Norwich Walk

Today we met up in Norwich for a walk through the city and around the outskirts.

This was the invite from Joyce.

"Hello - I am so looking forward to Friday.  I have given it more thought and have changed the plans a little so please read on.  If you are arriving by train,  I will meet you at the train station at 10.18am. We will walk along the Riverside and then make our way to the wonderful Bread Source at 93 Upper St Giles St Norwich NR2 1AB for takeaway drink/cake if you wish (of course you can bring your own).  If you are arriving from Halesworth at 10.35am please can you make your way to Breadsource and we should meet you there about 10.55am..  

We then head to view The Plantation Garden (it is quite unique). Then for something a little different at Earlham (the first surprise!). Then we find Eaton Park and then cross into the UEA grounds and find the River Yare. Then it is Cringleford , Marston Marshes, Tuckswood, Lakenham, County Hall (another surprise here). Then finally it's a few bridges along the River Wensum and back to the train station for the 4pm train for some and the bus for others." 

There were 12 of us today. This was our route.

Here are a few of my pictures.

Five of us arrived on the same train and Joyce was there to meet us and lead us to Bread Source.

We crossed the River Wensum and walked along the riverbank...

...to Pull's Ferry, the water gate to Norwich Cathedral. The building we see now dates from the 15th. century 15th century. Read all about it here.

We passed the cathedral...

...the statue of the Duke of Wellington...

...and on through the city centre. We admired the bow on Jarrold's department store.

We were soon at Bread Source, where we met up with the remaining 6 walkers...

..and grabbed a takeaway drink.

All ready to go.

Our first stop, right next to the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist...

was the sunken Plantation Garden, an oasis of calm in the middle of the city.

We headed towards Earlham and the huge Earlham cemetery. Here is Joyce telling us all about it.

We found this horse statue...

...and this lovely maple tree.

We followed some back streets to our next stop at Eaton Park. We were a bit surprised to see this van.

At the heart of the park is the rotunda, a domed bandstand surrounded by four colonnaded pavilions.

 

After a drink stop, we continued towards East Anglia University, but only got as far as a the eastern corner of the lake.

We didn't get to see the University itself  (where my sister Sue and daughter Laura both studied) and its famous ziggurats - currently still closed despite £2m being spent on remedial work of their unsafe concrete (see here).  Instead we followed the river Yare through the Yare Valley Nature Reserve.

We admired this tree with its autumn colours.

A google search revealed it to be a Swamp Cypress (aka Bald Cypress).

Crossing the main road between Eaton and Cringleford, we came to the start of Kett's Country Trail

We walked this in September 2022 (see here).

Our lunch stop was at Eaton's St Andrew's Eco Church, the last surviving thatched church in the city. Read more about it from Simon Knott's Norfolk Churches site here.

Oddest conversation of the day was when Rachel asked Shaun to say something about fish, maybe a recipe, or something. He said "But I don't cook". I said I was having griddle tuna steaks with a bean salad for tea, so she asked him to say that. Then she explained that Dan had said to her that he thought Shaun's speaking voice was very similar to the celebrity chef Rick Stein.... and indeed it is very similar!

 

This is the old part of the church.

But there is also a huge new extension on the side.

Very impressive.

Onward now towards Tuckswood. Some pretty autumn colours here...

We returned to the River Yare and the wetlands of Marston Marshes.

These banded galloway cattle looked quite young.

We passed the end of this maple-lined street.

This house had gone perhaps a little overboard on the Halloween decorations.

We reached the Norwich County Hall in Lakenham. Rather curiously it has a Jaguar aircraft outside - the Spirit of Coltishall. It was moved here in 2007.

We stopped to admire it.

Soon after we were on the Boudicca Way into the city centre, retracing the last part of our route when we walked it in October 2020 (see here). Here is some of the old city wall.

We finished with a short stretch along the river.

Our walk was officially over at this bridge, where we dispersed.

Roland went to get a 3:30pm train, but Jane, Pam, Shaun and I had time for a drink at The Queen of Iceni before we had take the short walk to the station for our trains back home.

An interesting tour of the sights. Thank-you Joyce for leading us round and to the others for the additional company.

You can find more details of our 10.8 mile route here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file here) and more of my photos here on Flickr.

Other related walks you can find on my blog include

• Norwich GoGo Hares Trail  (Aug 2018)
• Norfolk Nomads Walk (Jan 2020)
• Whitlingham Park Walk (Jul 2020)
• Boudicca Way Part 2 (Oct 2020)
• Norwich T.riffic T.rex Trail (Aug 2021)
• Marriot's Way (Dec 2021)
• Kett's Country Trail (Sep 2022)
• Norwich Nooks and Crannies Walk (Oct 2023)
• Another Norwich Day Out (Nov 2023)