Now my heart may belong to Cornwall… But Norfolk is not very far behind! And it is well overdue a visit, I’m not sure we’ve been there since 2010 now? A shocking state of affairs! Happy news that friends are getting married there next summer… that’ll be a long weekend for the Parkers then!
For now – let’s go back to 2008. This was Mr P’s first trip to the north coast of Norfolk. It wasn’t love at first site actually, like the photo might suggest, as the first day it rained and it rained! But after we’d gone for a few winter walks in June, finally the good weather arrived and he quickly fell for this part of the UK! The beaches go on for miles and its so flat that you can see for miles. But get the tides wrong and it is a very long walk to the water!
On this visit we stayed in Cley which is a very sweet little village near to a bird reserve. I took Mr P to see all the bits of Norfolk I had loved when we holidayed here when I was younger – based in Burnham Overy Staithe (where it is completely normal for cars to need to stop while dinghies are being wheeled out of gardens down to the creek for sailing!). We had a gorgeous walk from Overy Staithe along the beach to Holkham (famous from the closing scenes of Shakespeare in Love, and also it used to have a nudist part), we read all you can about Lord Nelson in the display in his local church and had a pint in his old ‘local’ (that is the only bar in the UK to have no bar?), we bought up as many nautical household goods in Burnham Market as possible and we generally just relaxed and ate well!
It is easy to live well on a break in Norfolk – this part of the coast is known as Chelsea-on-Sea and deli’s, restaurants, hotels and boutiques have sprung up in their multiples here. There is a raging debate about second homes in beautiful places, but don’t let that put you off visiting, it really is a stunning place and I have never taken being able to go there for granted.
Norfolk – June 2008 (we have this on the wall at home)
Funny story – well there always is on our little trips! At this time I was driving the majorly impractical Honda S2000. Tricky for a week away, but well worth it for the enjoyable drives in the sunshine… However when we walked into a town hall and fell in love with a photo by Pebbles Photography that happened to be framed and about 1metre by 1metre, we were thankful for a solution which wasn’t balancing it on the bonnet on the way home. Thankfully they were ready with Royal Mail options which meant we could make our purchase despite our poor choice of vehicle (we’d left Mr P’s 4×4 at home…)!
Norfolk isn’t somewhere that had ever really occured to me to visit until I met my husand, who grew up around there and since then, I’ve had a chance to see a bit more of it and my word, is it beautiful, especially the aras around the North Norfolk coast – stunning scenery 🙂 Cornwall is next on my list!
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Enjoy Cornwall – i have written about it before on here if you need ideas!!
Norfolk was my first time at the seaside in England, it was a shock to the system with all those pebbles but I like the ease of the area – it doesn’t have all the hype around it that Cornwall has. I was really disappointed with Cornwall (sorry!) after everyone talked up the beaches and said it was like the Caribbean, I’ve seen photos of the Caribbean plus it rained and the traffic was a nightmare! xx
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I would recommend brancaster beach or holkham – lovely and sandy! I hope you give cornwall another go sometime, it really is stunning – but sat next to the atlantic it also gets vile weather at times…
I will definitely try again at some point I think, fingers crossed it won’t be busy or rainy 😉 How’s America treating you? Hope you are too frozen xx
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America is exhausting, but after tonight no more flights until ba home on tues pm. Packed for winter – and needed it in florida!! Missing Mr P now