Our first trip away since Covid-19 lockdown started. Had to cancel a mega tour of France and Spain in June/July 2020 (6 weeks in total) including catching the TdF once again at Ile de Re on the way back. Oh well, at least we are still able to get out and about now in the UK with some restrictions in place. Denise is recovering well from her third hip replacement (work that one out!) and actually cycling faster and further than me right now on her e-bike due to another damn chest infection that leaves me breathless getting up even the slightest hills – doh!
We chose Sandringham because it was probably going to be quieter than the most popular holiday spots elsewhere in the UK and we know it quite well from an earlier trip. The only issue with the Sandringham site is that we have no mobile data signal and the WiFi there is not worth paying for (soooo slow!). Just cycle up the road for about 800m however and you get 30-40Mb/s, which I did in the mornings first thing.
Sandringham house itself is still closed to the public, but the gardens are open at the weekends for pre-booking only. We managed to get tickets for Sunday 12th @ 4pm at Sandringham and for Houghton Hall on Wednesday 15th from 11.00. I’ll do the usual and describe the trip with photos and comments. We left on the Wednesday for home after getting back from Houghton Hall, rather than sit in the rain until the morning! …
Sandringham
We got a lift down from the entrance gate to the lake on a golf buggy, I had to take some rest on this bench for a short while after the short bike ride here – nice views anyway!.Large open parklands.Cor blimey, lovely conkers for the grandchildren.Apparently Prince Philip is in residence right now, the Queen is at Balmoral.A great affection for their horses, that’s Denise wondering how much they want for the house and gardens on Rightmove.Not many people around, nicer to discover the gardens in peaceThink I need to find a pot like this one for our Olive treesOK, maybe a personlaised potLove these linesPhilip’s probably up on the second floor, he’s only got to wait a few minutes longer and the public will disappear from the grounds and he can race around the estate as he likes.There’s some huge fish in their lake
Snettisham (Monday)
Arrived at Snettisham beach, a bit windy and it starts to rain – doh! We’d even packed our beach mats and towels for a lazy afternoon sunbathing.Looking towards HunstantonLooking out to sea, not many people braving the elements.
Hunstanton (Tuesday)
This single photo sums up the highlight of the trip out today. About a 35 mile round trip of Heacham, Hunstanton and for lunch our new favourite pub ‘The Gin Trap Inn’. We’d stopped by here last year but it has changed drastically and fortunately they’ve made a big feature of their garden – so that Denise and I could enjoy lunch socially distanced from everyone else but still soak up the atmosphere of a real pub once again! Staff and food and service were brilliant – of course Denise had a Gin and Tonic (from a selection of 95 gins) and I drooled over a couple of Woodford Wherry’s – back in civilisation! We’ll definitely be back here again.
Houghton Hall (Wednesday) What an absolutely wonderful surprise! As well, the most beautiful bike ride there and back from Sandringham on extremely quiet back roads. I think we saw about 4-5 cars and a huge tractor. Once again, the house is currently closed to the public but I share a lot of photos here because of the sheer beauty of their gardens and the weird and wonderful architecture of the special ‘outdoor’ exhibition from Anish Kapoor.
Ready for the off, definitely wind and rain jackets today. I don’t normally have to tie down the sun awning, but I was sat there when it tried to take off – so I took the precaution. Sunday was lovely, so we didn’t put our air awning up, too late now.Inside the huge walled gardenThistles looking so good!Look at those antlers!A tidy vegetable plot, shame I never kept my allotment so neat.On our way back to Sandringham and this is the first ‘main’ road we hit. That butchers is absolutely fab, by royal appoint,ment of course!This is the forestt area around the caravan club site – it’s understandable that most of the site bring their dogs.These next photos were taken from my mobile, not the camera. We arrive just as the gates open, must be 20 cars waiting to get in – but we are first to go through the gates and I get to photo the deer crossing the road in front of the impressive house.Denise is shouting at me that I’ve got to follow the signs to the car park – even though we’re on bikes.Battery exhausted in the camera, so I use the phone from here …As many staff as the publicEvery little boy’s dream, setting up your soldiers for battles – this family thankfully saved all of theirs and set about making a display of them in the stables.En route back to Sandringham, about a 10 mile journey each direction on miles of roads that are just like this – amazing!The tractorA slight incline so Denise has the pace.Part of the stable block, showing contemporary art.I used HDR mode on the phone camaera app from here, because of the low light. It takes 3 photos at different exposure and quickly assembles the resulting images into 1 master and ditches the rest.Just a very small part of the house was open for a small exhibition of Anish Kapoor inside rather than outside.
