Tea with the Queen

Well, sort of.  Andrew really did have tea with the Queen, and her family, after his choir sang for them one Christmas.  We got to hear all about it during this lovely weekend in Norfolk.  What we personally did follows.

We have had a quiet couple of weeks leading up to this trip.  Last weekend we took things quietly and did a bit of exploring locally.  On Saturday we drove a bit further afield in search of a particular pair of work shoes for Grant but had no luck, so on Sunday we went to Guildford to continue the search; it’s a pretty town and great fun for window-shopping in expensive stores.  We also found the work shoes so that was all good.

 

This weekend has been a lot more adventurous.  Grant went to work as usual on Friday, and I was coming into London to meet up with Rachel Steele from WGC who is over in Europe on a well-deserved sabbatical.  We were then going north to spend the weekend with my mother’s cousins Andrew and Brigitte Haig in King’s Lynn.  So I checked on Google maps (wonderful wonderful Google maps) and found Epping, a station at the end of the Central line of the Underground, from which we could drive pretty much straight north.  I left home at 8am and drove to Epping.  The car was safely parked there for just £5.50 for the whole day, and I hopped on the train to the city.  I was meeting Rachel and her partner Selwyn in Leicester Square at 11am.  I arrived at 10.30, just in time to get a text from Rachel saying they were early, so we all went in search of a decent coffee.  I had been told that ‘Sacred’ was run by Antipodeans and the closest one was only a few minutes’ walk away.  Sure enough we found it and my Wellington friends were able to get a flat white.  My latte was ok, but I still very much miss Astoria on Lambton Quay.

After a leisurely morning tea, we walked along the north bank of the Thames to the Millennium Bridge and the Tate Modern.  It was certainly a much better day for pedestrian bridges than the day in November 2006 when I insisted on crossing the Millennium Bridge in the pouring rain, just so I could say I’d been on it!

The Tate Modern was very interesting; I actually enjoyed the building itself more than the installations we saw.  There are some truly awe-inspiring spaces in there.  I was also interested to see the installation “The Crystal Quilt’ as I had heard a long interview with the artist in Radio 4.  I am not sure I would really have understood the purpose of that installation if I had not previously heard the interview, which made me wonder what other viewers made of it.

We had a late lunch together in a restaurant on the South Bank, out on the deck enjoying the beautiful summer day.  I could get into the habit of being a people-watcher I think!  After lunch it was time for Rachel and Selwyn to return to where they were staying, and not far off time for me to meet Grant.  He had gone into work early in the hope of getting away early for our drive. 

We were in the car and on the road north by 4.30 which we were pretty pleased about.  Our satnav gave us pretty good directions, not taking us off easy main roads until we reached Ely.  We were running ahead of schedule  but I couldn’t call Andrew to let him know as we ended up too far off the beaten track for cell phone coverage.

We arrived safely at the Haig home before 6.30, and it was great to be out of the car.  Andrew and Brigitte had travelled to NZ in February with Andrew’s brother Murray, and we had the pleasure of meeting them then.  This was the first time I had seen them since I was a small child, and we really enjoyed having them visit us briefly.  It was equally lovely to visit their home.  We were immediately made so welcome.  After a delicious evening meal, we were taken to the “Ouse Booze”, a local boat club of which Andrew and Brigitte are members.  We sat out on the deck over the River Ouse drinking and chatting until the daylight had gone.  The club faces east so we didn’t get to watch the actual sunset, but it was beautiful all the same.

Saturday dawned sunny and hot (even before breakfast), and we made a leisurely start.  The major attraction for the day was to be Sandringham, the Queen’s home and the residence where the whole royal family has Christmas.  The grounds are glorious, with wonderful stands of rhododendron (not currently flowering) and hydrangea (in fine form) as well as many English native trees and flowers.  We wandered the grounds slowly as it was far too hot to go at any kind of speed.  Luckily the beautiful established trees provided plenty of shade.

The house itself is equally beautiful.  Luckily the royal family are currently at Balmoral, so we were able to tour the ground floor.  The guides are staff who help to care for the family when they are in residence, and they happily shared lovely stories that illustrate a warm and caring family relaxing together.  I really enjoyed it, but did find myself thinking it must be hard to have such a long family history.  The rooms are so full of collections of art and sculptures that Queen Elizabeth’s parents and grandparents acquired that she has no room to collect anything herself.  Still, she has other homes.  Maybe her collections are elsewhere.

We had lunch at the Sandringham Tea Shoppe before tackling the Sandringham Museum where quite a number of the decommissioned royal cars are on display.  The Queen’s Rolls Royce is huge!  No wonder she usually comes to Norfolk by train; the Rolls wouldn’t fit down most of the Norfolk roads!

After Sandringham, we drove to the Wolferton Station where the royal family, and any royal guests, used to arrive by train.  The station is closed now and the tracks removed, but it is still a beautifully maintained old building.  I can just imagine its grandeur when a Tsar or European prince arrived in his first class (and then some) carriage for a private visit to Sandringham.

The consensus was that this was enough for one very hot day, although we did detour past Norfolk Lavender where Grant got some Norfolk Lavender beer, and I got some lavender honey for bread-making.  Apparently the beer was very refreshing, but Grant felt the ‘brewed with a hint of lavender’ was more along the lines of ‘brewed quite close to some lavender fields’.

St. Nicholas's Chapel

On Sunday morning Andrew, a vicar, was conducting services at two village churches, so Brigitte kindly took us into King’s Lynn to see some of the old buildings.  We started at St. Nicholas’s Chapel, a lovely old chapel commissioned by the local merchants in the early 14^th century.  The spire is clad with lead in a gorgeous overlapping design I haven’t seen before.  Inside, there are amazing wooden angels at the base of all the major wooden roof beams.  There were volunteers there as guides, and to maintain the Photographic Club exhibition that is on.  One of these guides is a friend of Andrew and Brigitte’s and was so friendly and informative.  He even opened a set of doors that are being restored so we could see some of the restoration work. 

One of the roof-beam angels.

From here we wandered through the main shopping street and down to the old Customs House on the wharf.  Outside of this is a statue of Captain Vancouver who charted most of the coastline of the Pacific Northwest.

We got back to the car just before the parking warden ticketed us (phew!) and returned home to meet Andrew, who cheerfully informed us that he had done “enough religion for four” that morning so we had no need to feel guilty!

We went out for lunch to a place called Knight’s Hill and despite the heat we all succumbed to the lure of the carvery and had a delicious roast lunch.  We tried very hard to pay, but Brigitte was not to be argued with.  We have consoled ourselves with the promise to return and take them out for a meal next time.

We returned to King’s Lynn for the afternoon, starting with St. Margaret’s Church.  This is still a parish church, and what fascinated Grant and I was how crooked it is.  The land it is on is very soft, and the weight of the stone has caused pillars and walls to shift and lean over the centuries.  I have to say I didn’t feel very safe in it – especially the side chapel which had a small sign warning about falling masonry.  Obviously Health and Safety officers hold no sway in a house of God.

No, I was not holding my camera crooked!

We then wandered to the river and along to the Custom House once more via some lovely little old courts and streets – King’s Lynn has a lot of crooked buildings, but they are so pretty.  This time we went into the Custom House, but sadly we couldn’t go right up to the top to look out from the vantage point of the Chief Excise Officer, who used to sit up there and watch the ships come in so he knew where to send his lackeys to collect the excise.  Another time perhaps.

As it was so very hot, our last stop was a lovely café on the riverside to get a cold drink and sit inside out of the sun.  As Brigitte said, it might have been just too difficult to get back to the car without some refreshment.

Sadly, after this we needed to get on the road home.  Andrew suggested that perhaps Grant didn’t really need to go to work the next day, but tempted as we were we knew we had to get back.  We have promised to return again soon; apparently we still have to spend a day in Cambridge, a day in Ely and a day in Norwich, and that’s all without even visiting poor Foxglove!  I think there might be regular trips to King’s Lynn ahead of us.