Last September, we spent a week on holiday in Suffolk. It only made sense to travel further north and visit Norfolk this time. Ashwina booked us into a National Trust cottage on the Blickling Estate in Norfolk.
Journey from London
We left our home on Monday after lunch because check-in was at 4pm. Monday, like most of the week, was a rainy day. We took a break at the Starbucks in Newmarket which is fairly midway between our home and the cottage.
We have done 1.5-hour trips before visiting various National Trust properties. As this was about three hours, we weren’t sure how (un)happy our little one would be with the journey. I’m pleased to say that she enjoyed the trip and the break.
Blicking Estate
Blickling Estate boasts a huge Jacobean house, 55 acres of formal gardens and over 4,600 acres of woodland. It also has a 17th-century pub on the property that we visited for lunch on three days. The Tudor house that once stood there is believed to be the birthplace of Anne Boleyn, future wife of Henry VIII.
Ashwina and I took a stroll down to the house just before closing on one of the days, so we couldn’t visit the house. We did check out the yew hedges and the secondhand bookshop where I found this book!
Sherlock Homes was one of the first books I read when I was still in school. I’m hoping that my daughter will one day read this book. We had also bought her Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series, er, several years before she was born.
We went back to visit the house a couple of days later and also wandered around the garden. The weather was pleasant and the three of us walked quite a bit, touring the house and the gardens behind the house. We also stopped by the cafe for a quick snack at tea time before heading back to the cottage.
Here are a few photos across the two days.
Walsingham
We had visited Walsingham in September. While that was a 1.5-hour journey from Suffolk, it is only a 30-minutes from Blickling. So, on Saturday, a day before our holiday ended, we drove off to Walsingham. We had initially thought of grabbing lunch at the NT cafe. However, seeing the crowds, we dropped the idea and decided to get something small to eat at the cafe at Walsingham. We visited the Slipper Chapel, the shop and brought back a couple of bottles of holy water.
Return to London
The best part of checking out of an NT cottage on Sunday is the 4pm late check-out. I had to attend an office Zoom and so we ended up leaving at about 3pm. This time we stopped at the Starbucks on the opposite side of the motorway on our way back to London. Ashwina drove the first leg and I drove the second one after our break. We reached home at the perfect time to start Baby’s sleeping routine.
And then it was back to the office from Monday.
