Pre-Brexit GB Part 2: Roots and two cities

The next eight days took Greyrocks initially into "hostile" territory with time in East Anglia. As so many times before we were staying with Bob's "cousin" in Oulton Broad, Suffolk, who was very recently returned from a long stint in Malaysia.
He is always happy to go out to eat with us, and after a trouble-free journey from London, and in reasonably bright weather we went for a drink beside the water, and then - after a false start - for a very good meal in an empty pub.

Oulton Broad: -It wasn't this warm!

Wednesday was our day for spending time with the vestiges of Bob's Suffolk/Norfolk family. This involved a lunch at a beach-side establishment in Kessingland, followed by an attempted walk on  said beach - which didn't last too long in the fierce North Sea wind. Bob's cousin's son - who has Down's - took us to see his new home in Lowestoft. He has been waiting for a place in a suitable supported living environment for some time now.(His Mum is older than Bob!) He was delighted to show us round and we attached the Dr Who plaque we had brought as a gift to his door, and eventually sorted out his WiFi! We left feeling very optimistic and impressed by the staff, opportunities and other residents!

Another day was spent on the traditional trip to Great Yarmouth. Bob went on a serious bike ride round his old haunts whilst Ruth did some shopping. He came back with recommendations of two points of interest for us to visit. The Winter Gardens - part of the Wellington Pier - is at last to be restored, so is surrounded by fencing on which a thorough set of old promotional posters, press photographs and a historical account was displayed. Although fairly low-key it was fascinating and we only left because our parking time was elapsing. ('Shame two antisocial drivers had partially obstructed the offering! Ruth took photos and mentally composed a letter to the Council about non-enforcement, but life is too short!) The other was developments on the "spit" between river and sea. We have driven round it on every visit and seen dereliction and closed-off areas, Now, with Scroby Sands being one of the UK's offshore wind farms there are turbine parts waiting to be transported and assembled. Fascinating! Is this some sort of regeneration?

Back to the comfort zone!

The journey to Cambridge could be leisurely, but despite meticulous planning we failed on the ring road and ended up in a zone where every student was Chinese! Resolving the mistake we reached our chosen pub accommodation and realised it was an excellent choice for our three nights. It was motel-style single storey and on the Park and Ride bus route into the city. The only problem was that there was no restaurant service as they had no chef - did we know of one? They also gave us instructions for reaching a launderette, which was where we spent the afternoon!
Trip Advisor showed three eateries near our base and on the first night we used the gastro-pub, which was an extravagant pleasure!

'Did the sights - but no punting!

We had two full days for sightseeing, and some minor clothes shopping, but the first was tainted by rain. We looked for a pub in which to shelter, but the most obvious was a Wetherspoons, which we are now boycotting! It is, however, in the same building as an arts cinema, so that gave us an idea for other rainy spells! Saturday was a better day, but the city heaving! We seem to have hit a graduation day - so our traipsing round the obvious tourist targets was not a solitary experience! We ultimately took refuge in the cinema, and watched an engaging film - unimpaired by dialogue in Icelandic and Ukrainian!  
We had eaten the previous evening at a very good Wok/Grill/Buffet, so for this final evening we tried the standard pub menu across the road. We may have had to suffer the tail end of the FA Cup Final, but later a band turned up. which kept us very content till closing time!

Greyrocks enjoyed the little break in Cambridge and will be back, in spite of coming across a bus stop where busses don't stop (unpublished Limited Stop) and a Post Office with no post box!

Next stop would be Bath for two nights. Plenty of route options were offered by Messieurs Google and Michelin. We picked the worst involving the traffic delights of Milton Keynes and disrupted bit of motorway! By the time we had negotiated this, and Ruth had misdirected the joining of the M4 resulting a very tedious A4 passage through towns like Hungerford and Marlborough we were dreading locating the hotel, but it worked and we had chosen a cracker for our short stay! The Travelodge looks out onto  a large pond with swans, and - at least during our stay - free parking. We had hoped we would find somewhere still serving Sunday roast into the late afternoon, but didn't! The two nearest eateries were, however,.  both inviting and we ate very well at The Ring o' Bells and stayed for some of the live jazz.

Ruth had lived and worked in the area for years pre-Bob, so had some idea of the city's potential for a restful few days. We did a lot of walking - particularly along the river, and Bob cycled down the canal towpath, The weather was kind and we felt rested and ready for the crammed programme submitted to us by Chloë.