Norwich
I first went to Norwich nearly 50 years ago when a chum and his brother and I hired a boat on the Norfolk Broads. In the intervening years I have been back a few times and have a liking for this City which is almost in the middle of nowhere!!!
Finding space in the calendar seems a bit difficult at the moment but we did think we could manage a four day break over the weekend in the middle of September. As we have a motorhome we are always looking for sites with easy public transport into city centres and the Norwich C&CC site seemed to fit the bill. The three days prior to us leaving MK had been the hottest September days for 85 years but of course the day we decided to travel must have been one of the wettest!!! Fortunately the road from MK to Norwich is now almost all dual carriage way with only about ten miles of two way road so progress was pretty good.
Saturday was our first full day on site and we decided to go into Norwich today as there were no buses on Sunday. The walk to the bus stop was a bit longer than it usually is as they are rebuilding a railway bridge on the normal route! The bus journey was quite short and we got off in the city Centre. First port of call was John Lewis for a coffee and something to eat. Those familiar with Norwich will remember this as the former Bonds of Norwich department store. Refreshed we set off in search of the Forum. This is not some Roman ruin but a modern building which houses the library and the BBC tv and radio studios from which Look East is broadcast. Milton Keynes is on the extreme boundary of Look East despite being over 100 miles away!! The Forum is next to the Norwich City Hall and in front of this is the famous Norwich Market well known for the stripy roofs of its stalls. Making our way back to the bus we passed through the Royal Arcade which opened in 1899 and was perhaps the forerunner of the modern shopping mall.
Sunday was a lazy day although we did have the Grand Prix later in the day. Monday was our last full day so it was back into Norwich on the bus. This time we decided to visit the Castle Museum. The main part of the museum is not in the actual Keep but housed in the former Prison which was built next to the Castle. When exploring the museum it’s easy to tell that it used to be a prison as the galleries radiate out from a centre core. The museum has something for everyone. We were surprised at how much time we had spent in the museum so time to make our way back to the site for our final night.