Norfolk Holiday – Day 2 – Holt, Cromer

Breakfast in the B&B at a very leisurely 10 to 9. Mmm full breakfast. At 1030 we boarded the steam train to Holt around 5 miles around the coast from Sheringham. Apparently there was a lot of space in the 1950s for things like bikes!

Bike space on the steam train

The current Holt station is on the edge of town – about 1.25 miles (2km) so only a short hop by bike. We found ourselves a lovely brew in a cafe called Byfords. Pretty damn good and with an excellent deli on the site – here I picked up the local “Yetman’s stout” to try sometime. Brew supped, we headed back out on the main road past Holt station and picked up the sustran’s regional route 30. This took us through the countryside – mostly fields – along quiet single track roads all the way to Cromer.

Ruth, cycling through Gresham

The Norfolk countryside around here is actually rather undulating – not quite the flat plain we had imagined! Still, I’d be very surprised if we topped 200″ (60m) above sea level all day.

Cromer is a busy little town. On our visit it was hosting some steam cars – a little bit strange – chuffing slowly along the promenade and with the occasional loud bang. Picking up some provisions in the Morrisons (complete with bike stands) we grabbed some chips on the sea front (as one must) before going for a half in the Dolphin. Woodforde’s wherry was very tasty!

Cromer from the pier

The final leg of our cycling adventure took us out of Cromer onto the A149 – the coastal road – over the steep cliffs above towards the north west. But after a further 2.14 miles (3.4km) spotting a sign for West Runton station we decided to give up and take the train back to Sherringham (just 1 stop and £1.25 each!). Back in Sheringham and it was time for tea. Tonight, The Lobster was the venue. Sadly, disappointing. In 5 words: overcooked food and flat beer. Shame, it was a promising pub from the outside. So, back to the Windham arms for a good beer!

Wolf: howling' good beer

And with that off to bed!

Trip	Miles	Kilometres
Holt Station – Holt	1.25mi	2km
Holt – Holt Station	1.25mi	2km
Holt Station – Cromer via sustrans RCN 30	11.14mi	17.82km
Cromer – West Runton via coast road (A149)	2.14mi	3.42km
Total:	15.78mi	25.25km

Summary

Date: 08/09/2010

Pie Mash and/or Eels

Yesterday I had the day off to do a bit of cycling, exploring and photographing pubs for the local branch of CAMRA. Sadly the good weather I set off in quickly turned overcast so I’m not sure how useful many of the photographs will be – though at least one pub in Leytonstone appeared to be being demolished as I passed by!

More on the pubs will appear at my other blog, East London Drinker.

However… it did mean that I was in in the right place to sample the ‘Noted Eel and Pie House’ on Leytonstone High Road. Sadly they had run out of eels (damn!! – not) but I could get myself a pie and mash.

Noted Eel and Pie House, Leytonstone

The menu is fantastically simple. You can have Pie, Mash, Pie & Mash, Eels & Mash or Eels. Ask nicely and you can have a cold soft drink to wash it down with. They also sold frozen pies for anyone wanting to recreate the experience at home. Décor within the restaurant is simple too – a mixture of chairs and benches arranged around stainless steel tables.

Simplicity is good. The pie was good – I even liked the liquor this time (perhaps I am being southern-ised after all?)

If you’re in Leytonstone between 11 and 3 this place is well worth a visit.

Noted Eel and Pie House

Do Do Do The Conga

If you’ve been in London this week you may have been asked for some loose change by people with buckets. The Easter week sees Meningitis Research Foundation descend into the city with a few students and a lot of enthusiasm. This year they managed an awesome £50K but still had some energy to expend with a conga.

St Pauls and the Millennium Bridge on a typically grey day

Sometime after 12 we form up ready to start. And off… mid bridge we stop and time warp for just a few seconds…

Time Warp

And so 40 or so made it to the north bank without any sway of the bridge and another year was done. With thanks to Ragabonds for organising the conga again.

Full flickr set of photos is now online…

The Trip to Nottingham

I visit Manchester far too often. It probably helps that my parents live there and many of my uni/college mates still do. But once every now and then we have an agreement to meet somewhere vaguely halfway – hence the trip to Nottingham.

The early (0900) train north beckoned

Nottingham is a kinda of strange halfway – it’s 2 hours from London, 2 hours from Manchester. London to Manchester takes just 2 hours 10, but at least the concept is there!

First up we were to head to the Castle and wander round with my Grandma. This was quickly rearranged to a coffee and a chat as the mistle hung miserably above the city.

I think this London bus may be lost...

The afternoon however… was much more pub based. We’d ‘planned’ to visit two pubs – but got so cozy in the Trip that we didn’t move out very quickly…

The Trip to Jerusalem - below Nottingham Castle

‘The Trip’ is allegedly England’s oldest in – and the rooms go far back into the rock on which the castle sits.

Holey Rock

If you get the chance to visit Nottingham this place is worth it for the novelty – decent beer too, nicely kept. I’m sure there are other places to go too though…note this all happened about 2 or 3 weeks ago (27/02), I am just rubbish at keeping up to date!

All the pictures are heading for flickr as I’ve decided I need to backup everything online in the highest quality possible. Flickr pro seems to do the job – check out this set.

Hampton Court

A really quick post; still got loads of house things to sort and we still don’t have broadband yet!

Yesterday I popped up (well more trekked across town to) Hampton Court Palace. Here’s a few of the pix:

Palace Entrance

Henry VIII and Kathryn Parr

Mmmm Beer

This week featured the BCS Member services conference near Holborn.  This of course was an opportunity to socialise a bit with the other YPG volunteers and have a few beers.

Billy (cowfish, see links) took us to this bar –http://www.lowlander.com/ – the beer above is a dark Belgian beer called Troubadour Obscura, which was very tasty (and at 8,2% you only needed one to mull over for a while). Worth a look in if you are near Drury lane with a few quid to spare.

Sunday Lazy Sunday

Mmm. Lazy Easter Sunday. In fact, pretty lazy Easter break.

Media Overload

Wee Bru

Narrowboat on the Thames – Madness!

The Conga Waits

Follow the Brolly

It’s all been a bit quiet after the hubbub of applying for a proper job at TfL instead of just being a graduate. The good news is… aside a little red tape, I’ve got the position. Just need to sign the paperwork (currently in the custody of Royal Mail) and its sorted.

The last week of lent brought LOOT to London and I was around on the Wednesday to swap buckets. The clever chaps and chapesses managed to bag Meningitis Research a very cool £29K on the Wednesday alone. And who says we are in a recession?

Of course, LOOT means the Millennium Bridge conga. 36 people over this year – see the photos above. Much Bambi burger was then consumed by all and sundry to recover from the strenuous exercise.

Tomorrow brings a bank holiday. Just in time to finish off the ironing and get ready for another quiet week. Maybe I’ll even tackle the multimedia overload which constitutes my CD collection.

Bogle 09

Ice Creams in Northenden

CheckPoint 2

A few people clustered around the finish line.

At the Start Line

This weekend, I walked half of Manchester RAG’s bogle event. The event consists of a 55 mile walk around Manchester. I elected to start the 55 mile walk, but I wasn’t at all too sure how far I would get round. In the end I made 29 miles – just over half way, and just in time to meet Ruth who was only doing the ‘north loop’ – the final 26 miles.

It was hard work. Normally I walk from my flat to the tube stop (c. 10 mins) and back again. Even if I’m going to another building at work if it’s more than 5 minutes away I tend to get the bus, I am that lazy. So this was hard.

Training, well that didn’t really happen. I made 5 miles though some fields near the river Severn. And then went to the pub.

But the shoes worked! I got one blister, on my little toe but other than that seem unscathed. So… here are the vital statistics:

Twitter’s record of events.

20:10:00	Nous sommes départs.
21:10:00	Sainsbury fallowfield. Buying replacement trousers.
22:10:00	Northenden. Have ice cream.
23:06:00	Heald green. So close to check point one
23:15:00	Checkpoint 1. Circa 10 miles in. Arches and calves hurt.
23:23:00	Mmm. Cup of tea. It’s lovely to stand still for a bit
23:40:00	Leaving checkpoint 1
23:59:00	Just into cheadle hulme, by the welcome to macclesfield sign
00:03:00	What is the queen doing now? Asks Bill.via Twitter
00:23:00	Acre lane. 12 miles down.
00:41:00	Checkpoint 2, 13 miles in
00:55:00	Leaving checkpoint 2
01:32:00	Jacksons lane. 15 miles. Just witnessed a man kicking a car. Lovely.
02:02:00	Hazel Grove, almost 17 miles in. My feet hurt!
02:28:00	18 miles.
02:54:00	A bit of rage against the machine has helped me pick up the pace again. Outskirts of stockport now
03:08:00	Checkpoint 3. No hot food but the kebab shop has jacket spud left!
03:22:00	Leaving checkpoint 3
03:43:00	Cheadle heath. 21 miles
04:04:00	Cheadle centre, 22 miles.
04:29:00	Tesco east didsbury. 23 miles. I’m really feeling it now
05:06:00	East didsbury. 24 miles
05:33:00	Checkpoint 4. 25 miles in. Not sure how far I can get.
06:03:00	Fallowfield 26 miles.
06:35:00	Top end of rusholme. 27 miles
06:57:00	Aquatics centre. 28 miles
07:15:00	Checkpoint 5. I give in. 29 miles is enough for me! Now to help run this event

Stats

Total time on route – 11 hours and 05 minutes, an average of 22 minutes per mile (just under 3 mph)

Total walking time – 10 hours and 12 minutes, an average of 21 minutes per mile (still just under 3 mph!)

CheckPoint 0 – Checkpoint 1, UMIST – Heald Green

Distance: 10 miles

Duration 3h 5m

Average speed 3.2mph

CheckPoint 1 – Checkpoint 2, Heald Green – Bramhall

Distance: 3 miles

Duration 1h 1m

Average speed 2.9mph

CheckPoint 2 – Checkpoint 3, Bramhall – Stockport Edgeley, via Heald Green

Distance: 6.5 miles

Duration 2h 13m

Average speed 2.9mph

CheckPoint 3 – Checkpoint 4, Stockport Edgeley – Withington

Distance: 5.5 miles

Duration 2h 13m

Average speed 2.5mph

CheckPoint 4 – Checkpoint 5, Withington – UMIST

Distance: 4 miles

Duration 1h 42m

Average speed 2.4mph

Tate Modern

Today I took my lil’ sister to the tate. I’m not really an arty-type in the sense of paintings so this could have been dreadful. Thankfully, it wasn’t.

The main hall is a fantastic space. Currently a large Ikea-coloured bunkbed, spider and film filled place. Some of the smaller galleries I could take or leave, but there was a few where you could spend ages just absorbing. Definately worth a visit if you happen to be on the south bank….

Do not pass go

Yes, today was interesting! Ruth got up really early to go to the gym. About an hour later, she’d made it as far as Leytonstone – one stop down the line towards London. So sensibly, I decided I’d log on and find out about working from home…

A lunch time I took a break and walked up the village centre where I grabbed a few photos and ingredients for a nice warm cooked breakfast. Mmmm.

More photos available at http://alansrandomness.fotodock.co.uk/c1647257.html