VISITING ENGLAND IN THE FALL
By Glynn Burrows, Norfolk Tours UK
Well, we call it The Autumn, but we all know what we are talking about.
ON BIG BLEND RADIO: From apple picking to touring castles and bird watching, this episode with Glynn highlights some of the fun fall activities and experiences you can enjoy in England. Watch here in the YouTube player or download the episode on Podbean.
Our seasons are changing and this year we have seen the unusually hot temperatures return to the UK during the Summer, over the last few years the mercury has been up to 49.3C (104.5F) in July and we have had very long dry spells too.
What this will all mean for the rest of the year, nobody knows, but we are certainly getting a bit cooler in September and October and that means that it will be much more comfortable for traveling.
I love to travel in September and October because the days are still quite long, and the weather is often very good. It does rain and we may need to wear a light jacket, especially in the evenings, but it is much more comfortable and there are often fewer people because the schools are back.
Colours are amazing in Autumn and the smells of nature are breathtaking. Our gardens are often at their best on either side of the Summer, so, visiting in September and October often means that you get to see the fruit trees laden with fruit.
We usually go apple picking on The Queen’s Estate at Sandringham each year and the choice from the orchards there is amazing. We often pick a lot of cooking apples for pureeing and freezing and a good selection of different eating apples for the family to enjoy over the subsequent few weeks.
Birds are often much more visible in the Autumn, as the ones which breed here are recovering from raising their young and are spending time either getting ready to fly away for the Winter or the ones which spend the Winter here start to arrive. Other wildlife species are also either recovering from the Summer or preparing for the Winter, so we often see much more activity from them during these months too.
A quaint Norfolk Cottage - Norfolk Tours
So, are you looking for a seven-day break at the end of September or early October? Why not use up your air miles or get a cheap flight to the UK and enjoy something like this:
DAY ONE I meet you on arrival at Heathrow in the morning and we travel up to Cambridge, a beautiful University City, where you are surrounded by beautiful buildings and amazing scenery. If you flight arrives early in the morning, as many do, we can visit Cambridge itself on day one, seeing the famous King’s College and we may even take a tip out on the river Cam, in a punt. We spend the night in one of the Colleges and then move on to Norfolk, where we will be based.
DAY TWO and we drive through the Racing town of Newmarket, seeing some very expensive racehorses training on The Gallops. If you are interested in racing, we can visit The National Stud or the Horse-racing Museum and, if you are really interested in the subject, I may be able to arrange a visit to one of the many Training Stables.
We have lunch in a Farm Shop and cafe which has an amazing selection of home produce and as we get into Norfolk, we visit a ruined Norman Priory, to allow me to walk off my cheese scone!
On the way to the B&B, we have a look around a lovely little Market Town to give you a real taste of what England is like.
Your B&B will be in what was a 19th-century pub and now a very good B&B. (The pub was actually run by my wife’s family in the early C20th.)
DAY THREE we will go to Sandringham to see the beautiful estate where His Majesty The King almost always spends Christmas and New Year. Then we go off to the Coast and enjoy a fish and chip tea!
DAY FOUR will be a day in the City of Norwich. We will visit the Castle and Cathedral and then you will have free time to explore the Medieval streets and see what an English city is like.
DAY FIVE will see us going up to Blickling Hall, the birthplace of Anne Boleyn. It’s a beautiful National Trust property with amazing gardens. We then go on to Holt, a lovely Georgian town with antique shops, tea shops, book shops, and beautiful buildings. Exploring the alleyways and popping into the tiny flint buildings is a real treat and a great experience.
DAY SIX will be a real treat for any of you historians, as we will go to a Norman Castle, a Norman Priory, a Tudor Mansion, complete with its own Priest Hole, and a Georgian Market Town. Talk about time travel!!!
DAY SEVEN will see us driving back to Heathrow. On the journey, we will go to the very special town of Lavenham. Filled with timber-framed buildings, this is a real treat for architectural historians. Many of these buildings date back to the C15th and the Church is a magnificent example of a Wool Church. No, that doesn’t mean that it is built of wool………… it was paid for by the wool trade, which was prominent in this area in Medieval times. The success and ultimate collapse of the wool trade is really the story of Lavenham, but I’ll tell you all about that when we are there.
I will drop you off at a Heathrow hotel for the night, so you will be all refreshed and ready for your flight the next day. (Transfers are available from the hotel to the terminal.)
Obviously, this is just an idea of what you could do. The tour could be tailored to your own interests and other things could be included: Gardens, Museums, Galleries, Experiences like learning to make your own jewellery, visiting a brewery, distillery tour, vineyard visit, a day on a Victorian Farm working with heavy horses, private visit to an Arts & Crafts house, sailing, birding, etc, etc, etc and I could take you to any part of the UK.
I don’t just cover Norfolk and, if you are interested in your family history, I tailor tours to your own ancestry. Exploring where your ancestors lived and what they did is an amazing experience, so why not visit the places connected to you and your ancestors Contact me with your own ideas and let’s build a tour just for you!
Glynn Burrows is the owner of Norfolk Tours in England where he provides customized, private tours and also helps his clients trace their English family history. If you are thinking about taking a vacation to England, visit www.Norfolk-Tours.co.uk
