Journey home from Mundesley

An antique British car, at Felbrigg Hall, looks like they are in for a day of fun with the picnic basket strapped on the car.

St. Mary's Parish, Roughton

It was such a beautiful sunny weekend, when I headed home, there were some clouds.  I thought that this is really pretty with the sun peeking out of the clouds.



My vote for the best roundabout.  It was just so pretty - completely full of jonquils!



I know that it seems that some of my posts are out of order, but I want to share everything with you and sometimes it very hard to do it in order.  I just had to share Emily's Tea Room before I could finish my Mundesley weekend!  These are some of the sites that were along my journey home.  The roundabout would have to be the most beautiful roundabout that I have seen.  I don't really like roundabouts, but I guess I would say this is my favorite!

Lunch at Felbrigg Hall



Felbrigg Hall is 17th century Jacobean style.  Written across the front of the hall it says Gloria Deo in Excelsis - Glory to God in the Highest.  Felbrigg is said to be haunted, Debra agrees with this statement!



The carriage house is where the restaurant and gift shop is located.  Just out the door from where we ate is where the horses were fed.

I had cottage pie - it s minced beef with vegetables, topped with mashed potato.  I would say the minced beef is more like our ground beef.  So really it was like ground beef with finely chopped carrots and onions topped with mashed potato. 

This is where the horses were fed.



St. Margaret's church is on the grounds of Felbrigg Hall

Sunday lunch on my weekend in Mundesley, Michael and Debra took me to Felbrigg Hall.  We ate lunch there and walked around the property.  Debra said that the hall is supposed to be haunted and she agreed with that!

Afternoon tea at Emily's Tea Room

Afternoon tea with really nice Royal Doulton china

This is what I ordered:

The Chocolate Afternoon Tea

Chocolate & Praline topped Brioche Warm Homemade Chocolate Scone with Clotted Cream & Preserve
A Slice of Homemade Cake - ( Black Forest Cake)
A Pot of Chocolate Tea with Chantilly Cream

Chocolate & Praline topped Brioche

Warm Homemade Chocolate Scone with Clotted Cream & Preserve

A Slice of Homemade Cake - ( Black Forest Cake)

A Pot of Chocolate Tea with Chantilly Cream

Nelz Ruiz, the Casualty Assistance Representative at RAF Mildenhall and I went to visit RAF Menwith Hill, when we returned to Mildenhall village, he showed me some of his local favorite places.  Emily's Tea Room is what he suggested for a late lunch.

Emily’s Tea Room is my new favorite place in England!  Emily’s has actually been named one of the top ten tea room’s in the area!   They aren’t just a tea room; they are a licensed tea room!  I knew it was a special place when I walked it and they had a really nice little framed sign that said no children under the age of 12 allowed!   The food was absolutely wonderful; the chocolate tea special that I ordered was almost too pretty to eat!  Everything was sprinkled with glitter.  It was beautiful, and rich..... I couldn't even make a dent in what I ordered, so Nelz helped me, and the remainder, I had wrapped up for him to take to his wife.

Emily’s is located directly across from the bus stop that Stephen will be coming to from the airport, so Emily’s will be the first place I get to take him!  I am sure he will be as excited about it as I am!  If you all get a chance, look up www.emilystearoom.co.uk and you will be able to see their awesome menu and get a taste of what a wonderful place it is!   

Thanks Nelz for the introduction!

Blickling Estate

Blickling Estate, dates back to the 14th century. 

I think this is really neat.  It is an entry way that is cut right through the hedge.  When you look through there as you go through the archway, all you can see is roots.

Blickling Estate has beautiful gardens.  The jonquils were blooming so beautiful. 
I love this tree that is in the middle of all the jonquils.



Church that is adjoining the Blickling Estate.

 Another stop on the Mundesley Beach tour was Blickling Estate.  It was really beautiful, the drive to the estate was awesome, some of the fields were full of white snow drops.  The garden at Blickling was beautiful, even though all the flowers were not in bloom, it was very nice and peaceful.  Debra and I sat on a bench overlooking the garden and lake.  She said they come out there quite often and just sit on the bench and enjoy the garden.  Thanks Debra and Michael for sharing your bench with me!

Cromer Pier

Cromer Pier, Cromer, Norfolk, United Kingdom 
This pier has a theatre, a restaurant and it also houses the reslife boat station.

Debra and Michael on the Cromer Pier.  The Hotel de Paris at the foot of the pier was built in 1820.



Looking down the beach from the pier.



The rescue boat station on Cromer Pier.  The rescue boat is winched into the station using a large winch.  The rescue boats are manned by volunteers, anytime there is a rescue, the volunteers are paged and come to the rescue boat station for the rescue, kind of like volunteer firefighters in some of our small towns.

The rescue boat preparing to be loaded into the rescue boat station.

There she goes!

They do not have boat launches like we do, so this is the way that the boats
are launched and taken out of the water.

It was a beautiful day Sunday to be hanging around the beach.  We went to the Rocket Cafe, which is located in the Rescue Boat Museum.  It was very interesting.  The cafe was great, we sat outside drinking hot chocolate, I had a mocha with Bailey's - it was great!

The Shrine of Our Lady, Walsingham, England

Typical street in an English Village.  This is Walsingham, UK



The 11th century well at the Shrine of Our Lady, Walsingham





 We visited the Roman Catholic National Shrine of Our Lady, Walsingham, England.  This was a really interesting place to visit.  The majority of the churches in England are Church of England, there really are not that many Catholic churches.  The village of Walsingham is so very peaceful.  It is very well know in England because there are many pilgrimages to this shrine. The well is from 11th century stonework is said to be healing waters.  Of course I had to take a drink! 

The Marsh Lands

The Marsh lands

Waiting for the tide to come in. 



These people are waiting for the tide to come in so they can board a boat to go on a seal watching trip.

 This is the marsh lands areas.  There is a really nice wilderness facility with a cafe that is across from the marsh lands in the first picture.  This area is a very well known bird sanctuary.  There were so many really pretty birds everywhere.  At the wilderness center, they had binoculars for viewing the birds.  Many people were there with binoculars and cameras with really high power lens.

Beach at Mundesley

Michael and Debra Parke     at their holiday home in Mundesley, UK

The beach at Mundesley, just a short walk from Michael and Debra's.  I thought this was really neat, a lady was training her horse at the beach.  There are a lot of horses in the UK.

Debra at the beach.  She was bundled up like it was really cold.  I didn't really think it was that cold!

I spent last weekend at the beach.  You all know that I can't be this close to the ocean and not go to the beach!  Sylvia and Butch cruised on the Queen Mary from England to New York back in October and they met a lovely couple Michael and Debra Parke.  Michael and Debra live in Leicester, which is about 2 hours north of Lakenheath.  Debra and I have been e-mailing since before I left home.  We have been talking on the phone and via Skype since I arrived.  We finally had the opportunity to meet this past weekend.   They invited me to spend the weekend at their holiday home in Mundesley, which is on the east coast.   Let me tell you, I could not have asked for a better tour guide!  They took me all over the coast, it was great!  We are hoping to get together again in a few weeks and definitely when Stephen arrives.

What's going on?

As you all know there are so many "things" going on in the world right now, it’s a little scary!   RAF Lakenheath is the home of the 48^th Fighter Wing, so they have been really busy!  There was the terrible incident that occurred at the airport at Frankfurt last month and just within the past few days, a fighter plane from RAF Lakenheath crashed.  Fortunately, the pilot and co-pilot ejected prior to the crash, and are both doing well.  The base has been really busy with service members deploying to dangerous areas, which if you have been watching the news, you know that there are several dangerous areas at the current time.  As always, keep our service members and their families in your prayers. 

I have received e-mails from many of you inquiring about VA representatives in Japan and my friends in Okinawa.  All of my friends in Okinawa are fine; Okinawa is an island about 700 miles south of Tokyo, they didn’t have any residuals of the earthquake.   As far as the VA representatives that are currently serving in Japan, Ryan Nelson from the VA Regional Office in St. Paul, MN was covering the bases at Yokota, Yokosuka, Misawa, Atsugi and Camp Zama but he has returned to his home in St. Paul due to the situation in Japan.  We still have Michael in Okinawa and Jenny covering Iwakuni and Sasebo.

On a brighter note, 48 days until Stephen arrives :-) - and just a short 66 days until I get to give Morgan a big hug and kiss!  It is always fun to travel and it is always great to get home!  That being said, that also means only 66 more days to pack in a lot more sightseeing.  Daylight saving time begins Saturday, so I will have more hours after work to continue my adventures!  Stay tuned….

Sea Life Park

The day that I went to Cadbury World, we also went to Sea Life Park in Birmingham.  It was nice, but I have been to some really awesome aquariums, so in comparison it just mediocre.  They do have an awesome sea horse breeding area that was great!

Spring in the United Kingdom

Just a quick post to say hello and happy spring to everyone! I had a great St. Patrick's Day, spent the weekend in a wonderful little English seaside village, with some great new friends, (thanks to Sylvia), had a wonderful 19th wedding anniversary yesterday (well as wonderful as you can have in a totally different country that your spouse) and today, a beautiful drive to RAF Menwith Hill, Harrogate, the best thing about this trip is I didn't have to drive!  To top all this off, the weather has been beautiful!  I think that spring has arrived.  I will write more later about each of these adventures.  For now, I have some exploring to do while the sun is shining!

Oh, I almost forgot, something else that made today great - lunch at the club was a Mexican buffet!  First Mexican food since before Christmas!  The only thing missing was a margarita and all of our regular El Chico's gang!

Cadbury World



One of the best things about Cadbury World - everything was purple!  Even the employees uniforms, the ladies were wearing purple jacket and pants or skirt with a violet blouse.  The men were wearing a violet shirt with a purple tie and black pants.  The carpet was purple, the walls were purple, it was just wonderful!  Maybe when I retire from the VA I can get a job there! 
Oh, wait, I would have to move to Birmingham, England. 
No thanks, I love Arkansas!

 

Isn't this cute, a little village of chocolate eggs!



This is all made of chocolate, don't know if you can tell, but is says "Relax on Mothers Day".
Wouldn't all mothers like to be relaxing in the big bubble bath or a big tub of chocolate? 
Either one sounds wonderful! 

He was demonstrating how they make filled chocolate, after they put it in the molds, they cover all the molded cups and pour the remained of the chocolate out, to make hollow pieces of candy, when that hardens they fill it with cream, chocolate, carmel, etc.





Now that is one big Easter egg!



Making a chocolate soccer ball.



This masterpiece of chocolate was made in honor of the 2012 Olympics being held in London.

What could be better than touring a chocolate factory?  The tour was awesome, let me tell you, Guinness could learn a few things from them.  Of course, I guess the audience is quite different touring a chocolate factor as opposed to touring a beer storehouse!  At Cadbury we actually got to tour the manufactoring plant, we saw chocolate being poured into molds, made into soccer balls, eggs, and bunnies; being decorated and packaged.  Of course the best part, was they gave us chocolate all along the way, not just pieces of chocolate but candy bars!  It was a lot of fun.  At the end of the tour, they had a store that was literally everything Cadbury!  The prices were amazing in comparison with the stores.  I bought a bunch of things to send home, I spent about $50.00, but the lady checking out in front of me had so much stuff!  She spend 112 pounds, which $179, now that is a lot of chocolate!  Of course after I left, I was wishing I had bought more to give as gifts!  I have to hurry and mail the Cadbury eggs and other goodies that I bought to send home or they will be gone!