Cromer

Once we'd finished our buffet breakfast at the hotel, we set off to wander through the Norwich town centre. Our main aim was to purchase a warmer rainjacket for Ella. In the process though we discovered the beautiful Royal Arcade and the Norwich Markets. The impressive Norwich Castle (now a museum) could occasionally be seen looming in the distance between buildings. Time for a quick coffee before heading off to the coast.


Cromer, a little seaside town 35km directly north of Norwich was where we were heading before beginning the drive back to Oxford. After finding a car pack (which is a challenging task in itself), we walked along the escarpment towards town and the pier. On the way we stumbled across a crowded fish'n'chip shop. Deciding that was a good sign and since it was nearly 1pm, we order some lunch to take away. Found a park bench over looking the pier and ocean to consume our food. Katy managed to drop her bucket of chips, twice, and Ella needed the toilet before she even got a chip into her mouth, meaning they were mostly cold by the time she got to eat.

The Cromer Pier and Theatre Pavilion dominates the ocean view. Originally built from cast iron in 1822, the Cromer Pier was about 64m long. It has been repaired and rebuilt on numerous occasions due to storm damage, general exposure to the natural elements as well damaged caused by ships running into it! The Pier has a colourful history beginning as a wooden jetty followed by additions of a bandstand, then a pavilion used for roller-skating to now a theatre which seats 500+ people. The current Pier is approximately 150m long.

We were more interested in the playing on the beach and although the weather was miserable, the water cold we had fun!

Of course, we tried to keep the girls from getting too wet on this beach, to no avail. At this point Katy suddenly realised how cold she was, and we had to make a mad dash back to the pier to change into drier clothes, and put our shoes back on. Then, we opted to go straight back to the car for a long, often rainy, drive home to Oxford.