We visited Ann, Liz & Bob in Norwich and stayed a couple of nights. On the drive over we stopped at Eaton Socon and had a coffee in a pub called The Rivermill. This was a converted mill building on The Great Ouze. They were quite happy to serve coffee, In fact they seemed to have a morning coffee and-cake special running. Rosemary was quite taken with some flats overlooking the river. Nothing was as we remembered it. We then drove past are old house, 183 Great North Road, which was still standing as was the Leylandii Hedge that I planted in the front in the late ’70s.
We stopped in the park by the river in St Neots and ate our picnic lunch before heading on to Norwich. As we had plenty of time we stopped off at Grimes Graves. These are prehistoric flint mines in the Brecklands. I last visited then in the ’60s and Rosemary had never seen them. You can still go down one of the mines. There are a couple of others which have been excavated. The landscape outside is Breckland grass, but here there are lots of round dips caused by the pits. There are many pits which all apparently inter-join below ground.
On to Norwich where we all went to the theatre to watch The Play that Goes Wrong. A comedy about a play that goes wrong from beginning to end. This had been recommended to us. Amazing timing by the actors as scenery fell down around them. An audience member got to the stage of laughing where they just squeaked intermittently.
The next day, we raced off to my favourite online camera shop. I’d never seen the bricks & mortar shop. Later, we accompanied Bob on a walk to the local Waitrose via the club where he plays golf. Lovely scenery and very edible wild cherries. Expanding our local geography even further, In the afternoon, we took a walk in Eaton Park, where Liz jogs. A huge park in Norwich which was created after the First World war. It has a large boating pond, and tracks for miniature railways. Despite going to school in Norwich, I had never been to either place.
On the Saturday we returned via Cambridge for the Caius benefactors May week garden party where we met up with Richard and Andrea. (And yes, it was June, but that’s Cambridge for you.)