Trip to East Anglia UK

Trip to East Anglia Part 2:
Upon leaving Sandringham, we drove to Castle Rising – this is a 12th century castle ruin. It was built about 1140 and was one of the largest, best preserved and most lavishly decorated keeps in England, surrounded by 20 acres of earthworks. In the 14th century it became the exile-place of Queen Isabella, alleged murderess of Edward II.
Left King’s Lynn and drove up toward the North Coast. Decided we needed to abbreviate our stops on this day. We drove to Holt which is a very nice and busy market town – Georgian style. Went through shops and had lunch.
From there drove to Sheringham right on the coast. I thought this was a beautiful town – fairly narrow streets leading down to the seacoast. We went through the lifeboat museum.
Because we spent so much time in the first two stops, we drove directly to Norwich which is our next stop. Here again, we stayed in a Premier Inn on Duke Street. The location of this Premier Inn is wonderful. We were in walking distance of the town center and many of the other sights. We were spending 4 nights at this hotel.
Sites we saw in this town: Elm Street (old cobblestoned area with many shops plus antiques); Bridewell Museum (history of Norwich); open air market (it has been in the same location for 900 years – permanent stalls); the large and beautiful cathedral (with peregrine falcon babies having just hatched on top. Got to see them through binoculars set up.). Food highlights and recommendations in Norwich: Merchants of Spice Indian food – delicious! And Sugar Hut for Thai food. Norwich is a very nice town. They have a huge screen by the Tourist Office (outside) and were showing a movie there one night and handing out popcorn. I’m told they do this once a week. There is a very beautiful Victorian Mall and Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant is there. We did eat there – it was OK, not great.
Drove to Blickling, 30 minutes north of Norwich. Blickling was the home of Anne Boleyn, but she actually left there for Hever when she was 3. The house is maintained as close as possible to how it was many years ago. This is a 4700 acre estate and the grounds are beautiful. The most interesting part of the house for me was the kitchen. I had just finished reading “Minding the Manor, the memoir of a 1930‘s Kitchen Maid”, and one of the women featured in the book is Flo who became the head cook at Blickling. There’s a life size cut out in the kitchen of Flo and many quotes about what it was like to be a cook at a huge manor house in those days. The ancient, enormous hedge on both sides of the entrance is unbelievable. Had lunch there and went through the used bookstore on the estate.
From Norwich we were going to drive to the coast to see Great Yarmouth and the fens but stayed in Norwich instead. We should have seen the fens. But, we did enjoy walking around Norwich for the entire day.
After 4 nights in Norwich, we left and headed south. Our stop was DISS and the 100th Airborne Museum. We were given a fantastic tour and taken up in the tower for an explanation of all that went on at this site during WWII. Pilots flew bombing missions to Berlin and also on D-Day. This is a small museum but very well done. We were able to see the large number of airfields that were close around – three of the other airfields were visible from the tower. They were definitely trying to protect the coast.

Part 3- Trip to East Anglia UK

From the 100th Airborne Museum, we drove to Thornham Parva to see an old church with wall paintings. Parts of the church are from 1066-1200. The church has a thatched roof which is unusual for a church. It’s been in use for 1000 years and now has an adult population of 50. We then took the 1 hour drive to Lavenham where we will spend 2 nights at the Swan Hotel. The hotel is from the 14th century and is absolutely beautiful. We had dinner in the dining room, and it felt like we were in Downton Abbey. The food was great and the service was unbelievable. The bar in the Swan has a wall of signatures of soldiers during WWII. There was an airfield close to Lavenham and the Swan was a meeting place. Lavenham is a beautiful small village with outstandingly beautiful old houses.
The next day we spent driving through the small villages. Our last day we made a drive that would take us closer to Heathrow - to Woburn in Buckinghamshire. We toured Woburn Abbey which is quite nice – 22 rooms are open to visitors. The grounds at Woburn are very beautiful. There are 3000 acres which are home to 9 species of deer. Spent the last night at the Hilton at Heathrow Terminal 5 and flew out in the morning. These notes represent the circular drive that made up a 15 day trip for us.

Thanks very much for the report, Sharon! I enjoyed reading it and hope to visit many of the same places one day. Sounds like a wonderful trip!

Thanks for a wonderful, detailed report! I love King's Lynn and Norwich. Norwich has to be one of the greatest towns in England that is not on the tourist trail. They get some tourists, but not the huge stampedes.

Thanks, Rebecca. When we were in the area we got a number of comments about it being unusual to see Americans in the area. Norwich is a very fun city.