King's Lynn – 30 April 2011

The traditional May Day Bank Holiday began today, so although we spent yesterday in London, we decided to still go away for the remainder of the long weekend.

A last minute decision allowed us to follow the sunshine, and the best area closest to London was Norfolk. We arranged accommodation in Kings Lynn, but before exploring the town, we did a circular AA tour starting and ending there.

The first stop on the tour was actually a lunch break for us, as it took 2.5 hours to reach here from London. Castle Rising is a great little town, with all the ingredients needed for interest – historic church, great almshouses a ruined castle and a brilliant little tearooms in a lovely period cottage with sheltered garden.

From here the tour passed by the Royal Holiday home at Sandringham, and nearby is Wolferton, a fascinating tiny town, which basically is only there because it was the Royal Railway Station. When King Edward VII & Queen Alexandra visited Sandringham, they alighted here at their own private train station. The train line is now gone, and the buildings are all private dwellings.

The tour continued through the lovely Burnham towns and onto Holkham Hall, where it was time for another cup of tea.

Down the road is the lovely town of Little Walsingham. This was a pilgrimage town, and there is certainly a wonderful feel to this town, and the tranquil old ruined abbey.

The route then took us through Castle Acre – another wonderful castle town, before reaching King's Lynn. After checking into a lovely room in our Victorian house hotel at Stuart House, we explored the town. This was once a prosperous port, dating back to the 12th century.

 There are many wonderful old buildings in the old part of town, adjacent to the river and old port. The church also dates from the 12th century, and is one of the largest for a town of that size, in the country. The town looks prosperous, and not suffering from the recession, we really enjoyed exploring it.