Ely & Newmarket
Having read a lot of Dick Francis (well, okay, pretty much all of Dick Francis) I went into Newmarket to see what it was like. Managing to find a parking spot that may have been legal, I wandered around the downtown area. The Horse Racing Museum was closed unfortunately, although I did enjoy the various trophies and pictures that were up in their cafe area.
When I finally found their Tourist Information centre (hidden on a back street a block off of the main road), I discovered that most of the local stables that did tours only did them in the morning. But the National Stud did afternoon tours. I also found out that Ely was quite near, with a number of historical sites. But I wouldn't have time to do both. So I booked the tour of the National Stud and my accomodations for the night in Matlock, then did a quick trip to Ely to see the Cathedral there.
After the tour, I made the second of many missed turns (the first was when going to the National Stud) and ended up driving through Cambridge. Twice. Very sad when all I had to do was stay on the motorway and head for Derbyshire. Then when I got to Matlock, I found out that the 2 sets of directions I had been given by the Tourist Information office were coming from 2 different directions. And neither one was completely accurate. But I eventually got correct directions from a petrol station and made it to the Riverbank House, where I stayed the night.
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