Geriatric OE

The weekly musing of a couple of Kiwis on their geriatric OE in The UK






Thursday, 28 March 2013

Bye bye Great Yarmouth...

Time to say goodbye to our hosts at The Warren. Both The Man and I agree that this is the very best accommodation we have had in all our travels. It is the positive experience here that would have us returning again and again if we lived in Britain permanently. But we don't and so regretfully it is not somewhere we will return to.
After the usual 'full English' brekky, and with Mr Nav man set we were on our way. The wind was still very cold so we decided against a quick stroll along the beach before leaving town.
Have you heard of the Norfolk Broads? Well that is the name of the flat grassland that we drove though after leaving Great Yarmouth. I though I had spotted a field of sheep, but as we drove closer we realised that the white critters were not a flock of sheep but a flock of swans, hundreds of them. I've never seen so many in one place all at the same time. And what do you call such a collection of magnificent long necked birds? Well according to Mr Google it's a 'bevy'
A little later in the morning we thought that it must be time to stop for a coffee, and with New Buckenham the next village we thought we would stop there. Despite driving all around the little town we failed to find anything that looked remotely like a coffee shop. Never mind. I did notice one of the many little thatched houses had a date on it. Take a look for yourself and see just how old it is.
With the town of Thetford not far away we decided that we would forego morning coffee and stop there for lunch instead. There is still a bit of snow here and there in sheltered areas so they must have had a good depth of it earlier. We also drove through the only set of roadworks since we set off. It looks like the road will be considerably wider when they are done. With the long weekend, oops sorry, over here they are called Bank Holidays, this weekend we were passed by lots of cars towing caravans driving in the direction we have come from, towards the coast. In just a short space of time The Man counted more than twenty of them.
We were pleasantly surprised in Thetford to discover a free parking area in the middle of the town. So we took to our feet and pretty soon were seated again in a warm café ordering lunch.
Fuelled up again we had a nice walk around the town and discovered that the TV comedy Dad's Army was actually set here. Yes that right Walmington on Sea is actually Thetford. We discovered this when wce came a cross a statue of one of the programmes main characters, can you see who it is?
With the map from the information centre in hand The Man steered us towards the towns ruined priory. And what a huge building it must have been. It is huge even by today's standards.
This Priory was founded more than 900 years ago, witness to the prosperity of the area. Walking around the ruined walls it was easy to imagine monks going about their daily devotions or meeting in the chapter house.




We didn't wander too long because the wind is still quite cold so turned out feet towards the Museum of Theftford. Called the Ancient House, this typically tudor building was built around 1500, several of its rooms are as they would have been back then, other rooms housed dispays of life through the ages right up to present day. 

No comments:

Post a Comment