Three day break in Singapore en route to the UK and it was lovely. We stayed in The Sofitel City Centre near the Tanjong Pagar MTR and I discovered lots of new things. Photographed the renovated very expensive old shop houses against new Singaporean buildings from the lift landing on our floor.
Relaxing reflexology after a day walking around.
Hotel flowers. There was a floral theme in all the art works as well as large and gorgeous flower arrangements.
Hotel garden in Singapore. Although the hotel only opened twelve months ago the garden is lush and well established and very pretty.
Flew to London and stayed the first night in Kingston on Thames. Picked up our hire car and drove to Woughton on the Green, to a lovely converted grand house near Milton Keynes.
Our room was in the coach house. It had the most comfortable bed! Gorgeous hotel in a really pretty setting so lots of long walks. We really enjoyed this hotel with its stylish interiors, delicious food and great staff.
Two days later we set off for Norwich for a week and from there we did day trips.
St Peters, Hoverton, a red brick and thatch church built in 1624. A tiny but perfect light filled church with a bellcote and stepped gables. Every day we’d set off from our hotel in Norwich and were usually within sight of a church, many of them huge and within towns and hamlets, but also many just out in the middle of nowhere!
The pier in Cromer. Such a pretty town. Ate a Cromer crab salad, enjoyed the coast and old buildings.
Holt. Small, easy to walk around and well maintained. Interesting laneways.
Gorgeous Georgian buildings in Holt and some great art galleries, too, as well as other temptations. I resisted but have been online since we got home, just looking….for now.
Wells Next The Sea was a sea port on the Norfolk coast but silting means the quay is now about a mile inland and separated from the sea by salt marsh.
Once a major industry, this gantry, built in 1904, is a remnant of malting. The building now houses apartments. By lunchtime there were hundreds of people eating fish and chips in the water front restaurants and cafes. on the quay and in cars.
This striking sculpture of a horse commemorates the five pairs of horses kept to pull the 33 foot lifeboats to launch them and also used to pull the heavy railway trucks to load and unload cargo from ships at the quayside.
Interesting specialty shops and a combined gallery, tourist information and coffee shop with the worst coffee ever.
Modern beach huts, all uniform and neat sitting along a beach of pebbles, sand then pebbles. Although it was very windy, it was also the hottest October day for some years and there were lots of people on the beach enjoying the sunshine.
A day in Kings Lynne, full of beautiful buildings and a central pedestrian mall, plus great restaurants along the river.
Kings Lynne.
This seafood sculpture in Kings Lynne was outside the restaurant where we had morning tea, followed by an enormous walk around the interesting and beautiful town then back there for a late lunch. The food was good but really I wanted more of the coffee! We found it really hard to get good coffee in England. Luckily, one hotel provided a machine and capsules in our room and another had a coffee machine and capsules in the bar to use when we wanted to, along with a tray of croissants.
The pier at Southwold on a wild and windy day. In fact they closed the shops on the pier about an hour later as the wind was so strong. Very pretty, small town with some great shops.
Southwold beach huts. No-one in these huts this day and I don’t think it was because everyone was at home watching Princess Eugenie’s wedding, either. Very, very windy on the coast.
The very old, original parts of Norwich, with laneways, pedestrian malls and many specialty shops was lovely. The day we were there, there were musicians and artists and a really fun vibe.
Today is Sandwich Day. The invention of the sandwich is attributed to the 4th Earl of Sandwich, John Montagu and the town he came from, Sandwich, in the shire of Kent in England.
So, if you’re busy playing cards, as the Earl was, make yourself a sandwich and play on!