Friday - touring Norfolk

We woke up early in our room but not as early as the other days. We got dressed and headed down to the breakfast provided. The lady of the house was quite friendly and introduced us to her mother as well. While she cooked her mother continued to talk to us. Not with us as much as at us. We got to hear all about her travels, of which she's had many, and the variety of luggage calamities she had had along the way. Finally our food came and despite trying to eat it the mother didn't stop talking for awhile. We had a "full English breakfast" which consisted of: sausage, bacon, baked beans, bread, tomato, mushrooms, and eggs. So much good food! Great milk and orange juice too. The bacon is different than American bacon as its quite thick!

We went back up to the room so that we could digest a little and get ready to see Richard and Mary. We headed into the main part of town in Dereham, down High Street, so that Mike could see some of it. We got to Mary's house and had a chance to visit and catch up before heading out. She had a bad fall recently and is still recovering from the bumps and bruises.

We went to Dereham to see St. Nicholas church, just down the road and near the town center. Its a Norman church, although the resident saint is much older. Saint Withburga build a monastery in Dereham and a miracle happened during its construction. Workers needed food and two does would come every day to be milked. A local overseer became jealous and tried to kill the deer only to be thrown from his horse and his neck broken. Saint Withburga's body was removed from its resting place by a rival monastery several hundred years later (they wanted the money that came with the pilgrims to visit her) and a spring rose up from where the body had laid.

Inside the church there are several beautiful artifacts like a stone baptismal font, medieval screens and Norman wooden painted ceilings. The nearby bell tower was built because the tower of the church wasn't big enough but once held French prisoners of war. One prisoner escaped and the search party shot him. The townspeople felt so bad about it they buried him in their burial grounds and planted a flowering bush nearby.

We also stopped in to Bishop Bonner's Cottages, a series of three thatched roof cottages built in 1502 near the church. They are named for Bishop Bonner, who was a vicar of the church before becoming the Bishop of London but he didn't actually live there. The cottages are amazingly small, each family would have lived in one room downstairs and one room upstairs. The stairways and passes are very narrow and the ceilings low. Many local artifacts are housed in the cottages and we got a nice little tour of it.

We headed first to Swanton Morley, a nearby town where Richard's father Tony used to have a pig farm. We stopped to eat at Darby's Freehouse, a local iconic pub. Apparently it used to be farm workers cottages and Mary said it was still odd for her to think of people eating there. In England tables are not waited on at a pub, you have to order from the bar. But after ordering a pint each for Mike and Richard and some food we headed outside to wait. As we waited Richard showed us a giant atlas of England and we chose our route for the day. The food we had was delicious: Richard had a crab salad with crab on the half shell; Mike had a Mediterranean salad and Bree had fish & chips.

After a full lunch we headed over to the local church were Anthony (Tony) Brown, Richard's father was buried. We walked around the outside a little while and Richard pointed out a plaque with Mary's name on it. Apparently she had been the one to open the new handicap accessible entrance being a well known "character of the community."

From Swanton Morley we headed north to drive along the north coast of England and the North Sea. As has been happening lately, Bree started to nod off because we had just eaten. Mike teased her relentlessly that her head had bobbed up and down and side to side the whole time.

We eventually came to Castle Rising, a Norman castle that is quite famous. There used to be a river leading to it so it was a strategic point to have a castle. Built in the 12th century it had a long history before falling into disrepair. There were huge earthworks on all sides of the castle, then a large moat, then more earthworks spanning out. When part of the earthworks were excavated they found a pre-Norman church that apparently was taken over and just used as part of the wall. Walking up the main stairs there was a hole in part of the archway above called a "murder hole" that was built to pour hot water, or tar or other unpleasantries down on invaders. The main great hall had fallen down years ago and never replaced. Now the keep stands as basically a large square, open at the top and only the rooms around the edges still stand. It was quite interesting and Richard knows a lot about, well everything, so he was able to fill us in. Including a tidbit about spiral staircases and the fact that they always spiral to the right. That was done on purpose so that as a defender (going downstairs typically) you could easily chop down with your right hand at the invaders. The invaders (going upstairs typically) would have to try to strike around the staircase which was difficult.

From Castle Rising we tried to go to Castle Acre which was on the way back to Dereham. We just missed getting in as the person in charge was locking up. We asked if we could just peer through the gate which was apparently suspicious because she stuck around to make sure we weren't going to break in. We could see the massive entry gate with crests on it but didn't really get to see the castle itself.

From there we headed back towards Dereham - we visited with Mary for a little while before heading back to our guest house. Richard went to the grocery store for his mom and we relaxed for a little bit. Well Bree relaxed and Mike fell asleep. We met Richard down the road at the King's Head for a late dinner. Mike still wasn't hungry (it had been another large late lunch) so he just had dessert. Bree had a mushroom stroganoff which was really sauteed mushrooms with rice with a balsamic glaze. It was alright but a little different.

After dinner we visited some more before sleepily walking back to the guest house. We see so much during the day we are so tired by the end of it! Bree especially of course.