Tuesday 27 August 2019
We had originally planned to go to Cromer today but on the way we saw signs for Holt. So we changed direction and set course for the little market town as we all had fond memories of the place from our visit ten years ago.
There is a place called Byfords in the town, a cafe that we remembered visiting in 2009 with Rachel’s Mum, Brenda. We popped in for cream tea – well, it was 11.30 in the morning, which on the face of it isn’t the best time of day for a scone with cream and jam, but this is a no-regrets holiday so we ploughed on in. We actually sat at the same table that we had occupied with Brenda all those years ago.
Full of sugar, carbs and fat we then split up for the next hour or so and did our own thing. I went to the church, which sadly was locked. But the same didn’t apply to the bookshop or the antiques emporium, so I had a happy hour pottering about in those places instead.
Anyway, eventually we got to Cromer, but to be honest it was a bit of a disappointment. One look out of the car window was enough to tell us that it wasn’t our kind of place, so we didn’t stop. However, just up the road from there is Sheringham. And this turned out to be a cracking move because the North Norfolk Railway is there – and there was actually a steam train in when we arrived! It may not excite you but it made my day.
In the main street, which leads down to the seafront, they were repairing a sink hole. But it takes more than a thirty foot drop to oblivion to stop me from getting to a crab sandwich and we got through the crowds to a seafood stall which had been going since 1896. The seafood was thankfully a lot more recent than that and absolutely worth teetering on the edge of a deep drop to get to. There was a voice in my head telling me that was enough, but then we found an outside table at a pub by the seafront (The Lobster) and BANG! Someone had put a pint and a bowl of chips in front of me and I was away.
The next stop was Blakeney. We had a walk round the place, then Rachel and the boys went to wait for a seal tour with “Beans Tours.” I wandered off to look at the town, camera in hand, and then went down to the tributary to take a photo of them as they sailed past me on the trip out to sea.
But the boat never turned up. We had the wrong place. There is another Blakeney just along the river, and that was where we should have been. I was really disappointed for them, and I’m sure the seals would’ve been disappointed too. We consoled ourselves with a couple of drinks in The White Horse beer garden in the village.
Back via Waitrose in Swaffham for supplies, then a game of Yahtzee and a lasagne in the little yard at the back of the cottage. The boys went to the pub down the road, but after my chips, crab sandwich, cream tea, and lasagne (it all seems so much when I write it down….) all I could manage was a gin while I watched TV. I must be getting old. And, of course, heavier.
Tomorrow – Our intrepid explorers go to Sandringham to see The Queen
Steve's Journal 