Oh, the irony...

 Several people have commented, in relation to my 7-week trip to Japan, 'oh, you're so brave'. I brush this off of course because there isn't much courage required to travel in a first-world country which in several respects is more advanced than the UK (public toilets, I'm looking at you).  Ironically, we've just had a week away to Suffolk in the caravan which required much more bravery and adulting than my entire Japan trip.

We got down there fine and got the caravan all set up.  Then the second day of the holiday when we were exploring the nearby town of Woodbridge, we were rear-ended at a traffic light by a driver who was subsequently arrested by the police for driving under the influence.  Luckily no-one was badly injured, we had come to a stop at the red light so were just badly jolted and spent the week feeling a bit sore and stiff. The other driver's airbags inflated so they were ok, just very shocked and out of it. It took about three and a half hours to go through the whole process of police and ambulance arriving, giving statements, getting checked out by paramedics, contacting the AA for recovery of our vehicle etc.  Recovery was complicated by our car  being full of camping stuff, so in the first instance we got them to take our wrecked car back to the campground so we could unload it.  The rest of the week was punctuated by hours on the phone, or on hold, or waiting in our caravan, as we slowly proceeded through milestones like getting our car recovered to an insurer-approved garage, getting a replacement car, and then the really tough nut to crack which was getting a subsequent replacement car fitted with a tow hitch so we would be able to tow the caravan home at the end of the week.  The insurers were unable to provide the towcar but luckily the AA came through for us. In between the endless phone calls (I've filled half a notebook with all my records of the various calls), we did try to fit in some holiday.

Coastal Suffolk turned out to be lovely, we'd never really been before.  We were camped not far from the river Deben and had some lovely walks.

Woodbridge, and many of the local towns, are full of historic buildings dating back to Tudor times.  We visited Aldeburgh one evening after waiting all day at the campsite for our car to be recovered.  After a walk through the town, we tried out some of their famous fish & chips which we ate on a bench looking over the beach. I was really enjoying my fish until a seagull suddenly swooped down and snatched it right out of my hand!  We went back and got another little piece of fish, and ate that one in the car in safety.

We had a hot, but very interesting walk around Sutton Hoo and visited all the exhibits.  DH hadn't been before and I had only had a rushed coach trip, so we enjoyed our visit.

We visited a gorgeous garden called Helmingham Hall, based around a moated Tudor brick mansion, it couldn't be more romantic.  I also loved their twin brick gatehouses.

one of the gatehouses

the mansion

After being held up for almost an hour in the car park by yet another phone call with car providers, we hurried to the medieval town of Lavenham, which has over 350 listed buildings, many of them gorgeous. A Blue Badge tour guide showed us around and told us about the history, really interesting.

The crooked house

In the magnificent Lavenham church, built on the profits of the wool trade, there were many needlepoint kneelers depicting local scenes.

And of course Lavenham is particularly famous for De Vere House, better known nowadays as the home of Harry Potter's parents in Godric's Hollow in the films.  According to our guide, the filmmakers blended De Vere House with the equally scenic guild hall up in the market place for the film.

Da Vere House

So strangely enough, despite all the stress, we did enjoy the holiday.  I don't know when we will get our car back as we have been warned there are global parts shortages causing much delay.  The AA will take back their tow car on Monday but our insurers are supposed to be supplying yet another replacement car.  The replacement will not have a tow hitch so we may have to cancel our next caravan holiday booking. Fun fun fun.  Once again we are certainly getting our money's worth out of our AA membership.  I thought this third year of caravanning would finally go well after the car had various things replaced (that had resulted in AA call outs the previous two years).  At least the caravan itself behaved very well and was a comfortable home during the many hours we spent waiting for calls and vehicles.  And the garden survived - it was in the 30s C last weekend and sunny all week in Suffolk so we were worried we would come back to a shriveled mess, but it seems to have rained in Northamptonshire at least once while we were gone.