Another easter...is this the third in England? We went up to Norfolk with Ben and Maggi and stayed in a 3 bed unit at Horningtoft about 10 miles from the coast. Horningtoft is a beatiful village...3 houses, church, not even a pub. Took the kids for walks around the fields in the evening to see badger holes, weasel/stoat tracks, partridges. Drove up friday, we got away by 9:30 and a pretty clear run of about 2 hours to the coast with a stop at Castle Acre Priory. Maggi and Ben left an hour later and spent twice as long getting there in traffic.
We went to Wells-next-the-Sea which has a nice beach, but as on our previous visit (when little M had her arm in plaster) the weather (fine and sunny inland) was grey and freezing cold. A stiff onshore wind and water as cold as snow melt. Kids had a great time as always, but soon went blue so we headed off to the little house at Horningtoft. Great yard for them to play in so they wore themselves out.
Day 2 we went to see Godwick mediaeval village site...just some bumps and humps in a paddock but one of the 5 best abandoned mediaeval villages in Norfolk according to the sign. Appeared in the Domesday book and largely depopulated in the 1300s by plague so a fairly good ground plan remaining of how it would have looked. After that off the Castle Acre again to the Castle (ditches and earth banks for a picture - it is quite impressive from the air) and the Priory again. The priory was suppressed by Henry VIII as usual, so only a ruin but a very beautiful one. One of the better examples of a mediaeval monastic toilet block...about a 100 holer by the size of it.
Day 3 we went to Blakeney to see the Common Harbour Seals...about a 3.5 mile walk along a 'beach' to where the seals haul out on the sand. J's feet gave out and he hobbled back to the car with M, Maggi Ben and little M made it all the way to the seals which were worth the walk. A hundred or more seals on the sand spit. Little M was still going strong by the time we got back to the car after 7 miles of beach walking!
Tired grown ups and tired children...stopped at Castle Rising on the way home on Monday and then the girls all took to their beds when got back to Cambridge after their hard weekend!
This week has been a quiet week at home for them...we built trebuchet's on Wednesday (promised J cause M's class did this at school), Thursday they played all day with friends in the area...rioting up and down between the different houses in a big group of 8 kids and the same today. We will miss this aspect of Newnham Croft when we move from here. Looks like we have found somewhere to live on Gough Way about 1km from here. The kids will get more exercise getting to and from school! Only a couple of weeks before head home to see how dad is getting on...
