Posted by Ah ,glorious old London town or should I say crazy old Heathrow airport and the endless journey to the car rental pickup only to find on arrival that john’s late night booking expeditions revealed a real doozey blooper . A booking for 2009 not 2008 ,Oh dear ,with 10 different accoms ,11 flights and 2 car rentals ,one out of 23 isn’t too bad . It worked out OK and we got a nice Citroen to cruise up the M25,M11 and A11 and we arrived in Cambridge without incident.
The grand Old university town dates back to Henry 6th who built Kings College until the War of the Roses disrupted things for 30 years. The Tudors really got it going with Henry 8th and now there are over 30 Colleges with over 16,000 students enrolled at the university.
We had 2 night there so we wandered the cobbled streets ,visited the market ( john got a haircut from the market barber ) took a guided walking tour of the colleges and then a punt ride thru the Backs to get a good insight into how the town has been operating for over 600 years.
A spot of shopping in the town for some good sale items was successful and then it was off to Norwich in the afternoon about another hour up the A11.
Norwich is the main regional town in Norfolk and enjoys a treat not many English towns enjoy….Hills and Dales ,it’s not flat and has interesting old lanes running off the Town centre that are closed to traffic. There are so many Pubs, Restaurants and Churches in this city which is an interesting combination and they were a nice friendly bunch as well.
We stayed at a lovely turn of the century Building of distinctively Italian style that has a very interesting history and was featured in a fascinating reality TV show we saw last year about a crazy Russian woman who spent multi millions restoring it into an exclusive club only to see her go broke within the first year. When we arrived it seemed familiar but when the manager told us the story the penny dropped. It was very reasonably priced for how lovely it was as they are trying to attract people to spread the word, so it’s St Giles House Hotel if ever you are in Norwich.
The reason for our trip to the north east was to visit our niece Beth Beamer, her partner Thomas and their beautiful little girl Niahm. We met Beth and Thomas at the hotel and walked through the lovely old cobbled streets to a very nice restaurant near the cathedral and had not only a great meal but a wonderful catch up as well.
The next day we walked over to their house for morning tea to meet Niahm and spent a couple of delightful hours playing, laughing and conversing with this beautiful bright and bubbly little person who stole our hearts in an instance.
Beth showed us around their cute surprisingly spacious terrace house and it’s recently almost complete extensions which are really going to make such a big difference to their lifestyle.
Sightseeing around Norwich with its 2 Cathedrals and hidden parks filled the afternoon and after meeting up with Beth for a coffee the next morning it was time to say farewell to the “ Fine City “ and head back to Heathrow for our flight back to Bangkok and see how it’s all playing out down there. Fingers crossed`!!!!!!!!!!
Oh good! I get to leave the first comment.
Once again I just love looking at all your photos, esp the ones with your girls. Magic.
See you all soon.
Kisses