Last weekend we spent 3 days in Norfolk, starting out on Saturday morning visiting Frank and Pat Allwood at Mundesley who were Gill's guardians when she was at school in Guildford and her parents were still in Thailand. They are both in their 80's and unable to get about, but they have a live in helper, and seem to have a steady stream of visitors to keep them company. We left them around lunctime and went into Cromer for lunch at the Cliftonville Hotel, a very nice Edwardian pile about 500 metres from the pier.
We walked down to the aforementioned pier after lunch, and walked to the end to have a look at the brand new lifeboat that was only commisioned in January this year. We left Cromer, and set Deirdrie (satnav) to take us to our hotel, the Saracens Head just outside Aylesham. I knew that satnav was not infallible but this little exercise proved it, landing us in somebody's drive about half a mile from our destination. We found this out by asking a woman with tweeds and labradors who made it obvious that we were not the first to end up down this particular road and have to ask her the way!
When we finally found the elusive hostelry, we followed our instructions that had been left on the mobile to gain entry to the place, and unpacked.
On arrival, I saved the destination as a favourite with Deirdrie, confident that we would have no more problems in that department.
As it was only 4pm, we thought we would go for a ride to get a feel for the lay of the land, so off we set, safe in the knowledge that we would now be able to get back. After about an hour of exploring the Norfolk countryside, I hit the favourites button, Saracens Head, and off we went. 15 minutes later, Deirdrie confidentley announced "you have reached your destination" Fine, I had no idea where we were, we were certainly not in the car park of the Saracens Head which is where we should be. To my total shame, we had to resort to a thing called a road map to determine that we were still about a mile from our destination. I can only conclude that this particular part of Norfolk is the UK's equivilant to Area 51, everyone knows its there, but it does not officially exist!
We arrived back to find the owners in place, and the rest of the evening passed very pleasantly, with an exceptionally good dinner, which is what the place is famous for.
Sunday morning saw breakfast at 9am, then it was off to Blickling Hall to do the stately home thing. On arrival, we decided it would be a good idea to join the National Trust as now we do not have the boat we will probably have more opportunity to visit places this year, so that is what we did. We were lucky enough to get on a guided tour of the house which was very interesting, after which we had a wander round the gardens in warm sunshine which was a treat.
After buying some plants at the garden centre, we retired to the estate pub for lunch before setting off to the coastal garden at East Runcton.
After an hour or so walking round this very stylised garden, and a couple more plant purchases, we set of to have a look at the windfarm just outside Cromer.
We arrived back at the Saracens Head just in time for the bar opening, I love it when things work out like that!
Another excellent meal followed, after which we retired tired.
Monday morning brought another 9am breakfast after which we said our goodbyes, and headed off to Morston Quay to exert our right as National Trust members to park for free, and also to get a boat out to look at the seals on Blakeney Point. All the boats were packed with it being half term, but we managed to squeeze onto one and duly set off out to sea.
Blakeney Point is a spit of land jutting out into the sea that seems to be growing at an extraordinary rate, probably some 3-400 metres a year.
There were plenty of seals to see, they really do look quite comical out of the water, but they probably think that we do in the water, so I guess thats fair enough.
It turned really cold whilst we were out there, so once we got back to the car, we decided to get back home and pick the dogs up before it rained, good job we did as it p****d down about half an hour after we got back.
All in all an excellent weekend, hopefully the first of many.