The Journey Home

 

The last day of our holiday began at the usual time for us – 5:30am – I got up sorted a few things out online (mainly the Church attendance bookings for Mass tonight and tomorrow at St. Teilo's), showered and brushed my teeth and packed the car.

 

By 6:30am we had said our goodbyes to the lovely Wagtail Barn and were on the road. The route looked like this:

Drew was driving today, as it was all major roads, he is not a fan of the B road! or in city driving. He drove along the A47 on to the A43 onto the M6 and down the M42S stopping at Hopwood Services after 2 hours and 55 minutes and 154 miles.

 

Breakfast

 

Given out early departure we decided to have breakfast on the road. Being a motorway service station, we thought out breakfast options would be Starbucks or Costa, McDonalds or Burger King. But stopping at the Welcome Break we found a real treat breakfast from a company called The Good Breakfast.

Their Ultimate Breakfast was 3 pork sausages, 2 rashers of bacon, 2 fried eggs, black pudding, 2 hash browns, mushrooms, baked beans, tomato & fried bread as neither Drew nor I like baked beans we asked to have ours without them, we were offered an additional hash brown in place and felt it would be rude to refuse. [Co-pilot's note: Yes, it would have been very rude indeed, very rude!!]

 

The breakfast was freshly cooked with the eggs done to our liking before our eyes and added to the plates being prepared at the back of the franchise kiosk.

 

Yes, it was as greasy and delicious as the photo. OK, perhaps our arteries need a few more 9 mile walking days to keep up, but there is something lovely about a traditional cooked breakfast. I was really pleased that both the bacon and the sausage was plump and tasty, I’ve had breakfasts where these items tasted like salted carboard, but not here, they were full flavoured. Having the fried bread to mop the plates meant that they were almost as clean at the end as they had been at the beginning. A treat for our last day of holiday.

 

Final Leg

 

We were back on the road at 10:24am and travelled to the end of the M42 on to the M5, then down the M50 and A449 

to the M4 arriving at Sainsburys, Thornhill, to shop for the next few days at 12:36pm another 103 miles and two hours and eleven minutes driving.  

 

Shopping and petrol sorted we left Sainsbury’s at 1:03pm and were home at 1:17pm with our cases unpacked and the first load of washing in by 1:45pm.

 

Holiday Review

This is the sixth time I've ended a holiday blog with a reflection. This year unlike some previous holidays it was a simple plan for a holiday focussed on the two weeks in Norfolk and the Michelin Star meals on the way. But even a simple holiday was full of fun, entertainment and insight but made a great difference after the long periods of lockdown of last year.

East Anglia was much more interesting and attractive than I had expected, the places we visited from Walsingham to Cambridge all had unexpected pleasures which made the visits worthwhile and fun. I hope the blog reflected how special each of those days have been.

An important highlight was catching up with old friends. Seeing first Andrew and Sara and then Robin and Liz, was a real treat, and completely unplanned in the case of the former, which reminded me how lucky I am to have friends who, though we may not see each other for years and years, can fall comfortably back into our relationship.

Meals

My favourite meal of the holiday was the first. Niall Keating's menu at Whatley Manor was a real delight to me and his not very sweet desserts and rich and complex savoury dishes are still firmly embedded in my memory. [Co-pilot's note: I hate to admit he is right, but this guy even gave me boogies in a shell and I liked them!]

That being said we had a lot of lovely food and our revisits to the Dereham Thai and the Railway Arms are testimony to simple food cooked exceptionally well.  

Travel

Miles Driven

Compared to previous holidays when we have driven 4 or 5 thousand miles this holiday only totalled to 1,809 miles. Though driving through some of the narrow Norfolk roads took more concentration than many of our drives along Highways in the USA or Canada.

Given the nature of the roads it is not a surprise that I drove 79% of the distance and 85% of the time, Drew only taking on wide A roads and motorways.

Miles Walked

While we drove much less than on previous holidays we kept up our walking with 142,941 steps which is equivalent to 56.31 miles or 30 hours over the 17 days. My legs are still feeling it. [Co-pilot's note: I, dear readers, have suggested he increase his daily walk by a mile to get his practice in - the idea did not sit well 😉]

Thanks

Thanks to those who have journeyed with us on the blog, Twitter and Facebook. There are still 3,000 photos to add to Flickr, that should keep me busy for the rest of the week! 

Let's hope by this time next year we are able to do our journey around Scandinavia that we had planned for August 2020. But only time will tell!