Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Travel Tuesdays: The Norfolk Coast

Here begin the wedding/honeymoon posts, dear readers!  I'm excited to share everything with you, but I'll be spacing it all out over the next few weeks so we can get the most out of my memories.  (This blog is about other things, too, I promise, and I don't want to stop writing about everything else while I revisit my wonderful trip to England!)  Let's start by traveling this Tuesday, shall we?  

On the Monday morning after our wedding, once the last of my family had left Bruisyard Hall for Heathrow to return to the States, Jon and I piled into his parents' car for a drive up through East Anglia to the North Norfolk coast.  We stopped at the least pretentious and most lovely little pub for lunch on the way, and I was struck by how close his mum and dad and I had become over the past five years - it's one thing to be welcomed at a special event like a wedding, when everyone's high on love and joy, but entirely another to be part of the family at mundane moments.  It was the most wonderful feeling.

The four of us shared a pot of tea at our pretty hotel before my in-laws turned around to head back to Suffolk and Jon and I struck out for our first sight of the beach.

I'm used to being by the North Sea now because Jon's family lives close to Aldeburgh, a resort town in Suffolk right on the coast, but the beach is pebbled along that stretch and the water is cold even in the summer.  In North Norfolk, fine sand reaches from the dunes all the way to the water's edge - at low tide, there's about a mile of beach between the two.  The water is warm as you wade in, gentle wavelets lapping at your ankles, and little crabs scuttle in the low pools nestled in the sand.  Though I'm loyal to Suffolk, this beach is much more hospitable!

We walked from Old Hunstanton, where we were staying, up to Hunstanton, a larger beach town with a pier.  Along the way, we passed amazing layered cliffs with exposed stone from two different geological eras.  Jon and I wandered through the boardwalk amusements and enjoyed a private ride on the Ferris Wheel as the sky turned pink above us.  Our timing was perfect; because of the curve of the coast, this is one of the only beaches on the east side of the country from which you can watch the sun set over the sea.

It was getting dark as we wandered back to the hotel (and stopped for a very romantic dinner of chili nachos), but we spent most of our free time over the next few days on the beach.  We even took a bottle of our wedding champagne down to the dunes one evening!  We had mostly perfect weather - it was glorious.













36 comments:

  1. Gorgeous! Glad you guys ended up getting a honeymoon! :)

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  2. I've heard the English countryside is beautiful but I've never actually made it out there... enjoy!

    http://lasaloperie.blogspot.com

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  3. Such beautiful photos! Glad to see that a bottle of bubbly was shared on the shore! xx

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  4. Lovely photos! We spend a lot time on the beaches of the North Sea up in Newcastle (Whitley Bay) and it is never warm. Ever. Even in the Summer :)

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  5. Sounds magical! You guys look so happy!

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  6. Ah honey-moon bliss... doesn't get better than that! And bubbly on the beach? Thumbs up! :)

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  7. Love that you had your bubbly on the beach! And what a beach! Those cliffs are absolutely spectacular! I'm going to stop now, I think I've used up more than my quota of exclamation points.

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  8. Love that pic of you drinkin on the beach! I would loooove to be doing that RIGHT now.

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  9. Looks so gorgeous! Love that you kept the honeymoon unpretentious and personal... and that you decided to take your wedding champers down to the beach, so sweet :) xxx

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  10. That looks like the most heavenly spot! And you're right.. it's the mundane moments that let you feel like family!! Thanks for taking us along on the ride! xoxo

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  11. That looks absolutely lovely! And I believe that it's only *true* love when you can share your plate of chili nachos, imho. Congrats! (Also, I absolutely love your blue dress!!) Xx

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  12. Why are you blogging on your honeymoon and not eating desserts in bed (or on the beach)!?

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  13. haha I'm back now! I promise! there was barely any social media on the honeymoon, I promise :)

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  14. I like the less-perfect seaside huts there. The ones in Scarborough are so very spit-shined, which can be lovely but seems more tourist/postcard driven.

    Also this post made me want to suggest you read Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier.
    This post also made me wish I'd been on your honeymoon... but that'd have been awkward, now, wouldn't it?!

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  15. What a lovely honeymoon and champagne on the beach should be an anniversary tradition!

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  16. it's different all over the country - I'm trying to check each country off my list!

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  17. MORE EXCLAMATION POINTS, PLEASE!


    (actually, there were signs all over the place warning about cliff falls - you could see some of the old fencing just hanging in the air up top because of rock slides. eek.)

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  18. it was PERFECT. I sort of feel like if we'd done something elaborate it wouldn't have been as relaxing, you know?

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  19. neither one of us wanted to share. but we did. take THAT, romance!

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  20. they look perfect to me! they can get more perfect? apparently they cost a fortune - well, at least the ones at Southwold in Suffolk do! they don't make them anymore :(


    (no. not awkward at all... haha)

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  21. The ones in Scarborough are so sought-after that some are owned by trusts and estates, others are fought over in will disputes, etc. When one comes available it's INSANE. And (I'm pretty certain) they're all actually owned by the council, so the billion-GBP-cost is all for rentals. But, like, 199-year-leases. I read about it in one of my Yorkshire Life issues.

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  22. Champagne on the beach and chili nachos! YES!!!

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  23. So so pretty. I absolutely love the picture of your rocking the maxi on the beach with champagne. You look so relaxed and happy.

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  24. Lovely! And those dunes... I am agog. Putting Hunstanton on our 'must visit' list.

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  25. Wow that last picture is perfection! Congrats again!!

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  26. Those dunes remind me of a couple of our beaches here!


    Love your dress!

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  27. I love your map. I lived in that area of Norfolk in the town of Saham Toney just north of Thetford as a girl.

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  28. ooh if you can only go to one town around there, I'd recommend Wells over Hunstanton! it's more bunting and things and less casinos. (I was thrilled to be where we were, but it was fun to explore.)

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  29. I was shocked to discover that Norfolk residents did not have webbed feet, as Jon and everyone else from Suffolk spent 5 years convincing me :P

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