Venice in the Winter

Venice in the Winter
Picture perfect ... even me!

Friday, May 11, 2007

Norwich and the Broads.. and shopping.. and drinking..

Coraleen in Long Stratton where I was born.
















Our first night in Norwich was spent over a wine or two or three and catching up with family - telephone conversations never give you enough time to gossip for hours, finally gettting to bed about 2am!! Family re-unions!!

With amazingly warm weather on the Sunday we went to Ray's (my Uncle) golf club for a Carvery Lunch and had the most beautiful Yorkshire Pudding! Brought back memories of Mum's cooking. And we ended up sitting outside in the sun - believe it or not they were still enjoying the heat and sunshine we had first encountered in London .

England has not yet brought in the whole 'smoking outside' thing - not for another couple of months although a lot of the private clubs have enforced it early. Sitting outside in the sun was really hot and looking over the Golf Course one could almost imagine summer at home.

We went out to Sheringham (a National Heritage Trust) and walked around woodlands and down to the Norfolk Coast only to be interupted by the occasional steam train chugging along the Coast from Cromer to Sheringham and back. It was really beautiful although after walking almsot 100 steps up to the lookout I felt I had spent an hour in the Gym! Calvin (another Uncle) took us out there and then on to the Coast to Cromer which is famous for its crabs - and of course I had a Cromer Crab Salad - almost to die for! We then bought some take away dressed crabs for dinner - believe me you can't get too much of it!

Friday night was Greyhound Racing at Gt Yarmouth. It's like we have at the Trots back home - a nice meal and a few drinks .. although they went one better as they came to your table to take bets. On the 2nd Race I won a 'reverse forecast' ( a quinella to you Kiwi's) at £16 but by the end of the evening I was £8.50 down. I had to be careful betting in pounds and not dollars. Coraleen was the only one who ended the evening being ahead.. and even then it wasn't a lot.

Jenny (my Aunty) who had to put up with the two of us and all our luggage scattered all over the bedroom floor took a few days off - and of course what do girls do when they are out - shopping! But not just any old Mall - we went out to the Wroxham on the Norfolk Broads and another Pub Lunch.. the pub lunches over here are great AND you can smoke inside:-) But at NZ$18 a packet considering giving up is definitely looking more and more likely each day.

In the UK the 'no smoking in workplaces' comes into force in July but they have gone one better. If you are a Sales Rep then the car is designated as your 'workplace' and legally you aren't allowed to smoke in it. Also, if you employ a Cleaner in your home that becomes his/her workplace so legally you can't smoke in your OWN HOME! Not sure if anyone will be taken to task over it .. time will tell.

A couple of times we went out for long walks along the 'old railway line' which, in the 70's went from Norwich out to the Coast. The scenery was beautiful and we saw the occasional rabbit and squirrel - we did look for Bagers but they were nowhere to be seen although apparently they only come out at night anyway - so searching was fruitless.

9 Days later we packed up Molly (our VW Transporter - pictures to come) and drove North West towards Holyhead and the Ferry to Ireland. For some unfathonable reason I thought the Ferry for Ireland went from Liverpool but it didn't - it went from Wales. Unfortunately our GPS Unit (now known as Nelly) took us across horrid motorways (Birmingham and Coro St type scenery) instead of the beautiful scenery in Wales. Back to the instruction manual on programming her - but being a female I suspect she will have a mind of her own and continue to take us the quickest route :-)

Next update.. a night in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch on the way to Holyhead....

1 comment:

Ratesjul said...

I'm enjoying your posts ... keep making them!

Pity the GPS wouldn't let you see the nice scenery ... someone should create alternative programs for them or something.