stayed out - and it got stolen in the night! This was not like the time before, when well meaning staff had shifted our food. This was just gone. That is so annoying and upsetting, just thinking of the perpetrator lurking by our door at night.
Our pub was located in a rather working class area. This does not have to be the cause of our missing fruit, but we wonder what happened.
The next small ripoff was the so called breakfast. We had paid extra for it in our booking, but all it had was basically toast and coffee. We flounced off, and soon fetched up at Greggs. Greggs is the equivalent of Tim Horton's in Canada. Greggs is a bit controversial between me and Dodie. I think it's really poor, she thinks it's ok, if you choose carefully. This time around there was also a McDonald's nearby, and I claimed that even an Egg McMuffin would be superior to anything from Greggs.
So in the interests of research, and family harmony, we bought a breakfast sandwich from each outlet. Here is what we got:
Surprisingly, the American McDonald's had the "English" muffin, and it was much better in flavour than the bun being used by Greggs. But Greggs had the edge in overall weight, and it was noticeably cheaper as well. I think given the choice I would still lay out the big pounds for the slightly higher quality McMuffin. Oh my, am I endorsing McDonald's?? England must be getting to me. This is irrelevant to Dodie, though, because she has gone native with Greggs meat pie:
Yesterday we had researched the way to the ferry, to make sure we did not slip up for making the crossing from Harwich to Felixstowe. We had read that all luggage needed to come off of bikes, so we parked in the waiting area and packed all our stuff into its carry bags. We were relieved when the "captain" of the ferry came and told us his plan to load the bikes and the stuff right away onto the boat. He would then leave us behind while he made the quick run over to Shotley, and then when he came back we could just jump on the boat and go to Felixstowe.
This gave us the chance for another look at the Ha'Penny Pier, which is where the ferry leaves from.
One of the big things around the pier is the lingering memory of the great flood of 1953. This came from an exceptionally high tide, during which eight people were drowned.
A very touching statue depicted mostly Jewish children who were rescued from out of nearby Holland in 1938, and arrived here, to be cared for by foster parents. Most never saw their original families again.
Finally, there was on display an artful mermaid mosaic, made from mostly bits and pieces that had been contributed by the community. The mosaic was affixed to the bottom of a dinghy. Since we had time, we could look closely at it, and we kept spotting interesting details in it.
Here now is our ferry! It's actually a little bigger than it seems. But not much!
Passing by us was a much larger ferry, and one we still would rather be on. This is the one that leaves from Harwich for the Hook of Holland.
From our boat we got a really good look at the port, with its container ships and loading cranes, plus two unmanned lighthouse ships in operation.
The big surprise was that our boat did not dock at some sort of pier on the Felixstowe side, but rather we made an amphibious landing on a beach. We felt like we were storming ashore at Normandy! This was one of the most exciting events of the day.
Up on the seawall, Dodie had to take some time to load our bags back onto the bikes. Looking around, I noticed a man in a motorized wheelchair/scooter, sitting with a camera facing the port and the various ships. It was the scooter that attracted me, because it looked very fancy, and in a remote way it is a form of bike. The man told me that it had a range of 50 miles (80 km), which is quite amazing. The conversation then switched to what he was doing there, and it turned out that his hobby was observing and photographing the many passing ships. He offered to show us his photographs, and we (foolishly?) said sure. The man then magically pulled a giant photo album from his chair, and went through each and every page with us. Surprisingly we found his full presentation very interesting, and we learned a lot about all the different kinds of vessels to be found in the harbour. The man (who was 84 years old) had printed all the photos on 11x14 himself, and the quality was very good. At the end he offered us one of his spares as a souvenir, but we had to decline, for fear of accumulating too much stuff to carry. We settled for a photo of the man and his kind gift offering.
The town of Felixstowe turned out to have the characteristics of British seaside resort, with the kind of sea facing buildings we had seen at Hastings and Brighton, and a fair number of amusements and restaurants.
One thing that seemed to be abundant was fish and chips restaurants. Ever since that Weatherstone pub the other day had claimed to be out of fish, I have been thinking it would be nice to finally have some British fish and chips. But when we passed all the Felixstowe places, I wasn't hungry! Fish and chips went into our heads then, as a minor quest.
From Felixstowe to Ipswich we again to some extend ran into the English type impediment to cycling. The Island is just so densely populated that almost the whole 20 km is filled with suburban type buildings. The cycle path then necessarily twiddles among them, and you have to keep an eagle eye on the signposts and/or the GPS to make your way through. And of course, the going can never be fast.
As we cycled through the suburban tangle, we were thinking that these were the type of houses that Onslow and Daisy would live in, in Keeping Up Appearances. And yes, we came upon what could easily have been their place:
After the required amount of wiggling around, we did arrive at the Ipswich quay. We have been staying in pubs and very small hotels, and all have been cramped and grubby. So this time we took a hint from the Andersons and showed up at a Premier inn. Premier is much like Ibis on the continent, and features modern rooms and elevators. Premier has a bit of a funny pricing structure, with quite different prices for the same room depending on whether you need to be able to cancel, but also if you pay in advance or pay at the hotel. When we got to the Premier, the only price they offered was the highest one. When I showed them the other, lower prices in their website, they said we could sit there and book on the site if we wished, but this was the only price available at the desk. Weird.
We easily took our bikes on the elevator and rolled them, with all luggage, right into our room. We think those old pubs, with their many curving steps, are cool, but we have to admit we are enjoying the Premier right now.
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Despite the ferry and all the twiddling about on the route, we had arrived in Ipswich in good time. So we took ourselves out for a look around. We were pleasantly surprised to find a wealth of interesting buildings and many central car free shopping streets.
Near the "Butter Market" we found a likely looking pub for fish and chips. They talked a good game, with a sign outside, and the inside looked right, but they also professed a lack of fish. ??
We tried one other pub, among other things they told a tale of woe in which due to rising electricity prices it was too costly to be firing up their fryer.
At last we came upon a sure fire option - a fish and chips place, with an "open" sign.
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Inside, their packaging recognized the iconic status of fish and chips, and importantly, they had lots! We ordered a "medium", cost 9 pounds, and were surprised to find later that it was huge. Although the product is a British tradition, as often happens it was people from abroad that were carrying on that tradition. This shop was run by Kurdish people. The man who served us asked about Canada, and said that his sister was very fond of Niagara Falls. He was very open and welcoming, and shook our hands at the end.
Back at the hotel we opened the package, which was wrapped in newsprint, but not in newspaper. It was the largest, thickest piece of cod I think I have ever seen, and this was the "medium". The breading was good, the fish flaky (but quite bland), and the chips good. I could easily tick this off as another iconic food successfully tried.
Tomorrow is forecast to be rainy, but our confidence is growing, and we will cycle out to see how far we get. My e-assist acted up today a bit, but we have confidence in the chewing gum fix, and hopes are high!
Here is our 5 km walk around Ipswich:
Today's ride: 34 km (21 miles)
Total: 525 km (326 miles)
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