Wells next the Sea and Holkham Hall

Sunday morning started with our best breakfast of this adventure. We went to a little cafe in Deep Dale and ate until we almost exploded. Then it was off to Holkham Hall. This amazing 18th century Palladian home has one of the most magnificent grounds we have experienced. There were probably 500 deer within a stones throw of us and as we walked through the woods, another one would seem to pop up. The tour of the house was quite a spectacle. They had an amazing collection of books (20,000) with some dating back to the 12th century. There was a tapestry from Rome from 1BC. Most interesting were the sculptures. In classic fashion, clothing was quite optional so the kids had quite the anatomy lesson. One aspect that had us really intrigued was that as with many places, the family still lives here. In this case, they are probably our age and have 4 children starting at age 2. The old chap is not living the bad life. Their family pictures are all over the house.

From there, we made our way to Wells-next-the-Sea. In Medieval times, the sea was much closer to this village and it was a major port for East Anglia. Now the sea is about a mile away from the village but this is still a popular beach spot. It is most famous for the little beach huts. People were sitting in front of their 6 x 8 foot huts having a nice Sunday afternoon. What was funny is there is basically little to no water. At high tide, the creek is deep enough to navigate and there are some tidal pools but basically there is just sand. The kids loved the dunes and could have stayed all day.

We really needed to move on because our next stop was Baconsthorpe Castle. This is another 16th century moated castle that is now dilapidated. We are realizing that finding off the beaten path type ruins like this is one of our more favorite adventures. In this case, we basically drove through someone's farm and on the back side, was this ruin.

While the second story was not accessible, we realized that with a little rock climbing and a push from dad, the kids could get to the second floor. It was quite amazing and they loved that adventure.

I think what we really love about places like this is that there is a history that is attached to it and mom and dad can dive into the story surrounding the home or castle. In the case of this one, they spent 200 years building the place. It then fell into disrepair. They then turned the outbuildings into a wool factory of sorts until that too fell apart. Someone fixed the gate house up and lived into it until 1920. Then the steeple fell in and the place began to collapse. While we absorb this, the kids explore the nooks and crannies of the place. They'll climb down by the moat or will climb on the walls where a guard might stand.

There were even horses that came to visit us as we were leaving. You can see the gate house in the background.

Of most importance, we were heading home late and hunger kicked in. We decided to stop in Thetford and the first place we saw was McDonald's. We had not been there since August and it was almost October before our first McD's. This even surprised us.