(Cambridge, England, U.K.)

On November 25, I visited the very small city of Ely.  Ely (pronounced “eelie”) is located about 20 minutes from Cambridge by train but feels much further away because of how quiet it is during the colder months.

As you can see from the photo at the top of the post, they’ve got an eel thing happening in Ely.  It turns out that the name “Ely” derives from the fact that it was swimming in eels when it was first established.  It’s not an especially pretty picture for someone who is not too keen on snakes or slimy fish, given that eels are slimy snake-like fish.  At one point, you could even pay your taxes in eels.  Jellied eels were a popular treat here and it is still possible to get eel pies and eel stew in local restaurants.  When I heard that there was even a self-guided “Eel Trail” walking tour…well,  I just had to go.

I picked up my Eel Trail pamphlet at the Ely tourist office.   It is located in a 13th century building called Oliver Cromwell’s House…so named because Oliver Cromwell actually lived in it, beginning in 1636.  With the tourist office only being open from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. during the winter season, I realized that I wouldn’t be seeing many other tourists in Ely.

Ely’s claim to fame is its massive cathedral.  Work began on it in 1081; it seems terribly disproportionate to the size of the city but I suspect that Ely was probably very important a thousand years ago.  Why else would the cathedral be 161 metres long with a 66 metre-high tower?

I was hoping to find some eely Ely postcards for some friends but had no luck in that regard.  I continued along the Eel Trail route and took lots of photographs in the mist.  I was really hoping to see eels leaping out of the water when I made it down to the “River Great Ouse”.  Alas, it seems that eels don’t leap out of the water like salmon…or maybe there just aren’t as many as there used to be.  The only eels I saw were the many sculpted eels installed along the Eel Trail.  On the live animal front, I can only report seeing highly food-oriented ducks, geese and swans.

While I enjoyed my walk on the Eel Trail, I ended up returning to Cambridge a little earlier than expected.  It was lunchtime in Ely but a huge breakfast at my B&B left me with no midday appetite at all.  A promising local museum was also closed, as Tuesdays are devoted solely to school groups.

Once I got back to Cambridge, I decided to look for a newly-opened record shop that was literally on the “other side of the tracks”.  I know it’s a cliché but it really was a completely different world over there:  the posh colleges and inviting restaurants had been replaced by charity shops, vacant storefronts and betting offices.  I managed to pick up some postage stamps but otherwise returned to my B&B empty-handed.

I didn’t mind the relatively quiet day – this was the start of five straight nights of musicals and concerts!  First up was the Cambridge University Musical Theatre production of “[Title of Show]”.  Yes, that’s the title…stay tuned for a review!