Tag: Norwich

New territories, Norwich edition: part 2

Amy O1 Comment

With the rain more or less behind us, we had breakfast at the hotel and then took the train to Melton. The Melton train station has the best butcher shop I’ve ever seen….and very little else. We walked along a narrow sidewalk very close to a busy thoroughfare for 15 minutes to arrive at Sutton Hoo. We initially learned about Sutton Hoo from the Netflix movie called The Dig. The movie tells the true story of how one of the most significant archeological finds in England–an Anglo-Saxon burial ground–came to be discovered. For perversely quick and hopefully not inaccurate history from a touring American, Anglo-Saxons migrated to England starting in the 5th century A.D., about the time the Roman occupation was coming to an end. The find provided a new picture of how Anglo-Saxons lived. They had been much more sophisticated than originally believed.

Sutton Hoo was property owned privately by a woman named Edith Pretty that, after her death, was gifted to the National Trust. You can visit the site and walk the property, including into her home and to the location of the burial mounds. There’s an observation tower near the mounds so you can climb up and look down at the mounds. A displayed map on the observation tower describes what was found in each mound. Edith Pretty’s home includes exhibits about her life and details about how the excavation project came about. There’s also a museum about Anglo-Saxon life on site. Outside of the museum, there’s a replica of one of the most interesting objects found in the mounds, the fossilized outline of a ship that was used to bury an important Anglo-Saxon leader. At Sutton Hoo, they seem convinced that the leader was King Readwald. The British Museum, which ultimately received most of the objects found in the mounds, including a famous war helmet believed to belong to the person buried, seems less certain. Pretty’s gift of the artifacts to the British Museum came after a coroner’s inquest into the ownership of the artifacts found on her land. As soon as the inquest established that she alone had rights to the artifacts, she gifted them for all to enjoy.

The property is beautiful, rolling hills, wild grasses and flowers. We explored a path through and near the property trying to find the River Deben, which is what the Anglo-Saxons are believed to have used to drag the ship to the burial place. We got to where we could see it but there are a number of beautiful and gated private properties blocking access.

After visiting Sutton Hoo and returning to the train station, we headed to Ipswich. Like Norwich, Ipswich’s football stadium is also near the train station. It’s quite nice from the outside. We walked to the city center and searched out a place for lunch, settling on the highly rated Blends Coffee House. Cute on the outside and kind of rough on the inside, with a menu far too big for the size of the shop, we were pleasantly surprised by how good everything was. I had a pot of tea (third day running, really enjoying this habit) and a BLT. English bacon is really different from bacon in the U.S. and I love it. It’s a bit more like U.S. ham. To be clear, I love all bacon, the English way or the U.S. way. I could easily be vegetarian, except bacon. I guess I would have to be a vegebacontarian. What was so so good about the BLT was the artisan bread. Not to go all crazy about a BLT, but it has long been my belief that what is important in a BLT beyond the quality of the B, the L, and the T is the right proportion of each ingredient and the balance of mayo and bread. Theirs was just about perfect.

As we were paying our bill the person who waited on us asked if we were Canadian. Honestly….there are reasons I would like to pretend to be Canadian while traveling in Europe at this time in history. At all times, America’s relationship with Britain is a bit complicated. But the week we were there, our President was also, and that brings feelings to the fore. But we were honest and that led to a general conversation about why we were in England. We asked if he was an Ipswich fan and he ran to the back of the kitchen to bring out his coffee cup bearing the logo of his favorite team. It was Port Vale. We laughed because that’s who Arsenal was to play in the Caribao Cup the week after we were there. (I am writing this more than a week after the trip; Arsenal ended up winning the match on Wednesday 0-2.) The other worker at the coffee shop was an Ipswich fan. We asked him about the rivalry with Norwich. He said “oh yeah–we hate them.” He was looking forward to the first match in a long time between Ipswich and Norwich. Both teams have been up from the Championship and into the Premier League and then back down to the Championship in recent years, but not at the same time. Both are in the Championship now.

After some good natured trash talking and some advice from the guys about what we should consider doing in Ipswich (they recommended nothing in Ipswich but had ideas about other places we should go in England), we went off to find baked goods. Ultimately, we found a chain called Cookie Barista. We walked back to the train enjoying the scenery and downing our cookies.

Back in Norwich, we made another visit to St. Andrew’s Brew House, this time to try some of their beer. It was Thursday, kind of a popular day for people to meet up with friends at the pub so a bit livelier than our last visit. We had the Anglo-Saxon amber. It was pretty yummy. We walked over near the Guildhall for an easy dinner at my husband’s go-to chain in England, Pizza Express. This one had a great view over Norwich and the market.

Our last full day in East Anglia was going to be a warm one. We took the train to Hoveton and Wroxham to enjoy the Norfolk Broads. The understood way to enjoy the Broads is to rent watercraft and tool around the Bure river. We found Norfolk Broads Direct and rented a motor boat for 3 hours. It was a September Friday so not too busy on the river, but they had a lot of boats available to rent and had plenty of competition from our boat outfits. I had zero confidence about driving the boat but my husband had full confidence. It was a bit hairy getting out of the dock area but he quickly became comfortable and we enjoyed looking at the beautiful homes along the river, the wildlife, and the scenery. You can only go a maximum of 5 miles an hour on the river so it was quite chill. When people rent for a whole day they are able to dock and go into little towns and pubs along the river. 3 hours was too short for us to do that, but we got a sense for the lifestyle.

We walked back to the train station in Hovetown/Wroxham to embark on our next adventure, a ride on the Bure Valley Railway up to Aylsham. We had to grab a quick lunch so we stopped at an establishment near the station called Fizz and Fromage. I saw they had BLT on their menu but it was not just “BLT.” It was “Famous BLT.” After waxing lyrical about the BLT in Ipswich, you know I was tempted. I really can’t explain how it is possible, but the BLT at Fizz and Fromage was the best I have ever had. By far. My husband was just as enthusiastic about his hummus and sourdough.

The Bure Valley Railway was a lot of fun. The train was pulled by a steam engine. It was not an old steam engine as we had believed when we booked but rather a new one. The whole railway was actually constructed in 1990. The train went through lovely country side, past villages and the Bure river, and sheep. We passed bikers and hikers using a path next to the tracks, and sometimes they passed us. We arrived in Aylsham and had about an hour to explore before returning by rail to Wroxham. Cute little town.

Upon our return to Norwich, we made one more stop at The Compleat Angler for a beer to celebrate our trip to Norwich. It was still so warm and nice we sat out on the porch over the lovely River Wensum. The flower boxes on the exterior of the pub were so pretty. Afterward we followed the path along the river as far as we could on our way back to the Maids Head. It occurred to me that you can see the Norwich Cathedral from many parts of town. I wondered what kind of impact that has on your living when your spiritual home is visible from most places you are.

The Norwich leg of our trip, including the ride back to London, looked something like this:

And our whole trip to East Anglia looked like the map below.

We saw and did a lot in East Anglia. Still, I’m left with the feeling that there is so much more to see and do.

Another time….

New territories, Norwich edition: part 1

Amy O2 Comments

One “downside” of the Anglia Plus Three-Day Ranger train pass was that you can’t use it before 8:45 a.m. This was a downside only for my husband. He is the early bird for whom the worm is waiting. For me, a consummate midnight oil burner, mostly because I’m too wound up at night to sleep, it meant very reasonable departure times each day. On Tuesday morning, we packed up our suitcases and rolled them to the Cambridge train station across from which we had scones at the bakery chain Gail’s. At the allowed time, we boarded the train to Norwich.

While on the train, we learned that the weather was going to be rainy on Wednesday across East Anglia so we made a quick change on the planned order of activities to take advantage of the rather better weather on Tuesday. Upon arriving in Norwich, we carted our luggage to our Norwich hotel, The Maids Head, and checked it at the desk. Then, instead of touring Norwich as planned, we went back to the train station and took a short trip to a seaside town called Cromer and walked the short distance to the city center.

Cromer was lovely. We walked though a charming district looking for where we might have lunch. At last we found a sign pointing from the main drag to a neighborhood for a restaurant called Browne’s on Bond Street. After consultation of very good online reviews we walked over. They were fully booked inside and offered a table in the garden. It was a chilly day but we were dressed for it and happy to have the table. I started with a pot of tea. Having tea was starting to become habitual away from London. My husband had the local dish of Cromer crab prepared kind of like a gratin and I had a tuna melt. Quite yummy.

After lunch, we wandered over to the seashore. The wind and waves were wild. A group of wet-suited surfers were having some great rides. We walked on the promenade along the shore and Cromer Pier. Our fellow wanderers included a lot of dogs who were enjoying the walk and the beach. We took a small detour back to town and The Craft Bakery in search of a baked good. I had a delicious Orange shortbread cookie and my husband had something called a white chocolate rocky road cookie which was kind of like a giant block of fudge. (It was so good that on a later date on the trip my husband said “maybe we should go back to Cromer for a cookie?”) We had to work that off, so back to the beach and to a very cool miniature gold course on a bluff above the ocean.

The planned activity for the evening was to watch Arsenal’s first round Champion’s League match against Athletic Bilbao. It was being played in Spain rather than home. Upon returning on the train to Norwich we had to nail down a pub option where the match would be televised. We’ve found using internet search engines to produce unreliable results, so we made an insurance stop at the pub we’d chosen to make sure. It was on the way from the Norwich train station to our hotel. Sure enough, The Compleat Angler intended to televise the match. After quickly checking into our hotel we doubled back to the pub where a kind bartender had reserved us a table.

It was a pretty interesting match. Manager Mikel Arteta selected the same forward line and the same back line as for Nottingham Forest but obviously had to make a decision about what to do in the midfield in the absence of Martin Odegaard. He’d been re-injured in the Nottingham Forest match and didn’t even take the trip to Spain. In the Nottingham Forest match Arteta had replaced Odegaard with 18-year-old Ethan Nwaneri and he did quite well, but in this match he chose Declan Rice along side an unchanged Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Merino. That Declan Rice did NOT start against Nottingham Forest was a bit of a surprise.

The atmosphere in Bilbao was nuts. That must be a wonderful place to attend a match if you’re a fan of the home side. Arsenal dominated possession for most of the match but struggled to produce a goal. Eberechi Eze, who was so wonderful against Nottingham Forest really struggled in this match. Noni Madueke continued to impress. Viktor Gyokeres struggled and, in the second half, also took a blow to the head that produced a big gash that was taped up. Lots of tape. He was ultimately removed, replaced by Leandro Trossard, as was Eze, replaced by Gabriel Martinelli. Good changes that sparked something in Arsenal. About 70 minutes into the match, the Athletic keeper kicked a ball into Arsenal’s defensive half which we cleared out to the halfway line. Trossard dinked it over the defender, perfect for Martinelli to run on to. Keeping two defenders at bay he slotted it under the Athletic keeper into the net. Later Martinelli returned the favor, driving toward the left corner and passing to Trossard who’d made great movement to open up space. Trossard’s shot bounced off a guy’s foot and into the goal. The match ended 0-2, not a bad outing.

Meanwhile, beer and dinner for us.

The weather forecast had been accurate. Rain had started early on Wednesday and our new plan was to see Norwich during that rain. Our hotel was very close to a historic area in Norwich called Elm Hill. Like all “Elm” hills in all the world, there are very few remaining Elms due to Dutch Elm disease, but there are cool cobbled streets and interesting old buildings.

We stopped for breakfast at a place called Olive’s. Mostly traditional British fare. I had a Benedict that had hash browns in place of the usual English muffin. My husband had the veg version of a traditional English breakfast: eggs, sausage, baked beans, bubble & squeak. We had long heard about the thing called “bubble & squeak” but never had it and did not know what it was. Our helpful server pointed it out on the plate and explained it. It’s kind of like hashbrowns but includes cabbage. It was pretty delicious.

Because it was very rainy by this point, we took our tour inside to the Norwich Cathedral. This cathedral is not quite as old as the one in Ely but it’s old, 900 years worth. We were given a wonderful 1-hour tour of the cathedral by an enthusiastic, elderly volunteer and member of the active church since childhood. Not only did we learn about the very interesting history of the cathedral, she pointed out interesting details, like ancient graffiti, the cool glow from the McClean stained glass windows that were installed in 2014, the misericord in the choir that’s intended for the assistant dean and includes a carving of the Norwich Canaries football team logo, and the amazing 12th century Despenser Reredos that was protected and preserved from destruction allegedly by hiding it as the bottom of a table. We also heard about the cat called Budge that lives in the Cathedral and unofficially serves as the Bishop. Budge did not make an appearance while we were there.

Following our tour we walked near the city center for lunch at an Italian restaurant called Yard. Freshly-made pasta with delicious sauces. I had the Pappardelle with 12-hour beef shin ragu and my husband had Bucatini cacio e pepe. I followed mine up with this crazy and amazing dessert that was a croissant filled with salted caramel ice cream. Oof. Very delicious lunch.

We walked by the beautiful medieval Guildhall and art deco City Hall City Hall and walked through the cool Norwich market. It was a bit late so many stalls were closed but enough was open that you got a flavor for the diverse products on offer. Spices, wine, prepared food, produce, clothes.

Our last big stop for the day was at the Norwich Castle. This was kind of a crazy, interesting experience. It is a museum that’s built in and around the ruins of an actual Norman castle. The castle was started by order of William the Conqueror in the late 11th century and was only briefly and very occasionally used by a monarch. It also was used as a jail. Where the museum can include the actual remnants of the castle it does; where it cannot, it includes recent building intended to help depict what the original castle looked like. When you stand within any one room you might see one original wall (it’s very clear which one that is) with three new walls that help you imagine what it must have been like. You can also go to the rooftop to see the defensive structure. From the rooftop, I could see all the sights we had seen that day.

We did a quick refresh at our hotel after visiting the castle and then went back over to the Norwich Cathedral for the Evensong service. Our guide from the morning had told us that the Cathedral had had Evensong services every day for the last 900 years. One of them included us. The music was quite beautiful, from a choir of adults and children.

After the service, we went to dinner at St. Andrew’s Brew House, so named because it’s across from a church called St. Andrew’s. A bit comical since they were out of almost everything we wanted to order for dinner. We were together able to cobble something together that worked.

Norwich surprised me. I’m not sure what I expected but it was not that. Such a great city! We thoroughly enjoyed our time there.