Blogs from Norfolk, England, United Kingdom, Europe

My wife had planned on meeting some friends in Norwich, and I'd managed to convince her of the merits of letting me tag along, as I had long-since wanted to visit the Norfolk coast and the Norfolk Boards for some photography. It's a surprisingly long way to Norwich, although it's a lot quicker than it used to be when I'd been to the coast there several years ago when I'd used to go camping with some neighbouring dads and all our kids. Fond memories. The A11, which was previously single-carriageway from the moment we got to the Norfolk border, has now all been replaced by dual-carriageway. No more getting stuck behind tractors. I left my wife with her friends for lunch and briefly went to the hotel to see if I could get the key, given ... read more

Today was a quiet day for us - it is Sunday and we were thinking we didn’t want to intrude on any church services. We set off for Blickling - the parish church where my 7G grandparents were married in 1694 (and then buried in 1701 & 1703, and another buried in 1762. These were more of my nana Robinson’s family, the Fullers. The church was beautiful inside, and whilst remodelled in the last century or two, it still has the original church as part of its fabric. There were memorials to nobility, including Ann Boleyn, and a marquis who had a most elaborate memorial with angel statues, but he’s not buried there. The headstones were hard to read and we found no Fullers. next door to the church was the Blickling Estate, an impressive Jacobean ... read more

Today was blissful - no one’s timetable to stick to but our own, so Tom thought we should have brekkie in bed, which was delightful. When we were at Tescos yesterday we found several Kellogg’s cereals, but not sultana bran, so we had to purchase Tescos own brand - which was okay, not wonderful, just okay - but definitely better if you have it in bed! The peanut butter over here is not quite up to the standard of Bega peanut butter either. When we eventually got out of bed we headed off to Great Yarmouth where my Allman family used to live generations ago. We went to the Great Yarmouth Minster church of St Nicholas where my 5G grandfather, William Allman, and my 6G grandmother, Elizabeth Greenwood, were baptised, my 6G grandparents, Francis Allman and ... read more

We awoke quite early this morning but that’s okay, it gave me a chance to write yesterday’s blog. Which is exactly what I’m doing now as well. I did write this last night but this cottage has no wifi and when I thought it might save my musings, it just released them into black hole of unsaved documents. Our breakfast this morning was included, but Holiday Inn is the budget version of Crowne Plaza - they even share the same building but the foyer has a divider down the middle. Nonetheless it was a lovely buffet, just missing sliced fresh fruit, nice pastries (they did have croissants and muffins, but I like a Danish), and maple syrup for the pancakes. The scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages were tasty! When we had ourselves pack up we made ... read more

A trip to Norfolk is always an adventure. A glance at the map and it almost feels like it could be round the corner. In relative terms, it is. The mileage isn't significant, but the time required is. The equivalent journey time and a flight to southern Spain would have been perfectly achievable. The long and winding road came to a grinding halt in Grantham, just across the Lincolnshire border. The crowds had come to see the statue of the "Grocer's Daughter". Only joking, it was some roadworks with 3 way traffic lights on a pivotal junction. The temperatures were rising and certainly in the opposite direction, so was the frustration of the queuing motorists. The line snaked up the hill towards the army barracks. I made a mental note to avoid the bottleneck on the ... read more