ABC Tour – Cathedral, Concert

FRIDAY 1 JULY

Another day of just toodling along.  The weather is definitely improving, which is good.

We found another Cathedral today.  We haven’t visited one for a while.  This one is Southwell Cathedral.  Southwell is just a small town, but this is the cathedral for Nottingham.

Southwell Cathedral dates back to Norman  times and is in wonderful condition for its age.    It is quite small for a cathedral.

Apparently it wasn’t badly damaged during the Civil War, maybe because it was rather plain in design.

It is so different seeing a barrel ceiling, rather than something really ornate.

The chapter house is a feature.  The ceiling is stone, but there is no central column.  There are large buttresses outside which support it all.

The tops of the columns have detailed carvings and some have secret little creatures hiding in the leaves.  An elderly parishioner pointed them out to me, which was nice.

The landscape is really changing today.  Lots of crops and we are starting to see lots of market gardens as well. It is amazing the difference in just a few days.  You could be in a different country.  Well, I suppose technically we are compared to Scotland.

Our ride was only quite short again today and we ended up in King’s Lynn for our last night on the road.  In 2007 we stayed here for our first night on the road.  We didn’t get to have an explore then, so we made up for it today.  The South Gate is an impressive entrance into the town.

The really old part of town is mainly along the river.  There are some incredible old buildings.

The Guild Hall is famous as being the most intact still existing.  It is used as a theatre now, so you can’t go in and have a look around.  The chequered facade is created by alternating pale stone and flint.  Very effective.

Several of the old buildings fronting the water are now pubs.

I loved looking down through the many arches into the courtyards.

While we were wandering in the afternoon we noticed a stage being set up on the back of a truck in the Tuesday Market Square.  After dinner we went back there.  It turns out that the local festival was on.

Initially a local band, “The Yesterdays” were playing.  The did 60s covers and were rather good.

The headline act was “Howard Jones”.  Mick and I wondered “Who?” Well, he started to play 80s style electronica style music and we still asked “Who?”  Then as the set progressed we suddenly we said “Oh!  Now we know who he is”.

I have even found a little Youtube clip that someone posted of the night, so if you too are wondering “Who?” you will  also have an “Aha” moment Click here to see it.  There are actually lots of his well known film clips on Youtube.

Now, when we wandered around the town it was light and we just stumbled upon the market place.  After the concert, when it was quite dark, we had to find our way back to the B & B.  No roads are straight in King’s Lynn.  We knew we had to find a big park and then we would be right, but we couldn’t find it.  We ended up asking a couple and they ended up giving us a lift home.  We weren’t too far from where we should have been, but being so late all the lights had been turned off in the park anyway, so it would have been a very dark walk.