Norwich, Ely and Cambridge
I spent Sunday seeing the rest of Norwich sans small people. The walk into town from Tom and Cathy's was rather nice. The old railway line has been converted into a bike track and walking path, so I walked into town along this lovely shady path surrounded by trees and blackberries. Highlight of the walk was a father cycling past supporting his young daughter on her scooter, both of them cheerfully singing something that could have been a Top 10 hit or could have been 'The East is Red', I wasn't sure.
My first point of call was the Royal Arcade and the market - luckily none of the shops were open! From there, I looked in on the Forum and the Origins museum, but decided it was not for me - Origins would be great if you had a group of bored kids on a wet day, but I had neither of the above. Accordingly, I went along Elm Hill, a lovely old strip of shops (http://www.ukattraction.com/east-of-england/elm-hill.htm). Again, none of them were open so I saved hundreds of pounds.
Elm Hill opens out into the Tomblands, a funky little square with cafes, restaurants and the two gates to the Cathedral (http://www.cathedral.org.uk/pages/html/index.html). At a guess, I'd say the gates are each about three, maybe four, storeys high - and that's just the gates. I go through into the Cathedral complex, which is more or less in proportion to the gates. I spend a happy morning wandering around ooh-ing and aah-ing at all the old stuff and the Victorian add-ons. For me, the most notable feature about the Cathedral is the labyrinth in the Cloister courtyard (for those of you who aren't all that interested in prehistory or mythology, the labyrinth is a traditional Goddess symbol - not something you'd expect to find in a church of any denomination).
I finish my tour at about 1pm and wander back into Tomblands looking for lunch. At this point, I probably should explain that 'Tomblands' is actually from an old Saxon word meaning 'an empty space' - I'm not wandering around a cemetery. I quickly found that anywhere that was open on Sundays was also full, so I walked along the river a short way to the Adam and Eve (http://www.e-travelguide.info/norwich/pubs.htm). This is one of the contenders for the title of England's Oldest Pub, apparently there has been a pub on the site since 1279 or thereabouts. I highly recommend it, my meal was lovely - everyone else's meals looked tasty too. From the pub, I headed back to the Dragon Hall museum (closed), the Bridewell museum (closed) and St Julian's Church (open!). St Julian's is a nice foil to the splendour of the Cathedral, it is very small and cosy. I sat in the anchorite's cell and tried to imagine spending my entire life here - it had a certain appeal, especially when I read in the tour guide that anchorites were allowed to keep cats!
What else can I say about Norwich and Norfolk? All the old buildings are made using the local flint, which gives a beautiful effect - some buildings combine flint and brick, others only use flint. All the fen towns have churchs, which apparently had to have different steeples so that the locals could find their way back to the correct village after a hard day's yakka in the fields. Whatever the reason, they look great.
Most of the land is near or under sea level, so I assume the locals are very nervous about global warming! It looks like extremely fertile countryside, I can't imagine what the poor sods thought when they first got a look at Australian soil. And they don't believe in working the same looney hours that we take for granted in Australia, many shops were closed on Sunday or only open from 10-4.
On Monday, Neil kindly gave me a lift to Ely (http://www.ely.org.uk/) - Susan decided to have a quiet day at home to give Lucy a chance to settle. We went around the Cathedral, which was certainly worth the trip - it has this amazing structure at the centre called The Octagon. The short story is that they had a stone tower in the centre, which fell down in the 1300s - it was replaced with this mammoth wooden eight sided thing that looks about 20 storeys high. Neil and I were both amused to see that one of the front towers has been 'mislaid' at some point in the Cathedral's history - one of the tour guides commented that there seem to be a number of houses in the town built of a stone very similar to the Cathedral's, funny about that. All goes to prove that the buggers really will steal anything that's not nailed down - no doubt their descendants all ended up in Australia trying to farm our crappy soil.
One thing that really breaks my heart about all the churches and cathedrals here is the amount of damage done by Cromwell's troops during the 1600s. Ely Cathedral is exquisitely carved with images of saints and angels - the Lady Chapel is beautiful enough to take my breath away (with the exception of a rather uninspiring recent statue) - and some devout little so-and-so with a chisel has carefully belted the lights out of every single one to ensure that we all stay virtuous. The rotten sods also whitewashed over the paintings - someone was slacking off that day, so some of the original paint work came through in one of the chapels and has been restored. I think it's rather nice, but I'm not sure what it would have looked like with the whole place tricked out in red, blue, green and assorted other colours.
After the tour, Neil dropped me off at the station, where I caught a train to Cambridge. So far, I've checked in at the local YHA and been shafted by the local Botanical Gardens - you have to pay £3 to get in. I didn't realise that they charged and was too embarrassed to turn around and nick off when I got to the ticket kiosk. I've also seen the market place and walked around the shops a bit. Tomorrow, I'm doing a walking tour which covers the main sites, then heading off to Canterbury via London (more cathedrals, yawn, yawn). Will keep you posted!
My first point of call was the Royal Arcade and the market - luckily none of the shops were open! From there, I looked in on the Forum and the Origins museum, but decided it was not for me - Origins would be great if you had a group of bored kids on a wet day, but I had neither of the above. Accordingly, I went along Elm Hill, a lovely old strip of shops (http://www.ukattraction.com/east-of-england/elm-hill.htm). Again, none of them were open so I saved hundreds of pounds.
Elm Hill opens out into the Tomblands, a funky little square with cafes, restaurants and the two gates to the Cathedral (http://www.cathedral.org.uk/pages/html/index.html). At a guess, I'd say the gates are each about three, maybe four, storeys high - and that's just the gates. I go through into the Cathedral complex, which is more or less in proportion to the gates. I spend a happy morning wandering around ooh-ing and aah-ing at all the old stuff and the Victorian add-ons. For me, the most notable feature about the Cathedral is the labyrinth in the Cloister courtyard (for those of you who aren't all that interested in prehistory or mythology, the labyrinth is a traditional Goddess symbol - not something you'd expect to find in a church of any denomination).
I finish my tour at about 1pm and wander back into Tomblands looking for lunch. At this point, I probably should explain that 'Tomblands' is actually from an old Saxon word meaning 'an empty space' - I'm not wandering around a cemetery. I quickly found that anywhere that was open on Sundays was also full, so I walked along the river a short way to the Adam and Eve (http://www.e-travelguide.info/norwich/pubs.htm). This is one of the contenders for the title of England's Oldest Pub, apparently there has been a pub on the site since 1279 or thereabouts. I highly recommend it, my meal was lovely - everyone else's meals looked tasty too. From the pub, I headed back to the Dragon Hall museum (closed), the Bridewell museum (closed) and St Julian's Church (open!). St Julian's is a nice foil to the splendour of the Cathedral, it is very small and cosy. I sat in the anchorite's cell and tried to imagine spending my entire life here - it had a certain appeal, especially when I read in the tour guide that anchorites were allowed to keep cats!
What else can I say about Norwich and Norfolk? All the old buildings are made using the local flint, which gives a beautiful effect - some buildings combine flint and brick, others only use flint. All the fen towns have churchs, which apparently had to have different steeples so that the locals could find their way back to the correct village after a hard day's yakka in the fields. Whatever the reason, they look great.
Most of the land is near or under sea level, so I assume the locals are very nervous about global warming! It looks like extremely fertile countryside, I can't imagine what the poor sods thought when they first got a look at Australian soil. And they don't believe in working the same looney hours that we take for granted in Australia, many shops were closed on Sunday or only open from 10-4.
On Monday, Neil kindly gave me a lift to Ely (http://www.ely.org.uk/) - Susan decided to have a quiet day at home to give Lucy a chance to settle. We went around the Cathedral, which was certainly worth the trip - it has this amazing structure at the centre called The Octagon. The short story is that they had a stone tower in the centre, which fell down in the 1300s - it was replaced with this mammoth wooden eight sided thing that looks about 20 storeys high. Neil and I were both amused to see that one of the front towers has been 'mislaid' at some point in the Cathedral's history - one of the tour guides commented that there seem to be a number of houses in the town built of a stone very similar to the Cathedral's, funny about that. All goes to prove that the buggers really will steal anything that's not nailed down - no doubt their descendants all ended up in Australia trying to farm our crappy soil.
One thing that really breaks my heart about all the churches and cathedrals here is the amount of damage done by Cromwell's troops during the 1600s. Ely Cathedral is exquisitely carved with images of saints and angels - the Lady Chapel is beautiful enough to take my breath away (with the exception of a rather uninspiring recent statue) - and some devout little so-and-so with a chisel has carefully belted the lights out of every single one to ensure that we all stay virtuous. The rotten sods also whitewashed over the paintings - someone was slacking off that day, so some of the original paint work came through in one of the chapels and has been restored. I think it's rather nice, but I'm not sure what it would have looked like with the whole place tricked out in red, blue, green and assorted other colours.
After the tour, Neil dropped me off at the station, where I caught a train to Cambridge. So far, I've checked in at the local YHA and been shafted by the local Botanical Gardens - you have to pay £3 to get in. I didn't realise that they charged and was too embarrassed to turn around and nick off when I got to the ticket kiosk. I've also seen the market place and walked around the shops a bit. Tomorrow, I'm doing a walking tour which covers the main sites, then heading off to Canterbury via London (more cathedrals, yawn, yawn). Will keep you posted!
posted by Andrea at
11:40 AM
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