This is Norwich’s exciting new Italian restaurant in the Castle Mall, which has managed to close after just a few weeks. I thought something was wrong when I noted that bloggers were being chucked free meals to review it. I don’t set the bar very high on getting free stuff, but at least my feedback is for the restaurant, hotel and so on directly.
The restaurant is apparently re-opening, so I have no idea what’s happened and nor does it seem does the EDP….
For BA customers who have silver status or above, or who are travelling in a premium cabin, they can access all of the Oneworld lounges at Heathrow T3, which are Cathay Pacific, American Airlines, British Airways and Qantas.
I get to fly American Airlines from time to time, both internationally and within the United States, and I’ve never had a bad experience. The staff member at the reception desk was typically American, full of enthusiasm, customer service training and friendliness.
The lounge itself is large and wasn’t particularly busy, but everything seemed pretty well stocked up. There’s a First Class section to the lounge as well, but that’s beyond my access level unfortunately…..
The lunch menu consisted of smoked Spanish style chicken and chorizo with roast new potatoes and green beans. There was also a cured meat platter and and a pasta option.
There’s the cured meat platter mentioned on the menu.
This is the Spanish style chicken and chorizo, although I neither saw nor tasted any chorizo element to it. It all tasted fine, the chicken was tender and the green beans were served al dente (I think that phrase really applies to pasta, but I’m applying it to green beans anyway).
So Cathay Pacific are very proud of their noodle bar serving dim sum and other delicacies. American Airlines don’t have anything like that, but they have a sweet counter instead. This is partly why I like American Airlines so much…..
How rather lovely.
Reading other reviews, not many people pick the American Airlines lounge as their favourite if they’re taking part in a lounge crawl. Perhaps it isn’t, but I think it’s better than a fair few people say it is. Friendly service, spacious and, well, it has unlimited jelly beans and chocolate mints.
A morning flight back to Heathrow T3 from the beautiful country of Luxembourg.
A relatively light load across the cabin, which meant sufficient space in the overhead lockers. I had a row to myself, the same as on the way out.
As for the crew, they were exceptional. The crew member who managed the cabin had a service style which made me wonder if he was a crew trainer, he was faultless. He introduced himself to everyone and he remembered the names of all of the customers, that alone is a very impressive service standard which is rarely ever attained by the crew. For the first time in a long while, I’ve contacted BA to tell them just how good he was.
There was a choice between warm quiche or the above, which is smoked salmon with cottage cheese. Served with a roll, which appeared after I took the photo, and fruit and dessert. The salmon was sapid and flavoursome, the cottage cheese was unexceptional and the cucumber was, well, cucumber. BA seem to have thing about capers, and I’m certainly not one to complain as they add taste and texture. Overall, it was a perfectly acceptable brunch, as the airline calls it.
Note my initial choice of drink, which was sparkling water, was served alongside with a champagne I hadn’t even thought of having until the crew member so politely mentioned that it went well with the salmon. As did the glasses of it he followed up with during the flight.
The flight departed about five minutes early and landed around ten minutes early, not that I was in any particular rush. Heathrow T3 was well staffed, so I was able to leave the airport within twenty minutes of having landed. I’m sure that BA is on an upwards trajectory again after some years of complacency….
I’m typing this in January, but since this Christmas decoration is still at Chapelfield it doesn’t feel inappropriate to post this. Anyway, this random photo is of the giant bauble outside of Chapelfield, and I think it looks rather impressive. Sad to see that the nearby Carluccio’s has now closed, it would have been a good view for their diners to look out on.
Peterborough Cathedral was, for a short while, privileged to be the burial site of two Queens, Katherine of Aragon and Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary was born in 1542 and was rather a threat to Queen Elizabeth since they both have rival claims to the crown. On 8 February 1587 Queen Elizabeth decided that she would have Mary beheaded, whilst she was being held at Fotheringhay Castle.
From Fotheringhay Castle, Mary was brought to Peterborough Cathedral to be buried, with a grand service being authorised by Queen Elizabeth. There was though some delay with these proceedings, with the body not being brought from Fotheringhay to Peterborough for over five months. It’s also thought that her heart and organs were buried near to where she was executed.
James I decided to bring his mother’s body to Westminster Abbey in 1612, where her tomb remains to this day. The tomb that he created at Westminster is rather grand to say the least and was designed by William and Cornelius Cure. Peterborough Cathedral was left with just one Queen, which is still more than most cathedrals in the country can offer.
An information board located near to where the tomb of the Queen was. It’s marked today by Scottish flags which are placed in the nave.
I’ve walked past this plaque lots of times on Cowgate when heading from the railway station to the city centre, but I’ve never noticed it before. It must be the excitement of walking into Peterborough and so I’ve rushed by it at speed.
There is now absolutely nothing left of the graveyard, as can be seen from the side by side map above. It wasn’t until the 1970s that the graveyard was finally removed to build this lovely big roundabout to serve the needs of the local population. If that wasn’t good enough, part of the former graveyard is now also used as a car park. What a wonderful piece of remembering the dead that was….
Incidentally though, this site is said to be one of the most haunted areas in Peterborough. There was some bodysnatching which took place here in the 1820s and the reports of ghostly sightings has been put down to that. Although if I was a ghost, I think I’d like to find somewhere more fitting to stay than a roundabout in Peterborough.
There’s lots more information about the parish burial ground at https://www.peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk/plaques_blue2.php#ParishBurial.
The Queen’s Head pub is located just outside the Queensgate Centre in Peterborough and it has gone through numerous iterations over recent years. It has been known as HGs (after HG Wells), the Grapevine and Clarkes (which was a fine dining restaurant), but the Charles Wells brewery have now decided to name the pub the Queen’s Head.
Rather a brave statement.
There’s a quirky feel to the pub which I rather liked, with the building being much larger inside than I had imagined.
This is Young’s London Gold, which I ordered before I realised that the pub stocked Young’s London Stout. London Gold is in my view a pretty generic session beer and although it was well kept and tasted fine, I wasn’t tempted to have another.
The interior of the pub was clean and bright, although most of the seating seems to be catering for those customers who are dining. The pub specialises in pizzas and pots, the latter of which is defined as meals cooked and served in one pot such as mac & cheese, lasagne, curry and tagine. I looked at the menu on-line (for reasons mentioned below) and it seemed to offer something a little different which I liked.
The lack of menus in the pub was though a little confusing to me, as they didn’t have any on the tables. This confused another pair of customers who walked back out, and none of the staff noticed them leave. Although I did, I was rather busy people watching. There also isn’t a lunch-time menu in the pub, which I had expected and I’d probably have ordered from if they had it. I’m sure that I could have gone to a staff member and been given a menu, but I have an aversion to go hunting when not particularly hungry.
The pub service was efficient and polite, although I was rather disregarded when a customer known to the barman came in. The reviews for the pub are though really good, so there doesn’t appear to be anything particularly wrong with the management. It was also clean and tidy, so it seemed like a comfortable environment for those dining, and I also felt comfortable in the bar area. I got the impression that the food was pretty decent and it seemed like a reliable place for those wanting to bring a group of people to dine.
Following my visit to St. Mary the Virgin Church in Santon Downham, I took a brief look at some of the gravestones in the churchyard. I’m interested in random gravestones which are becoming hard to read (I really must get out more….) and trying to ascertain a little more about the individuals. Random really is the word for this.
This is the gravestone of Benjamin Matthews who died on 17 July 1894 at the age of 66. He was an Anglican who was born in 1828, marrying Elizabeth in 1867. In 1891 Matthews lived at High Lodge, now within the Forestry Commission site, and worked as a farm steward. He lived with his wife and also his niece, Alice Matthews who died in 1922. Also buried at the plot is his wife Elizabeth, who died at the age of 82 on 19 July 1910.
Unfortunately that was about all that I could find out….
On my Brandon walk we visited St. Mary the Virgin church at Santon Downham, one of the most historically complex churches that I’ve visited recently. Its location by the edge of Thetford Forest have given the building the rather suitable name of ‘The Church in the Forest’.
The nave and chancel of the current church date to the twelfth century, but it was built on the site of a Saxon wooden church. The tower is later and was constructed between 1460 and 1500.
The doors on both the north and south walls of the church are contemporary to the nave, so are twelfth century, although they look modified.
The exterior of the building has numerous former windows and entrances, some of which have been blocked up. This is the former entrance to a chapel, which at some point has been demolished. I had assumed that this took place following the Reformation, but it seems that it might be a later removal.
The stone base of what was once a free standing preaching cross, or the site of an external pulpit.
The font dates to the thirteenth or fourteenth century.
The church’s interior and the rood screen.
A partially exposed window which was filled in long ago, with the window on the right created to replace it. I assume that this was to create more light inside the church.
The altar.
The dreaded, since in retrospect they often are, Victorian restoration mainly took place here in 1894. The phrase “new interior of walls” often means that history was faffed about with to make it even more confusing for me to work out. Another newspaper called the restoration “extensive and substantial”, so I imagine the interior was modified to a considerable degree. Certainly the impressive high pews, which a newspaper said were “cupboards into which you enter, shut the door and sit on the shelf” were replaced with “decent oak seats”. Personally, I imagine the high pews looked rather gorgeous.
Stained glass.
I’ll have to go back to this church as I’d like to understand a little more about what is going on with its history. There are also some interesting tablets inside the church which I didn’t have time to look at properly. It was pleasing to see that the church was open on a Wednesday in early January, and the flowers inside the church showed what wonderful local volunteers they must have.
Today was a little 17-mile walk that I led for the LDWA, although due to circumstances beyond my control, it turned out at 16 miles. The circumstances beyond my control were that unusually I didn’t make any mistakes, I had assumed my incompetence would add one mile on at least….. Although I did manage to miss the mausoleum, which was slightly unfortunate.
Anyway, 17 people turned up and all went well (or at least as well as can be expected for my unreccied walks) and there are some random landscape photos below.
The walk started in Brandon and went through to Brandon County Park, which was the first toilet stop. I felt sorry for the electrician who had at that moment started to fix a light inside the male toilet entrance, and then faced a queue of ten people wanting to go in. The walk then went to High Lodge, the Forestry Commission site, and then onto the abandoned village of Santon.
We visited a couple of churches as well, I shall blog about those separately, these were All Saints Church in Santon and St. Mary the Virgin in Santon Downham. I’ll put photos of people, and a photo of an adder warning sign, on the Norfolk & Suffolk LDWA blog in due course 🙂
