Norfolk June 2013

We had a short caravan holiday up in Norfolk at Danny's Paddock near Ludham between 6th June and 11th June. Apart from one small caravan that seemed to be there semi permanently we were the only people at the site. The next paddock has a good number of horses of all ages and they are interesting to watch.

Danny's paddock is very close to the river and when we were walking along by the river we saw the actual boat that we hired last year.

We weren't the only ones interested in the boats and these two were catching a lift.

One of our favourite places on the broads is Stokesby. Although you can see some interesting boats there this is not the real reason that we like the place, that's because it has a lovely little cafe where the owners are really friendly and the cakes etc on offer are great.

No trip to Norfolk would be complete without a day out in Great Yarmouth. This time as well as watching the various rides and amusements we spent some time at the northern end amongst the sand dunes where Julie remembered her holidays there as a youngster.

Conditions for boats wanting to get under the bridge at Potter Heigham were not ideal but a few boats were able to get though whilst other were giving up the wait and turning round to continue their voyage in the other direction. As usual there were a lot of boats moored here with the holiday makers making use of the shops and fish and chip restaurant.

The weather wasn't too bad during our stay but the Broads and indeed Great Yarmouth did seem a little quiet. Many of the people we spoke to were complaining that the 'season' hadn't started too well for the trade, however whenever we visit UK holiday resorts this seems to be something people say despite them appearing to survive quite well year after year. One of large stores at Potter Heigham had almost empty shelves and when we stop to a member of staff we were told that one of the owners had died and the cash was tied up so that they were unable to restock properly at that time, it will be interesting to find out on our next visit whether this situation has been resolved and the store survives.

Ely May 2013

Whilst staying at Mildenhall in May 2013 we decided to visit the City of Ely in Cambridgeshire. Ely is set amongst the fens and its Cathedral can be seen from many miles away across the flat fenland countryside. For anyone who hasn't visited this part of Cambridgeshire it's an area where you can see over huge distances and vast field have few trees or hedges. Massive machines lumber across the farmland and roads are often straight for many miles (mind you these straight stretches can be punctuated by very sharp bends, so keep awake when driving!!). We were pleased to find free parking in the city centre within an easy walk of the Cathedral, shops and river.

The 12th Century Cathedral is impressive from the outside and on the inside. I'm afraid that I was a bit too tight fisted to pay the entry fee to see all the inside, perhaps we will do the tour on another visit. 

There are numerous narrow streets (pedestrian only) with masses of eating places, gift shops, non chain stores, antique shops etc., in fact a great place to wander round. 

Walking down hill (not that it's much of a hill) from the city centre for about 1/2 mile brings you to the river Great Ouse. The river has a good number of pleasure craft. On the other side of the river is a busy freight railway with trains that seem to be miles long trundling past.

Ely is certainly a place to spend a day in a city where there is a lot to keep you interested. We will be back before too long.

Bressingham

As part of our visit to Mildenhall we made a day visit to Bressingham Steam Museum on 19th May 2013. We were particularly lucky in that this was a special day at the museum to celebrate the Dad's Army TV series. Although sadly many of the stars of this series have died there were some survivors at this event. They were joined by stars of 'It ain't half hot mum' and 'Hi Di Hi'. 

Bressingham is not only a steam museum but has some huge impressive gardens. There are two types of entry fee, one just allows entry to the museum and gardens and the other gives you rides on the three different rail lines and the gallopers. We went for the full ticket and both enjoyed the rides.

Our first port of call was the engine sheds where we saw some huge engines, both rail and traction type engines.

I have very little knowledge of railways but couldn't help but be impressed by the scale of these huge machines. Seeing them on railway lines is often from station platforms where you don't really see the full height of the rolling stock.

This beautifully restored signal box is open to the public and the levers used to change the signals and points can be examined close up.

The ticket we had gave us three rides on the gallopers and we certainly made full use of these with Julie particularly enjoying the fast rides.

Going along with the Dad's Army theme there lots of vehicles (particularly military ones) and displays from the second World War era.

As mentioned earlier there are three railway lines to ride on. Two of the tracks go well out into the countryside and we say a great variety of wildlife including some deer (didn't get a picture though). The third line goes around the gardens. This line features the turntable shown in the bottom picture. The turntable must be well balanced as the engine was turned with very little effort. All the steam engines looked fantastic.

It ain't half Hots 'La-dee-da' Gunner 'Paderewski' Jonathan Graham was played by John Clegg and he was in fine form telling a number of anecdotes to the enthusiastic crowd. 

From Hi Di Hi we had the Web Twins and Jeffery Holland (who played spike ), no picture of Jeffery though.

The Reverend Timothy Farthing  played by Frank Williams was the vicar of St. Aldhelm's Church in Dad's Army, Fans of the series will remember that he shared his church hall and office with Mainwaring's platoon.

We spoke to Bill Pertwee who played ARP Warden William Hodges in Dad's Army and were terribly saddened to learn of his death only days later.

I don't have enough space here to get any where near to doing justice to the extensive gardens at Bressingham but here is one example of the lovely views. The gardens are split into various themed areas and cover such a large area you could easily spend more than half a day wandering round the gardens alone.

Would we recommend a visit to Bressingham, without doubt we would. There are things to see and do for all ages and we hope to go back again before too long.