retiredmartin

November 2023. Norwich.

Back home in Waterbeach attempting to care for Mum and Dad I can only look on with admiration, but not resentment, as BRAPA does the whole of Northants in a week and Duncan does Dartmouth, which sounds like a less successful to the controversial 1978 original.

There aren’t many easy Guide pickings nearby, but astonishingly Norwich has four (4) newbies. ANOTHER four ! Surely everything in the county town has been in the GBG ?

Just over the hour with a rapid change at Ely; I made complex arrangements to be allowed back in the house later. Frankly I’d prefer to sleep in the campervan, parked outside, but mums don’t allow that sort of thing.

The Fens looked stunning OK as we headed north.

Yesterday the leaves seemed to give up the ghost and collapse to the ground in one go. But the scenes grow drabber as you head through the black soil towards the Brecks,

and Norfolk remains unspeakably dull (compared even to Suffolk) till you hit the big city, and the most famous building in “A Fine City”.

Yes, it’s the Premier Inn where Simon played Alan Partridge (Aha !) while doing all of the county in one go.

Four (4) pubs was plenty for me back in March, and would be plenty again on this Sunday, but Norwich will always deliver something of interest.

Now that the mustard Mum so liberally applies to every meal has been moved to the home Bass, Norwich’s reputation rests on the best collection of medieval churches in the country and CAMRA’s obsession with handpump counting.

I like to look a bit beyond the obvious, so bring you the street art like this chap in the tunnel underneath the castle,

a castle which won’t feature in any UK Top 100.

In Manchester the footwear discarded at night has silver buckles; here it’s rather more practical.

I think those boots are encrusted in the last batch of Colman’s horseradish.

Which brings us to the ornate shopping centre, which I genuinely don’t remember from my occasional trips with Mum and Dad to buy shoes and watch the Canaries.

There’s a new Beer Guide entry throught there, let’s find it.

By the way, YALM – “You only live many times”, top Buddhist cafe. Possibly.