I took the train to Cambridge on Thursday evening; the journey was long and boring but otherwise slightly less uncomfortable than some of the other means of transport to SE England I've tried. We missed the far too early train on Friday morning but happily my lovely mother gave us a lift to Cambridge station so we could make our connection.
Norwich castle swallowed up the whole of Friday morning, as it contains several large and interesting museums. We also had a 'guided tour' consisting of the guide pointing out the town landmarks visible from the castle battlements. The castle is extremely well presented, lively and interesting without being tacky. Anyway we were having such fun that we were reluctant to drag ourselves away in time to get lunch and join the boat trip we'd planned for the afternoon.
Said boat trip was enjoyably relaxing. We went out into Norfolk and soaked up the uniquely Broads landscape. I can't get very excited about a landscape that is entirely flat, I think the main interest of the Broads as an area is not so much visual as the rare plant and animal species found there. We did see some birds, lots of grebes and a few herons, [Addendum 24.8.04] and a kingfisher and learned a bit about the history of the area. I was disappointed that we weren't able to go ashore at all but of course it's all nature reserves.
Got soaked by a sudden thunderstorm on our way back to the B&B where we were staying, but hey. And then we met up with NY as planned and yay, so cool to see her again and introduce her to
We'd tried to investigate in advance whether there was any Jewish community in Norwich, and had come up with a street address and a vague rumour that the community was pretty dormant. On the off-chance, we went to the address at what seemed like a reasonable time for a service. And I'm very glad we did because the Jewish community there is in fact active (though small), and were very welcoming. Was a lovely service in lots of ways.
And then an afternoon of mammoth walking round Norwich being extremely ineffective tourists. Ineffective because all the interesting buildings either required us to pay for entry, or were churches which contained dead people that
I'm glad we made it to Norwich, but the company was definitely the best aspect of the weekend.
We rounded the day off with dinner in a very standard commercial Italian restaurant, the sort of place that
Sunday we had lunch chez my parents back in Cambridge. It was a bit rushed since we got in at half past 12 and I had to catch a train at quarter to 3. But at least I spent a bit of time with my parents while I was in the area, rather than just using their house as a place to sleep on Thursday night! Maman is a bit stressed about various things just now, so she wasn't at her best. But at least Granny seems to have overcome (or, sadly, forgotten entirely) her former irrational prejudice against
There weren't any siblings around; Screwy is obviously working, and P'tite Soeur was in France for the wedding of some friends of hers. Thuggish Poet, however, texted me on Thursday evening when I was halfway to Cambridge saying he was in Edinburgh and did I fancy meeting up. *sigh* Anyway, we cleared this up and I managed to spend an hour or so with him (and his girlfriend and K 'Nellie' W whom I know from school) on the way back, since I had a long change in Edinburgh.
I'm finding it harder than usual to resist the temptation to be soppy about
Anyway, if you want a properly detailed account with pictures and discussions of the town history, go and read