Peterborough & Norwich

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Spring had arrived, the weather warmer and the trees bursting into leaf. It was time to get out and about again.  We were starting what was to be an eight week adventure.

Our first stop was the Caravan Club site at Ferry Meadows on the outskirts of Peterborough.  We were surprised how busy the site was so early in the year.   The location is superb.   Just next door  (5 mins walk) is the Nene Valley Park.  Here you can walk or cycle around the beautiful lakes and alongside the River Nene. There are cafés and plenty of places to sit and admire the beautiful parkland. This would be ideal for young children to ride their scooters or bicycles in safety.

 

The Ferry Meadow campsite is divided in two. On the left as you arrive is the ‘normal’ Caravan Club style site. 

On the other side of the road there is a much more casual, parkland style site and this is where we pitched amongst wide open grassy spaces and trees.  (left)

 

(left and below)

Views around the Nene Valley Park

Whilst in the area we took the opportunity to meet up with some old friends.  First of all a meet up with Colin Harris for some pub grub at The Sibson Inn, an old coaching inn on the Great North Road . Colin worked with George at Unisys (18 years ago!)

Secondly, Martyn and Dee Curley came up to meet us from Bedford area. We have known them for several years as members of the Carthago Owners Club.  We enjoyed a good natter and another pub lunch. This Harvester pub was just a 10 minute walk in the opposite direction from the Park and very good it was too!

Another attraction right next door to the campsite is the Nene Valley railway. Unfortunately, the day we planned to travel on the railway it was closed—so we will have to make another visit later in the year.

One can ride the steam railway into Peterborough town centre.

Click on the logo (below) for more information.

Our next stop was Norwich. We stayed at the Camping and Caravanning Club site in Norwich (below).  This is a lovely, small site with all grass pitches and very convenient for exploring Norwich.   It is about a 25 minute walk into the city centre along quiet roads and a disused railway track which is now a tarmac pathway. If you prefer to cycle then you take the same route but it only takes about 10 minutes!

We enjoyed a day exploring the city.  It has some charming old streets and quite a large, permanent market in the city centre.   We also enjoyed a visit to Norwich Castle which is well presented and has an interesting art galley and museum attached. (below) Desnée explores the market  and a view of Norwich Castle.

We spent another day on the north coast of Norfolk, starting with a visit to Holkham Hall.

(click logo on right —> for more information)

(photo below from Holkham website)

Holkham Hall was very professionally presented and had enough interest to occupy several hours.  The outside was fairly plain but the inside was amazing. 

(left) the dramatic entrance hall.

The estate was also impressive and the walled, kitchen garden was worth a visit. This was some distance from the house and so we took advantage of the complimentary buggy ride around the grounds.

(below) view in the walled garden.

After leaving Holkham we drove along the north coast of Norfolk and were amazed at the number of houses that were built of brick and  flint.  We thought that flint architecture was prominent in our home county of Sussex but Norfolk has much more.

(examples below)

 

It was good to see that many of the new builds were also incorporating the brick and flint style. Very pleasing to see.