Whitlingham

I was hoping to go for a bike ride today while Felicity was at the university, but when I checked the weather forecast it showed there was a band of heavy rain due to arrive around mid-day. The possibility of ending up miles from civilisation wet and cold didn’t seem attractive, so I reluctantly decided to give it a miss. I didn’t want to spend the whole day indoors though, so I set out for a run soon after breakfast.
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Norwich Nooks and Crannies West

The third of the three inner city walks heads west from the central market. One of the first interesting places was the site of Bethel Hospital, the first provincial mental institution in the country, opened in 1713 with the aim of treating patients rather than just locking them up. It operated until the 1980s, and has since been converted to apartments.
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Wherryman’s Way – Surlingham to Chedgrave

Travelling by bus to Surlingham from Norwich took us about 10 minutes, which was a lot easier than the almost two hour trip on foot in the other direction last week. For the first part of our walk we were sharing the path with about a dozen other people in a group which was a bit frustrating because every time we stopped to look at anything they would pass us then block the track when we got going again. Eventually they turned off and we could walk at our normal pace.
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Wherryman’s Way – Norwich to Surlingham

After my big mission yesterday I was hoping for an easy day exploring the city, but Felicity was keen to start walking one of the long-distant trails leading out towards the coast, so we spent another exhausting day of touristing. Wherries were barges with large black sails, used to transport goods up rivers to inland towns, and played an important part in the history of Norwich.
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Weymouth

We spent yesterday in Southampton visiting the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s flagship that sunk in 1545. I had seen a documentary about the discovery and raising of the ship in 1982, so was very interested now that it is on public display. The approximately 600 large oaks that were felled to build her came from the New Forest area where we have been staying.
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