Norfolk, UK

After finishing up at work, Annette and I still had Friday, Saturday and Sunday to explore more of the UK.  We decided to go to the King's Lynn area in Norfolk.  So bright and early on Friday we were on the road.

We had heard that there were some interesting multi-colored cliffs along the coast, so we took A149 past King's Lynn up to Hunstanton.

We drove in to Hunstanton to get the lay of the land, but, as you may have gathered by now, I hated driving in the tiny streets of the towns, not knowing if I had the right of way or if I was supposed to be a courteous driver and let the other guy go first!  So one of the first things I looked for was a parking lot!  It seems there is no, I repeat, no free parking in all of England!  So I paid for parking in a large parking lot.

This was around lunchtime so we went into a Fish and Chips stand and ordered some...

wait for it...

Fish and chips!

They gave us a big paper plate of French Fries, which they call chips, and then they plopped a big piece of deep fried fish on top of the fries.  If you wanted a "take away" fork, they wanted 10 pence.  If you wanted a packet of Tartar Sauce,  they wanted 10 pence.   We didn't know what to do with the fish, so we just ate it with our fingers.  But, it was fresh out of the fryer and it was hot!  I hope no one was looking!  If they were, they probably thought, "Look at those uncouth Americans!"

As we walked around Hunstanton, we made our way to the beach.  At one end of the beach we could see the beginning of the cliffs.  But we didn't have our cameras with us.  What were we thinking!?!

So we went back to the car and left that parking lot to go to another parking lot on the other side of the cliffs.  And paid for some more parking!

Anyway, here are a couple of shots of the cliffs.

The first two show the difference an hour or two makes.  As we walked up the beach, the sky was dark and stormy.  As we walked back the beach, the sky had all but cleared.

I liked the stormy sky, the sunlight on the cliff and the patterns in the sand.
All of these accentuated by the direction of the sunlight.

Notice the difference in the sky and in the light on the cliff.

Any time there is a sea or ocean with a rocky shoreline, there will eventually be shipwrecks.  I felt we were very fortunate to find these remains of a ship.  I have heard that the tide and storms can cover up the remains of ships for years until another storm comes along and uncovers them!  The skeleton of the ship was steel, so I guess this was not Leaf, the Lucky's wooden sail boat!

After photographing the cliffs until there was no more sunlight, we hurried back to King's Lynn to find our hotel.  The front part of the hotel was a beautiful older building with a lot of character.  However, they had added to the hotel in an ultra-modern style.  Seemed like an interesting contrast.  Maybe they thought, "If you can't match them, try something different."

Saturday, we got up and wandered around King's Lynn.  When we started out walking, there were no people about, just the shop keepers opening up.  By the time we were ready to go back to the hotel, the sidewalks were getting full.

Notice anything familiar?

Have you ever been anywhere where you needed your tripod, but you didn't have it with you?  I have. That tripod is heavy and cumbersome and will draw strange looks from people!

But that's the situation in which I found myself for this next picture.  I wanted most of the picture in focus, which meant that I needed a small aperture, which meant a long shutter speed, especially early in the morning with a strongly overcast sky.

So what's a photographer to do?  Well, the ground is steady.  So I set my camera down on the curb and took a picture of the Customs House.  It wasn't quite straight so I tucked my camera strap under the one edge of the camera and got it straight.  I liked the way it turned out with the cobblestone in the foreground.

The Customs House

Keep Clear
I still haven't figured out the double yellow lines.

 King's Lynn had its own cathedral; a large stone building that was over 700 years old.  The front door was open so I went in.  Churches are places of worship and I always try to respect that.  In addition, I heard a couple of voices deep in the church and I did not want to disturb them, so I just took a couple of quick pictures and left.

For this picture, I used the same technique as the Customs House.  I put the camera on the floor to steady it for the picture.

We have all been involved with organizations that have been at a place where they had less money than  ideal.  

We have all been involved in organizations where one subset of the people want to do one thing and another group wants to do another.  

So the leaders of the organization have had to make choices.  Compromises have to be made.  Decisions have to be made.

This next image is an illustration of those situations.  At the beginning, the designer of the church specified a beautiful arched window.  But a lot of decisions are made over the course of 700 years.  Someone decided to cover up the window, well, most of it.  Then someone else, at another time, had to decide to replace some of the blocks.  Look at the result of these decisions.

King's Lynn Cathedral Window after 700 years

Even though the flight was at noon, we wanted to stay near the airport the night before the flight.  So we decided to drive up A149 along the coast on Saturday and then make our way to London.

One of my favorite images from this drive is the one below with the windmill and the ominous sky.

And so there you have it.  A wonderful trip to the United Kingdom.  And the best part is...We survived driving on the left without damage or injury.

Talk to you soon.