Visit to Essex

Today was the start of our exciting nine day trip to Essex, London and Paris. We were already all packed so we had a leisurely start to the morning before catching an EasyJet flight to Stansted Airport. We almost never go to London via Stansted; we prefer London City or Heathrow. However this time we were not going straight into the centre of London, we were going to visit Gosia and Mitchell in Braintree in Essex first, and Stansted is their local airport. It was very warm when we arrived and took a bus to Braintree, where Gosia and Mitchell met us. We had a lovely afternoon at Braintree Village retail park where we had coffee sitting outdoors, mercifully in the shade with a slight breeze which helped me to cool down. Gosia and Mitchell then took us for a drive in their fabulous VW Eos convertible, through beautiful tree-lined country roads to a gorgeous wee village called Finchingfield. We sat outdoors at the little pub overlooking the village green, which had a river running through it, and ducks waddling around. It was very pretty, even though the road which ran right through the centre of the village was quite busy. I wonder why the inhabitants haven’t lobbied for a bypass or even traffic calming measures; none of my business I suppose, since I don’t live there. Back at Braintree, Gosia cooked us a delicious barbecue in their garden and we sat outside all evening talking and laughing. Meanwhile the aurora borealis was putting on a fine display all over the UK; Davie saw it from his camping trip near Loch Cluanie and sent us an amazing photo. It was even visible from Essex but we were tucked up in bed and didn't know that it was visible so far south until Davie messaged us, by which time we had missed it.