Flitcham

Apologies to Banjo Patterson for the barstadisation of the line from "Clancy of the Overflow"

I'm back in the UK. I got to experience the "thrills" of Paris traffic for myself in the taxi to the train station to catch the Eurostar back to London.

The British immigration officer is familiar with long service leave. He correctly guessed I was using my lsl (I had written "travelling" on the landing card under UK address). He remarked he has never come across anyone but Australians who have lsl.

The trip itself was pretty uneventful, I managed to doze for a while.

Today is the start of the UK part of my trip. The first step was to pick up my hire car from Enfield, which is in the north east region of London. I had no intention of driving in central London which is why I chose a suburban pick up location.
A train from Kings Cross, then an overground train and then two buses got me there. As it not peak time it wasn't awkward with my luggage as the two train stations were step free.

I had booked a ford focus or similar. I got a Vauxhall Mokka, a small SUV which is bigger than I asked for but small vehicles were at a premium. The guy serving me was very impressed with the small marks I found on the vehicle although I guess some reading this blog won't be.

It took me a while to get used to the vehicle. The indicator and windscreen wiper levers are on the opposite sides to what I am used to. It took several hours to find the lights as they are a separate switch on the dash.

My first stop was Norfolk so I set google maps for Cambridge and it took me right into the bloody middle of Cambridge. Once I got there it abandonded me, having done its job!

I may or may not have driven in the bus only lane looking for somewhere to pull over but as far as I know I didn't drive down any one way streets the wrong way.
The reason for going into Cambridge was to get a sat nav. Despite saying so Tesco didn't sell them but I found a camping store (Halfords) that did. I just bought a cheap one but it's much better than using my phone.

I had wanted to stay in Downham Market but the accommodation didn't have any spare rooms so I set the gps for Kings Lynn. I had learnt my lesson though and once I got to the outskirts I pulled over to look for somewhere to stay.

The first place looked a bit expensive (£100/night). The second looked better at £55/night. The address didn't have a number attached to it so I had to guess at the correct address as it gave me a chouce of 4 or 5. I guessed wrong.
By this stage I had lost any sense direction that I had. All I did know was that I was close to Sandringham estate, having passed it.
Putting the name of the pub into google maps brought me past Sandringham estate again and to the Ffolkes Arms.

It's a charming place, an old staging inn. I still feel like I have no idea where I am.

Photos
Underground
Clock at St Pancras
The rest are of the Ffolkes arms - I didn't take many photos today.Read more