Walk along the coast of the North Sea and purple flowers

This would be another weekend of walking in the countryside.  What was supposed to be an easy train ride there ended up taking more time because of breakdowns. Or as they put it, they had a broke train on the tracks. While we waited we saw this couple with matching hair. I asked Lee if we should do that----a funny look and a "no" is what i got. 

About an hour and a half late, we finally got to the town of North Walsham. From there we would walk to the town of Mundesley. 

My granddaughter Seeger likes the color purple so this weekend we also took a lot of pictures of purple flowers.

After we got thru town we started on an old railroad track. 

This would take us by some beautiful farmland.

And as the trip getting here seemed to be messed up, so was the trail. This was a detour we had to take. It turned out to be a nice bypass. 

We had to go down a few lanes and were able to see some country homes.

This was a drainage ditch from some of the fields,

Leanne was able to get a quick picture of these swans and four of the young ones. As she got closer the male made a hissing noise, we moved back real fast. 

We moved on down the drainage ditch, walking back to the old train bed. 

Back on track, the trail was well maintained and this part was easy to follow.

We passed this gnarly looking tree with a lot of branches. Not sure what kind it was, i think it was of the gnarly variety 

One of the railroad bed we were into the fields. We did see a lot of Poppy flower along the fence rows.

The fields were great to walk in, this section was mostly grain crops.

It was nice to walk thru the fields and not along the fence rows.

Coach was having a good time also. He did chase up a pheasant and kept looking for him the rest of the day. 

This is one of the sign post we followed, sometime we have them and sometimes we don't. The arrows just happen to be purple.

Coach is now hunting for rabbits, we had to put the leash on him right after this picture. 

We are starting to see a lot of stone houses. 

and potato fields. I haven't stood in one for a long time.

In the UK they don't call them "yield" signs, there called "give way" signs.

Walked by a beautiful farm estate,

this was one of the barns for it. It's the largest thatch roof we have seen.

This area is known for it's Quiet lanes. Most are one lane roads that get very little traffic. 

Our first look at purple flowers.

We have about 2 miles to hike before we get to Mundesley. This will be along the coast of North Sea.

We had hoped to walk near the water but there wasn't a way to get down. Falling off the cliff was not an option. Coach has his leash on in case he finds something to chase. He has a one track mind when he's chasing something, he would go right off the cliff.

As we got to town we were able to get close to the water. The view is better in person.

One of the town signs.

This park was along the coast, the "small" two story building is the Mundesley maritime museum. 

http://www.mundesleymaritimemuseum.co.uk/

Near the museum is a monument for the men that died clearing the beaches of mines from WW II. The clearing of the minefield didn't start until 1953.

Below the park were a row of small buildings. These are rented by the locals to keep their beach stuff in.

More purple flowers,

and some not.

The town had a lot of stone houses

and fences.

They use the same size on stone when building a house or fence. The stones on the house in the background and the fence are about the size of a softball. The stones on the house with the windows are a little bigger than an egg.

I think to keep the kids busy a hundred years ago they said,

"go down to the water and pick up all the stones as big as an egg-----all done---now go get all of them that are as big as my hand." 

Our hotel was made out of brick, they may have picked up all the stones.

This was a dog friendly hotel and after a long day of walking

Coach needed a place to rest. 

As he rested we went to dinner and had the house special. One of the things they have for dinner in the UK is a carvery. This is a meal where you walk up to the chef and he carves you a piece of meat. We had a choice of beef, turkey, or gammon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gammon_(meat)

For dessert we had a berry crumble with warm custard. We both agreed it's the best dessert we ever had.

On Saturday we would do a circular walk that starts and ends at our hotel.

On the way were more purple flowers,

 some with other colors along with purple

and of course poppies.

Dark purple roses

and light purple roses.

This is a field of turnips, we would pass a lot of them on this weekend. I had to read up on why there was so many fields of it. Instead of feeding it to humans it's fed to livestock. Maybe that is why beaf does not taste that good to us. We are used to corn fed and these are turnip fed. 

Walking thru another field of grain. 

Passing a house that is full of flowers, some with a few purple ones,

Another turnip field to walk thru.

More purple flowers.

Time for a break and maybe some food.

Taking a closer look we will just be having a beer.

Not a purple flower, but it is kinda purple. 

Heading out of town we had a choice of two roads. As luck would have it we took the wrong one, it was a nice day for extra miles.

Passed another thatched roof barn, not as big as yesterday and not as well maintained. 

Back into the fields, from grain crops 

and turnips.

This was just a beautiful day of walking

thru the fields.

Heading into another turnip field.

More

purple 

flowers. There did seem to be more of the purple flowers the last two days.

Getting back to Mundesley we passed this fence with an assortment of heads.

This is the town library, it must have been a school at one time. The brown sign left of the door says boys entrance. 

The local church, i wonder if they had to gather stones for a penance. 

Oh look, more purple flowers.

and more stone fences. There really was a lot of stones used in this town.

Did i mention all the purple flowers we saw.

Sunday was going to be an easy day for us. We would take the bus to the town of Overstrand and walk along the coast about 3 miles to Cromer.

On the way we would see more stone buildings.

A great view of the cliffs, we had just started and Coach saw a rabbit. After a few minutes of looking for him we put the leash on him and started walking.

We looked for a place that went down to the water, but could not find one.

We did pass a great looking golf course and got to watch a few guys tee off. 

Being it's on the coast, it gets a lot of wind. This hole is a par 3. A foursome had just tee'd off and only one hit the green.

A better view of the course. It was a long up hill climb for us and the golfers. Most of the golfers were walking the course. 

Back thru the ferns, looking for a way down the cliffs.

Finally found some steps, and a lot of steps it was. 

If you wonder where all the stones from the houses and fences came from. There were stones the entire section we walked along. 

Lots of stones. 

Getting close to the town of Cromer, they also had the buildings to rent. 

We make it to Cromer with time to spare, now where is that prosecco we packed.

Surfers waiting for the tide to come in---

Maybe we can find some ice cream.

Three days of walking, we need to do more of this.

Open garden weekend and tennis.

We did a few things this week, another opera at Holland park, Open garden and a tennis tournament.

We went to the Opera on friday night and saw Mozart's, Don Giovanni

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Giovanni

It was another great night out.

Friday and Saturday we got tickets for the Open Garden weekend. This is the only weekend where we can go in the private gardens in London. We had had a good time last year and this weekend wasn't any different. On the way to our first garden we passed the site of the first YMCA. 

 http://www.ymca.net/history/founding.html

As you can see this is not the original building.

This is another of the many sculptures in london. I could not find the meaning or reason for this one being put on this building. 

One of the gardens we went to was St. George's Gardens.  This was an 18th century cemetery that has been converted into a garden. This had a history for grave diggers.

http://londoncemeteries.co.uk/2011/07/09/st-georges-gardens-2/

The headstones were moved to the side of the garden.

and they left the larger tombs.

The statue of Euterpe, the Muse of Instrumental Music came from the Apollo Inn. It was given to the Gardens when the pub was demolished.

It was a sunny day so there were people working on there tan-in a cemetery.

Next to this garden was nursery school, this also had head stones on the outer edges. 

They had a banner up with questions the kids would ask.

and a spot to put there wellingtons---we call them boots in the states. 

Lee and Coach checking out the lowered sinks.

A walk down Leigh street

and on Leigh street was a Cast Iron Radiator store. Another store that looks odd to us but is normal for london.

We were walking to another garden and we passed this building. We don't get tired of the architecture here.

We found another park to walk thru, this one is called Spa Field---there is no Spa there.

This was  great place to take a break from the heat. Prosecco and cheese for Lee and I, Coach got water and dog treats.

He was happy for the break.

More sun bather were in this park also. As we were sitting there, military aircraft started to fly over. After a while I said "Why is there so many, is it the Queen's birthday." It actually was the Queens birthday and they were doing a fly by----it's good to be the Queen.

This is my lovely enjoying a much needed day off of work.

Time to start walking again, on the way we passed this wall mural. 

Another sculpture, not sure of the meaning for it. But someone got payed to make it.

A dragon boundary marker, this makes the boundary of the City of London Corporation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_boundary_mark

http://hidden-london.com/nuggets/city-of-london-dragons/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London_Corporation

This area is called Beech Gardens

https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/green-spaces/city-gardens/visitor-information/Pages/beech-gardens-barbican-estate.aspx

It's a newer apartment complex that has a garden and each apartments have balconies with planters. As you can see, you have to plant flowers in your planter to keep up with everyone else.  

The garden is on an elevated walkway, very modern and enjoyable to walk around.

Yes,  it was time to take another break, this was the hottest week ever in London.

After the break we headed home, while catching a view of St. Paul's on the way.

Sunday was another day of gardens and another hot day. This garden also had a tennis court on the property. This was a private garden and the only people allowed in were the houses that surrounded it. 

This garden was also for the people in the houses around it. The developer wanted people to have more interest in the area to sell houses, so he

put a church in the middle of the garden. This is a view of what half of the garden looks like. The average cost of a house in this area is $5,500,000.00 US dollars. But you also get a private park.

A closer look at some of the flowers and plants, a lot of them we have never seen before.

another view of the church.

We saw a few more gardens, one that was used in the movie Notting Hill, a community garden plot and a lawn bowling club. While walking to see them we passed near a recent 25 story apartment that had burnt. Seeing this dampened our spirits for the day, it was a fire that should have never happened. It was clearly an area of the haves and have nots.

We headed home, Coach was done for the day and so were Leanne and I.  We decided to have one more drink to end the day. 

Coach was done for the day, to much walking and to much heat.

Leanne had bought 25 a new cat toy and she was in heaven.  For two days that's all she wanted.

She even slept with it.

Tuesday we went to the Aergon tennis championship. The great thing about this tournament was it's less than a mile from our house.  This is a warm up for Wimbledon that will be in a few weeks. We got there at noon and were able to watch three singles and two doubles matches.  This picture is one of the doubles matches, the Bryan bros. vs  Tsonga/Dimtrov---The Bryan bros. won in two sets.

And it was sunny and hot, we did get burned a little.

Time to go, at least we know which way is out.

French open at home

This weekend was an easy one as we watched the French open tennis tournament. 

We did do a few things, Thursday night we went to see an opera in Holland park. Every year the transform an area of the park for it. This year there will be four performances thru the summer and we will see all of  them. This is a view of the stage before i was told no cameras were aloud. 

This was also a voting week in England. The way it works is if you get a vote you can stand on the stage.  

So along with the Prime Minister who was in the left of the previous picture, there was this bunch on the right.

Lord Bucket Head, a guy that looks like Boss Hog from the Dukes of hazard and Elmo from sesame street.

And they say our politics are weird. 

As the weekend began Leanne and I went for a walk on Saturday. As we passed a merry go round in the park I noticed something different. This one goes in the opposite direction than the ones in the states.   

Sunday we went to Wimbledon Commons for a walk and on the way we passed some teenagers playing cricket. 

For the walk we did about 6 miles in the park. The weather was great, and not a lot of people.

This always seems odd to me. We walked thru a golf course, some thing that is not done in the US. So the golfers had to watch out for us and we had to watch out for them. This pictures has golfers on the left and dog walkers on the right. And all the golfers, men and women, had to wear a red shirt. 

As we were leaving to go home we passed the cricket field again. The guy in the chair had a cricket bat and was hitting it with a wooden hammer. These Brits do crazy things and at first i thought he was teaching his bat a lesson because it didn't do as he wanted---"bad bat"

After asking him what he was doing he explained. A new bat has to be "knocked in" 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knocking-in

I like thinking it was just a bad bat.