After our trip to Paris, we headed back to work on Tuesday leaving Nola and Stacey to play tourist on their own.
They started their sightseeing adventures with a Sandemans Walking Tour, walking in the footsteps of the rich and powerful on the Royal London Tour. Covering some good ground, they passed lots of key attractions such as Buckingham Palace, The Houses of Parliament, Westmister Abbey, Trafalgar Sqaure and the Big Ben. They even learnt that the Big Ben is the name of the bell, rather than the tower itself, which is called the Elizabeth Tower.
Keen to learn more, on Wednesday they headed out on a day trip to Bath and Stonehenge. Nola and Stacey were in awe of the beautiful buildings that make up the quaint town, just as we were on our visits back in September and again in late November. Nola and Stacey spent the day wandering around the town and having lunch, before getting back on the coach to drive to Stonehenge. After a quick visit at this mysterious attraction, it was time to head back to London.
Thursday and Friday, Nola and Stacey continued to be avid sight-seers and ticked off some other key London attractions such as the London Eye, London Dungeons, Hyde Park and Oxford Street.
Come the weekend, we hired a bright red Honda Jazz through easyCar Club and headed out to Wells-Next-The-Sea. What and where is Wells-Next-The-Sea you ask? Wells, as the locals call it, is the original hometown of Brendan’s family ancestry on the Norman side. It is an old fishing village about three hours’ drive north east of London, in the district of Norfolk. We spent the morning searching for the gravestones of Thomas and Ann Norman, Brendan’s mother’s father’s, great great grandparents, who are believed to have died and been buried there in the early to mid 1800s. Unfortunately the town’s main church, St Nicholas, burnt down in 1879 before being reconstructed and given the time since passed, many of the gravestones that were left were in a poor and indecipherable state. After having no luck, we continued looking around the town and drove across to Holkham Beach before having some delicious fish and chips back in town for lunch. How very British of us!
After lunch and a gelato for good measure, we continued the ancestry search out to another town just outside of Wells, named Holkham. The original Norman relative to emigrate to Australia was Robert Norman (Brendan’s great great great grandfather) and it is believed that Robert's brother, William, lived here and was buried at St Withburga Church. The church sits on a hilltop in a remote, wooded corner of the Holkham Hall estate which was a little bit eerie to find, but there is no mistaking the church. It is very grand and magnificent! We managed to find the grave of William Norman and during our hunt also discovered that this church was also home to the Earls of Leicester. Perhaps the Norman family weren't working class after all!
Pleased by our efforts at finding a Norman gravestone, we headed back to London to return the car. When we arrived at the apartment building to drop off the car, we were greeted by an older man called Ted, one of the residents. The apartment building was for retirees and we had hired the car of the manager (not Ted). It was starting to rain as we dropped off the car, so Ted very kindly offered to drop us home so we didn’t have to walk in the rain – what a gentleman!
On Sunday it was time for some more shopping, so we headed out to the London Designer Outlet at Wembley in search for some trainers. With new shoes for Nola and Stacey in toe, we then headed to the Grosvenor Hotel for a scrumptious afternoon tea.
Highlights for the week:
- Nola and Stacey Sandemans walking tour
- Day trip to Bath and Stonehenge (Nola and Stacey)
- London Eye (Nola and Stacey)
- London Dungeons (Nola and Stacey)
- Oxford Street (Nola and Stacey)
- Hyde Park (Nola and Stacey)
- easyCar trip to Norfolk
- St Nicholas church
- Holkham Beach
- Traditionally British fish and chips for lunch
- St Withburga Church at Holkham Hall Estate
- "Taking lifts from strangers" and meeting Ted
- London Designer Outlet
- Afternoon tea at Grosvenor Hotel
No comments:
Post a Comment