Norfolk Broads: October 2010

Back in October last year we spent a week down in the Norfolk Broads with my parents, my sister, her fiance & my nephew and my aunt & uncle. Since we are about to head off for this October's trip, I thought it was time to get caught up with a quick recap!

We drove down to Pontefract on the Friday night and met my parents and aunt & uncle at a Premier Inn, just in time for some food and a few glasses of wine. On Saturday morning we continued our journey as far as Norwich to pick up my sister & family at the train station before continuing to our house on The Broads for the week. We stayed at a lodge by the river in the village of Wroxham, which came with a motorised day boat for us to use. The living room / kitchen was upstairs with the four bedrooms on the ground floor.

 

We took the boat out for the first time on Sunday and made our way slowly towards Horning, mooring right in front of the Swan Inn for lunch, which was delicious!

 

My dad had to go down to London for work on Monday so the rest of us went to Great Yarmouth for the day. It was a bit of a let down to say the least with not a lot to see and quite a run down seafront and pier. At lunchtime we couldn't find a decent place or pub to eat in so we found a pizza hut which we thought would do. That turned out to be the worst decision we made! After leaving Great Yarmouth we stopped in a craft village called Wroxham Barns and had a look around the small shops there. I wasn't feeling too good by then and it got worse by the time we got back to our house. Ill spare you the details but lets just say I rarely left one of the bathrooms all night and around 1am my mum also joined in! I have never felt so ill and it took a good few days for me to get back to normal. Turned out that it can only have been food poisoning and we deduced that we were the only ones who had eaten the salad buffet at lunchtime. Needless to say I have NEVER been back to a pizza hut since and don't intend to in the future!

Graham and Patrick left on the Tuesday, as neither of them had a full weeks holiday left, and me & mum stayed in bed for most of day, due to lack of sleep from the night before. I managed some crisps at night but still didn't feel great. Feeling a little better the next day we went to Kings Lynn which wasn't very exciting. We had some lunch and walked around the shops but there wasn't much else to see.

We felt it was time to take Enzo to something more exciting than pubs, towns and shops so while the rest of them went to Sandringham, me and Ashleigh took Enzo to Pettitts Animal Adventure Park. There were lots of animals for him to pet and lots of mini rides to go on too.

Our last full day was spent on the boat again, this time we tried the other direction, upstream to Coltishall where yes we found another pub to moor at to have some lunch.

 

The boat was very relaxing but it did take a long time to get anywhere. We didnt get a chance to get into Norwich while we were there but maybe next time.

 

This October we are all meeting up again but this time at a house near Matlock in the Peak District. With me and my sister both pregnant it wont be quite as exciting to visit lots of pubs, I think tea and cake will be required instead!