East of England Road Trip - Lincolnshire and Norfolk
Over the years we’ve enjoyed celebrating our anniversary in Berlin, Bruges, Prague, Budapest, Vilnius, Bucharest, Antwerp and last year, Madrid. In 2020, the year no-one will ever forget nor want to relive, we were on a road trip in Lincolnshire and Norfolk.
Lounging in Lincolnshire
Whereas travelling for holidays has opened up, I would only dare visit a country that’s handled the pandemic supremely well. Unfortunately, none of those countries are open to the UK. Why would they be? So we decided to road trip to the region that seemingly has more bungalows than any other along with probably more Union Jack’s displayed per capita. The region in which I found myself as the only-Indian-in-the-village holds good memories.
The Tower Hotel in Lincoln is where we had found ourselves for the first couple of nights of a birthday celebration before jetting to Reykjavik in 2011. Their restaurant, now re-branded No 38 has the distinction of serving me one of the best meals of my life.
We’d already had a good wander around this tiny city and paid homage to one of the best coffee shops in the country, Aroma before we checked in. (See, Lincoln is so good). The Tower Hotel is surrounded by a moat of decent eateries although everywhere was surprisingly busy for an early Wednesday thanks to the post-lockdown 50% eating out offer. A couple of them rejected us outright which is always extra annoying (and a little suspicious) when we witness a sea of empty tables. So the warm welcome from Elite was especially lovely and I enjoyed great salmon, a firm favourite when eating out. I knew I’d have fish and chips at the Tower the next day as I’d chosen it from their current limited menu. It’s probably the least adventurous meal we’ve had here, though still sublime. I won’t be going for a fish Friday this week though.
The plan was to drive out from Lincoln and explore the coastline. First stop was Skegness which I can confirm is nicer that time I visited it one January. Looking at the crowds, the town clearly didn’t have access to present health information and we decided to fight our way through them and drive out the other side. On a warm day, staying in the car with the comfort of air-con was preferable anyway and after a couple of other non-starter excursions, Sutton on Sea gave us the space we’d craved since locking down in early March. On the way back, Horncastle was a pretty little town to walk through.
Broadly Norfolk
On route to our next base in Norwich, a city I’ve visited twice for business and not seen any of, we made a point of stopping at places we’ve never been. First up is Sleaford, a town with a delightful array of antique shops and it seemed quite buzzy. Next to King’s Lynn which was less so although has a wonderful waterfront where we would have spent far more time had the heatwave been delayed by a few hours.
By the time we dared leave the coolness of our hotel room, Norwich on a Friday night was stifling, empty and closed. Exhausted with the heat, we decided on a chain restaurant for nourishment rather than trekking around looking for a little local place. There appeared to be two; Wagamama had a queue outside in the unbearable heat and Pizza Express were in the uber-cool - although not air-conditioned - Norfolk & Norwich Library building. It’s a big space with a view which sure made up for a rudimentary meal.
Sadly, Norwich has the same aversion to mask-wearing as Birmingham so feeling no safer, we were looking forward to exploring a bit more of pretty Norfolk and it’s agricultural and flower fields.
A long-standing local Twitter contact suggested Wells but being August anyway, it was over-crowded. We shared a quick Thai dish for lunch in compliant Nelson Coffee and moved on as soon as we’d washed our hands. Such a shame as Wells is a pretty little town made better by encountering some llamas trotting along as if on their daily walk.
If Wells tools us to the 1970s, the combined villages of Wroxam/Hoveton took us into the Norfolk Broads and all the way to the 1960s. Here we sought out an American themed place for dinner but after 15 minutes of waiting for them to take our order during which time they managed to not only take an order but served drinks to the couple that arrived some time afterwards, we left.
Our first choice was Yim Siam Thai anyway which we found wasn’t open till 7 and jumped in to take their last table when offered. It was below-standard of anything we’ve had although, with nice service and nothing else around, it fitted the bill.
In between all of this, we popped to another recommendation, the fantastic Holt. Here we found people mostly keeping their distance alongside a centuries-old local department store and a fabulous Black Apollo coffee shop. As a bonus, it was next to the wonderful Holt Book Shop whose staff were so pleased to re-open everyone got a warm welcome even if just browsing. Bigger bonus, it was next to a dog shop just celebrating it’s first year which meant an array of dogs going past us and waiting outside. We went in and I promised myself Woofers and Barkers is exactly the place we’ll come back to when we have a dog and stay in a local Holt hotel. Then we can pop to the Bakers & Larners food hall and pick up supplies
All of the meals in Norfolk were easily eclipsed by the meals we’ve had since returning to Birmingham and getting out more, however, everything is not as it usually is and we probably missed some lovely places. Next time.
Many of the coffee shops were closed over the weekend too but we managed a takeaway from Strangers and pancakes at Franks before we left.
The abundance of bungalows continued into Norfolk along with more individual house builds than I recall seeing anywhere else in the UK. In out leasehold ridden cities, I can only dream of being able to just buy land and build a house to my own spec. The houses here seem to fit well and yet stand out magnificently. It stands to reason that the estate agents should have great names but a 40-minute search has found me none of them. I wish I’d written them down now.
On the last day, we headed back across Suffolk into Bury, and the delightful Angel Hill Coffee House. Bury is another place that would make a good future base for exploring the region. On our travels through Lincolnshire, Norfolk and back through Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, I noticed many place names sounded sweary or like rubbish; Fakenham, Cuxwold, Bolinbroke, Stickney, Fritton, Dickleburgh, Frithville, Fring, Rudham, Blickling, Fordham, Horsford and of course, Diss.
A moment I will remember is when driving back from dinner one night just it started to rain. The map in car announces 10 miles to Great Yarmouth, our local seaside during a childhood growing up in Bedford. Immediately I could taste the pink candy floss, smell the sea and hear the fairground. Of course, we had to do a drive through what is now known as the Golden Mile.
August 2020
