Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Little Witchingham – St. Faith’s Church (Robert Bateman Grave)

    Little Witchingham – St. Faith’s Church (Robert Bateman Grave)

    The churchyard of Little Witchingham church doesn’t have many gravestones remaining, the whereabouts of the older ones is unknown to me….

    This gravestone, located near to the church’s porch, commemorates the life of Robert Bateman, born in 1802 and he was buried on 15 March 1868. He was an agricultural labourer, married to Sarah Bateman, and he had many children, including Susan, John, James, Mary, Martha, Ruth and Elizabeth. He was born in Swannington and later moved to a property in Little Witchingham.

    Unfortunately, that’s about the limit of what I could find out about him, or indeed, any of his family. With the exception that John Bateman pleaded guilty to be drunk and riotous outside Great Witchingham church in 1881. It seems a shame that this seems to be all that’s been recorded in the local press about the family, which was no doubt hard working.

  • Norwich – Plasterers Arms

    Norwich – Plasterers Arms

    This is one of my favourite pubs in the city, definitely deserving its position in the Good Beer Guide. It’s in a residential area and this is one of those pubs which could have easily been lost over recent years, especially since Adnams sold it in 2011 and it is only due to good pub management that it survived. It is formerly a Morgans, then Bullards and then Watney Mann pub, but is now free trade and its future seems much more secure.

    Titanic are one of my favourite breweries and it’s a delight to see something a little rarer from them, which is this Chocolate and Vanilla stout. As a drink, it’s beautiful, a lovely smooth rich beer with the chocolate and vanilla being evident without being overpowering. The service in the pub was friendly and there’s always a relaxed feel to the proceedings.

    The former location of the pub’s bar billiards table….. It’s the removal of this which has also coincided with my not visiting the pub as much, it seems a shame to have lost such a wonderful piece of gaming and the pub’s web-site still has the bar billiards table as their main image on the front page (NB, as a more recent comment, it doesn’t now, the web-site is now also bar billiards less).

    Voodoo Daddy’s was once the supplier of pizzas here and although they’ve moved on, the pub still sells pizzas and also loaded fries. It’s a while since I’ve eaten at the pub, something I must rectify later on in 2020.

    The choice of beers here rarely disappoints me, and I’m not sure that I can remember when it did actually disappoint me…. The staff are knowledgeable and engaging, so the environment always feels welcoming. All rather lovely.

  • Norwich – Ribs of Beef

    Norwich – Ribs of Beef

    In my quest to visit all the pubs in the Good Beer Guide, I’ve managed to mention very few of the Norwich award winners, so I’ll try and resolve that minor problem in 2020….

    The Ribs of Beef has a marvellous riverside location and parts of the building date back to the fourteenth century, although it was badly damaged during a fire in the city in 1507. In 2017, a fragment of the original medieval wall was discovered during renovations, a section which has been left uncovered.

    The building was originally used primarily as a residential property and it was in use as a pub by 1743 when it was first known as the Ribs of Beef. The frontage was knocked about a bit in 1898 to allow for road widening for the city trams and the now smaller building was re-opened as a pub in 1904. It was decided in 1928 by the landlord, Alfred James Kendrick, to rename the pub as the Fye Bridge Tavern. It closed entirely in 1959, so was nearly permanently lost as a licensed premises, but it was re-opened in August 1985.

    Anyway, back to the present. When we entered there was a pub quiz taking place, which I must admit isn’t something that I particularly engage with. However, it’s clear that many people do as the pub was busy and there was a relaxed and informal atmosphere to the premises.

    My drink was half a pint of the Railway Porter from Five Points Brewing, a brewery based in Hackney, London. The beer has been designed to be true to the original style of London porter and there was a richness of taste to the drink, with chocolate and coffee flavours evident. The choice of beers in the pub was also extensive, although the busy nature of the pub made it a little difficult to see the range of beers on the bar or on the boards. But, the range of beers was well curated and there are also plenty of other alcoholic drinks to choose from.

    The pub seems to be something of a success recently (and indeed for many years) and so its entry into the Good Beer Guide seems a worthy one. It’s not really a pub for me as it’s too sports orientated and I like peaceful and calm, but it’s always excellent to see a pub doing well. Very lovely.

  • Little Witchingham – St. Faith’s Church

    Little Witchingham – St. Faith’s Church

    I don’t know why I haven’t been to this beautiful church before, especially given that it’s not overly far from Norwich. Anyway, it was part of the walk before the 2020 Norfolk Ramblers AGM, and a quite marvellous choice of location by the walk leader.

    Most of what is currently here is from the fourteenth century, although there is some evidence of the previous twelfth century church. Of the main structure, only the tower is later and is from the fifteenth century, although it is perhaps the interior that makes this church exceptional.

    The wall paintings are the highlight of this church, dating primarily from the fourteenth century, with one large section telling the story of St. George and the Dragon. Only the reddish elements of the artworks now remain, a reminder of just how bright churches once were before the Reformation changed that situation somewhat. One wall has been prepared for painting, but there are no artworks, it’s thought because the Black Death put paid to that little project. There is though, on the right hand side of the chancel window, some faded text which is thought to have been added after the Reformation, so there was not a total absence of artwork.

    The building is now looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust, who have done a marvellous job of ensuring the interior is protected and they’ve also prepared a comprehensive history of the church. The church is disused and it has been since the 1920s, although some bright spark thought about demolishing it in the 1940s and rebuilding it in Bawdeswell.

    It is primarily through the efforts of Eve Baker, a local historian, who found the church in a perilous state in 1967 and noticed that the damp walls were showing evidence of wall paintings underneath. There were initial studies in the 1970s which uncovered many of the wall paintings, with further evidence being found in the 1980s. Norfolk Record Office hold a collection of photos taken in 1970s of the state of the wall paintings, an interesting snapshot in the history of the church.

    Through the efforts of many, not least Eve, the church was restored and its interior protected. Well, sort of protected, someone pinched a load of their floor tiles in 2008, but welcome to the modern world…. It’s now open from 10.00 until 16.00 every day of the week and hopefully no-one else will pinch anything.

    The chancel of the church. There’s little furniture in the church, which adds somewhat to the whole interior given how impressive the wall paintings are. The Renaissance pulpit from the church survives, but it’s now at St. Faith’s Church in Lenwade.

    The blocked doorway in the north wall, with decorations around it.

    The other side of that blocked doorway.

    Visible here is how the level of the wall was raised when the church roof was reconstructed.

    The section just past the window used to be inside the church, but the wall was rebuilt a little further forwards in the late eighteenth century.

    All told, this is a quite marvellous church and it’s partly a miracle that it’s still here. It made it through the Victorian period relatively unchanged, a fate not shared by all churches, but the congregation size wasn’t there to make it sustainable. Without the intervention of a handful of people, not least Eve Baker, this church could well have just fallen down and been lost.

  • Norwich – Turtle Bay

    Norwich – Turtle Bay

    I used to really like Turtle Bay, but the quality seemed to slide a bit in 2019, but I’m hopeful that things are improving once again. The reviews of the Norwich outlet are still holding up, there are a few negatives, but nothing which suggests any serious problems.

    Anyway, I hadn’t planned on going back in the near future, but just before Christmas, Turtle Bay sent a lot of people with the app £10 off their meal or drinks. When I was away in Poland, there was an update from the app suggesting that I use it for a £10 lunch deal, with no minimum purchase. So, since the offer was running until the middle of February, I thought that I should make the most of it.

    The welcome was efficient and polite, with the staff member confirming that there was no minimum purchase with my voucher, I thought that it was best to double check. I went for the drink of the home-made fizzy mango, served in a bottle with an elastic band around it. It was a generous portion, consisting of mango, lemon juice and grapefruit crush. I got quite a taste of thick mango essence towards the bottom, since neither I nor the restaurant had stirred the drink particularly well. However, it tasted fine.

    The lunch menu gives a choice of a burger or roti, a side and a soft drink for £10. The pulled chicken roti was fine, the chicken was tender, the avocado was soft and there were some pleasant flavours. The chips also had a little spice to them, but even as part of the lunch deal, the pricing is still a little punchy for the amount of food. If ordered in the evening, this would have cost nearer £15 for the three component parts, and I’m not sure that’s particularly good value for money.

    One element that moderately surprises me is that they’re not pushing their core dishes at lunch-time, the offer is limited to burgers and rotis. I’d rather they’d offered something such as jerk chicken, or one of the curries, even at a lower price, to get a little taste of the Caribbean. I thought that I was more getting the taste of Dudley, nothing wrong with it, but there was no elements of surprise with the tastes and textures. I didn’t work out what was in that little dish, but I did liven up the proceedings by adding sauce to everything.

    The service was effortlessly polite throughout, the restaurant was clean (other than the sauce bottles hadn’t been cleaned) and the environment was relaxed and comfortable. I can’t much complain about anything as the restaurant had given me the entire meal for free as part of their app deal, but I still can’t help missing Turtle Bay’s meals of old which were packed with tastes and flavours.

  • The Pianist by Władysław Szpilman

    The Pianist by Władysław Szpilman

    I posted earlier this week about when I visited to see the property where Władysław Szpilman was found by a German who helped to save his life.

    I had only seen the film the Pianist, but was recommended to read the book which Szpilman wrote and which the film was based on. It also has some extracts from the diaries of Wilm Hosenfeld and I have to say (write) that the book was hard to put down and I got through it in a couple of hours. I’m pleased to note that the book is available for free here. There might be a queue to read it, as it works like a library and only a limited number of people can have the book downloaded at one time.

  • Warsaw – Ibis Warszawa Ostrobramska

    Warsaw – Ibis Warszawa Ostrobramska

    I stayed at this hotel twice over the last month, once for one night and once for four nights. I also had to delay writing this review until I spoke to Accor customer services, as the hotel’s manager entirely confused me. Although the hotel has given the blog a new tag-line.

    My first visit was mildly confused as the room they gave me wasn’t ready, although fortunately a cleaner stopped me en route and helpfully referred me back to reception. She was very polite, but I was in no hurry so I walked back to reception and thought that I’d enjoy the welcome drink. Little did I know incidentally about the later welcome drink debacle.

    The only beer available was Zywiec and this was under-poured. But, since it’s Zywiec, I wasn’t too bothered. The staff member was very apologetic about the room mix-up and I was offered the food menu, which I decided against, but I thought that the staff had been so polite that I’d dine here on my return visit.

    The bottled water and a chocolate. I wasn’t sure whether this was in every room or it was a welcome gift, but either way, it was all very nice.

    The room, which I’m entirely content with. On the Ibis room matter I posted excessively about, I’ve been moderately relieved to hear from Accor that their plans are being tempered, so we’ll have to see what happens with the future of Ibis rooms and their modernisation programme.

    The breakfast room, which is also where meals are served in the afternoon and evening.

    The breakfast selection, cold meats, cheeses and there are some hot items available as well.

    Right, but now onto the second visit, which started fine and all was well.

    About once a year, I get bad service at a pub, restaurant or hotel. It’s incredibly rare for me to experience, something like 1 every 150 visits or so. And, I try and be sympathetic as I don’t know why I’ve received poor service, it could be that the staff member has received some bad news, they’re tired from working hard or something which is entirely relatable. I’ve never previously poor service in Poland, on all my tens of trips, this was the first.

    I’ve also spent the last 31 days non-stop in Accor hotels, so I thought it’d be interesting to try the food at an Ibis hotel, and as mentioned above, I had intended to eat here as the staff member had been friendly on the previous occasion. I was also conscious that the Accor member of staff I had spoken to at their Head Office had said they’d monitor my experiences, which is almost certainly something said to shut me up, but I like to please. Ibis run with the same menu across Poland, but I haven’t had anything from it for a couple of years and it’s nice to see how things develop.

    On a different note, I was pleased to receive this drinks voucher which is new marketing as part of Accor’s switch to the ALL loyalty programme. This differed from the previous voucher I had received at this hotel and, experienced as I might be with Accor vouchers, I hadn’t seen this one.

    Just as an aside on this, there are plenty of drinks vouchers out there and hotels vary in what they offer. They don’t have to be really generous and offer nearly any drink, but some do and they’d use the voucher on the right. Some are more limited, they put on the voucher to check the drinks at the bar, it’s a more limited list. They’re equally common and both are used in Poland. I don’t much care which is used, it’s a little gesture, I don’t assume that I’m going to get the most delicious craft beer.

    Anyway, back to being pleased with Accor’s drinks voucher for this hotel. I thought I’d opt for a Zywiec Porter and a burger from the main menu, perhaps buying another drink later on. This plan was all going swimmingly, until I got to the bar.

    The barman ignores me and my hello in Polish, but I put that down to the translation issue that I can’t speak the local language very well and clearly they can. Sometimes I get that a staff member can’t speak English and it’s no doubt frustrating for them. Anyway, he clearly doesn’t want to serve any customers, offering someone else before me a less than polite service, and by this stage he seemed entirely irate at me and ignored me for a little while before serving me. Unfortunately, the barman decided that I must be stupid and he made that very clear. His behaviour didn’t credit his hotel, but we’ll put that down to factors that I have no knowledge of. But, staff sneering at customers isn’t a good look.

    A relatively large number of my friends don’t like going to restaurants or bars on their own, they find it difficult. I’ve long stopped since caring about these matters for me, but I do always ponder how it would affected friends that would have built up confidence to order at a bar. Conscious that customer service staff are on the receiving end of all manner of abuse, I’ll assume that this barman was having a bad day, but it was some of the worst customer service that I’ve seen and exceptionally rare for Poland.

    But, I’m not going to deal with anyone who sneers at customers so I opted for a Pepsi to take to my room, and abandoned my plan to order food. However, I did e-mail the hotel from upstairs (how very British of me, although I did this as I didn’t want any service recovery, I thought that I was being helpful) and query their bloody voucher as without that, I’d have probably never encountered the poor service and I’d have instead happily ordered food. To cut a very long story short, they are defining “any drink other than champagne or spirits” as “any small beer, wine or soft drink”. So, it’s not any drink other than champagne or spirits, indeed, it’s a tiny choice from what they offer paying customers. And, really, the hotel management is blaming Orbis (the company who run Accor hotels in Poland) for giving them the voucher to give out. The management seemed to think it was fine to just hand the voucher out, not mention any limitations, let customers sit down in the restaurant and then mention at this stage the voucher isn’t being honoured. Why on earth try and turn the positivity of a free welcome drink into a negative, I’m unsure.

    This situation confused me, and I decided that I must be an idiot and that the hotel manager was perhaps entirely correct. However, I spoke to Accor customer service, and they replied that the hotel should stop using that voucher and I should tell the hotel manager. At this point, I realised I had done enough to reassure myself that the hotel was at fault, so I just left it. I didn’t tell them that it was the hotel manager that decided the voucher was correct.

    But, moving on to my thoughts about the hotel generally. The staff at breakfast and the cleaning staff were all friendly and polite, the hotel was spotlessly clean and there were no noise problems either internally or externally. There’s not much point in trying to re-evaluate my entire experience because the member of bar staff sneered at me, but nonetheless, I can’t help thinking that the manager’s decision to give customers a voucher which told them they could get any drink, and then decide that this meant “any drink from a list” was really to blame here. But, such things are up to them, and I was otherwise happy with the hotel. It’s located a little way from the centre of Warsaw, but there are frequent trams which stop just a few minutes away, so it’s not an inconvenient location given that. The prices can also be a little cheaper than the city centre Ibis hotels because of its location.

  • Warsaw – Chopin Airport Bolero Lounge

    Warsaw – Chopin Airport Bolero Lounge

    The lounge that British Airways use at Warsaw Chopin Airport is the Bolero Lounge, located in the non-Schengen section of the airport after the automated passport control. There was a friendly welcome from the staff member behind the desk when I entered and I didn’t have to wait to be given entry into the lounge as there was no queue.

    The main food section of the lounge.

    Some higher tables and chairs.

    Fridges with soft drinks.

    There was some hot food, which didn’t look too exciting. The Greek salad was though lovely, with olives on the shelf above it as well.

    I had quite a chunk of the lounge’s blue cheese, but there were other types of cheese to choose from and also some cold cuts. There were also cereals, yoghurts and some wraps.

    Chocolate.

    Fudge.

    How very lovely. The lounge didn’t let me down with regards to the chocolate selection and there was a lady from the United States who was almost beside herself with excitement over the options available to her. I was quite pleased by that as she left a larger pile of empty chocolate wrappers than I did.

    Since my flight was delayed by an hour, I thought I’d have one beer. I hadn’t heard of this one, it’s a Pilsner style beer brewed by Browary Lubelskie, a brewery founded in an abandoned monastery in 1844. They also make the big-selling Perła beer, which I have heard of before. The beer was fine, nothing exceptional, but it met my expectations and I hadn’t exactly expected the lounge to stock a range of craft beers to meet my ridiculously pretentious needs.

    The lounge got busy during the three hours that I was in there, although it was relatively quiet when I had arrived. I found a power point to charge my devices, although there weren’t as many of these as there perhaps could have been. The staff were going around the lounge on a regular basis clearing away empty plates and glasses, so it all felt clean and organised. The toilets are also located at the rear of the lounge, so there’s no need for customers to leave and come back in.

    I gained entry into the lounge as part of my BA status, although they also accept Priority Pass and similar card schemes. There’s also the opportunity for customers to buy entry, which is currently 130zl, or £26, which seems a ridiculously high price to me which goes beyond the price of some UK lounges. I suspect that people might be best to spend their £26 in the range of airport restaurants, but each to their own….

    There aren’t any announcements made in the lounge, but there were plenty of screens and it transpired that it was just a five-minute walk to the gate for my BA flight. The lounge was generally peaceful other than for some idiot doing rounds of the lounge whilst talking loudly into his phone, I suspect so that people could hear how important he was. I didn’t credit him with more general awareness, so I doubted that he realised that people were making their own visible and audible opinions on him behind his back.

    Anyway, a peaceful and clean lounge, and I’d happily come back here for a few hours if I fly back from Warsaw Chopin Airport in the future. All very lovely.

  • Flights – Warsaw to Heathrow T5 (British Airways)

    Flights – Warsaw to Heathrow T5 (British Airways)

    And back to the UK after a month in Poland….. I received a text from BA earlier in the day stating that my flight was delayed, which it indeed was by an hour due to the inbound plane being caught up in foggy conditions at Heathrow. I was in no hurry, given my usual tradition of allowing about eight hours between a flight arriving at Heathrow and a train going back to Norwich. And it just meant another hour in the Bolero lounge eating chocolate, so I managed to cope quite well.

    The gate was all clean and organised, with the signage being clear. The boarding process was muddled and was vaguely split into groups 1-3 and groups 4-5, but there was no enforcement of that. I wasn’t much bothered, as I decided to board a little late anyway, primarily as I saw no advantage in standing in a queue. Other customers were confused though and BA should fix things so that there isn’t any confusion.

    There was a specific reason for my lack of hurry with boarding, which is that BA had turfed me out of my emergency exit row seat about a week ago. When I have a seat in the emergency exit row I try to board first so that I can put my bag in the overhead locker nearby, but on this occasion I had been booted back to seat 37C. I had noticed this last week and decided not to put myself back in the emergency exit, as I’ve come to like being with my bag.

    Seat 37C is right at the back of the aircraft, but it occurred to me that FLY (BA’s seating algorithm) wouldn’t seat anyone by me. This came to pass and indeed they didn’t seat anyone in 37A either, so I had the three seats to myself. I was moved back as there was an aircraft change, to the new A321 Neo, which is controversial to say the least (the aircraft, not me being moved).

    So, the aircraft I had was G-NEOX and congratulations to BA for managing to get that registration, very ahead of the curve. It’s lovely and new, having been delivered to BA on 23 December 2019. This aircraft is densified, so it has 220 seats instead of 205 seats, with the bulk of the aircraft having slimline Recaro seats (the ones at the front in Club Europe, and in economy as far as Club Europe can ever go back have different seats).

    The seats are thin, they don’t recline and they’re unpopular with many people. I’m entirely sold though, I think they’re comfortable, at the appropriate angle and they don’t bloody recline. And I liked being near to the two rear washrooms as I’m not that near, but they’re convenient should I ever need to use them. There’s something quite pleasant about being near to washrooms, rather than stuck on seat 11A with a trolley and 6 passengers in a queue between me and the toilets. The two rear washrooms have been rather ingeniously crammed into the space that they have, but they’re functional and sufficiently big.

    I also like this seat at the rear as I could listen into any conversations which I felt were exciting, primarily connecting customers concerned that they’d be missing their flight at Heathrow. The crew were all professional and helpful, although I’m not sure that many customers actually made their later flights. The only negative about this densified aircraft is that BA haven’t taken the opportunity to put power in, even if it was just USB sockets, and they probably should have done. BA do many things better than Ryanair and easyJet, with this being an area that they could have moved ahead of their budget airline competitors.

    Anyway, back to the flight. The pilot sounded middle class and professional (I’m not linking the two, he just sounded both), with sufficient updates about out delayed flight. Initially there was going to be another 40-minute wait at Warsaw as we’d missed our slot, but this was soon cancelled and there was no extra delay.

    The crew were personable and friendly, lots of smiles and they ran an efficient trolley service for those who wanted to buy food and drink. Only around 10% of customers purchased anything, which likely aided their efficiency. The aircraft was clean and well maintained, although given it’s only a few weeks old, I’d be surprised if it wasn’t.

    The fare was £55 return plus 2,500 Avios, although I get 1,350 Avios back with this flight, so I thought that this was excellent value for money. Especially when taking into account that BA have provided lounge access at Heathrow and Warsaw, so all told, I was entirely content with the flight.

  • Warsaw – Train from City Centre to Chopin Airport

    Warsaw – Train from City Centre to Chopin Airport

    Above is the S2 train having arrived into Warsaw Chopin Airport, so that’s the end of my one month stay in Poland. Well, assuming that my BA flight to London Heathrow arrives in as expected.

    My tram hadn’t arrived into Warsaw city centre until just after the S2 train left from Warszawa Powiśle railway station to the airport. However, I hadn’t visited that railway station before, so I thought I’d meander around for thirty minutes until the next train. By chance, and surprisingly as Polish trains are normally so punctual, I managed to catch the train before which was running a few minutes late. I only just caught that as I had been faffing about reading history information boards, but it was a most convenient way of saving half an hour.

    The train wasn’t particularly busy and arrived just a few minutes later than it should have done into the airport. I already had my day ticket for Warsaw public transport (which costs under £3), but it’s easy to buy tickets at machines throughout Warsaw city centre. I haven’t had my tickets checked at any time in Warsaw though, but there are quite steep fines for anyone who doesn’t have one and that acts as the deterrent.

    So, all very lovely, although I’m not entirely thrilled to be leaving Poland.