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Since moving to this country, one thing I’ve found that I absolutely love doing is getting in the car. The act of driving isn’t what I love - rather, the knowledge that I’m on my way to seeing some marvelous sights. Take this weekend, for example. We didn’t have any worthwhile plans to see great castles or cathedrals, so we ended up taking a trip to Woburn Safari Park. (Of all the things to find in the middle of England, I would never guess a safari park would be one of them.) I’ll only say briefly on the experience - it was pretty much like a huge traffic jam, with the exception of seeing a few neat animals on the way. Worth going there once, I probably won’t return, but at least I can say I’ve been to a safari park. However the safari park wasn’t what made the day special for me.

On the way to Woburn, we passed through a collection of charming small towns, and if I had to pick a favorite thing about this country so far, small towns would be it. If I had to guess I’ve visited or passed through about a dozen of them since coming here, and each one seems to have a character of its own, not to mention a quaintness that I can’t get enough of. I grew up in small towns in Wisconsin and absolutely hated it - couldn’t wait to get out of high school and move into the “big” city. Here, I want to move out of Stevenage and into one of these towns!

One of the towns was called Richmont, in Bedfordshire. In the distance I saw a very old looking building, so I had Luke drive me over there to investigate. We found ourselves in another town called Segenhoe, but all that was left of the town was a couple farm houses and the ruins of an 11th century church. The church was small and had been abandoned sometime in the 18th century, there was not much left… but I found it to be absolutely fascinating. This was right up my alley. Obviously in the States it’s very rare to see a building that’s been around for 100 years or more. While here, it’s nothing to stumble into a small town no one has heard of and visit a church that has been standing in the same spot for over 900 years. I find it difficult to imagine someone who is unable to be moved by that experience, in whatever small way.

I guess the point I’m trying to express is that I don’t have to visit extravagant monuments in order to be truly affected by the vast history of this country. I got just as much wonder out of seeing the ruins of this small, unimportant church as I did from seeing the architectural beauty of Ely Cathedral.