North Norfolk Railway

Today we planned to drive to Holt and ride on the North Norfolk Railway.

Still jetlagged, we were wide awake early and had breakfast about 6:30am. After a leisurely start to the day, we were ready to head off about 8:30am, with plans to have a look around the Holt township before catching the first train of the day.

When we stepped outside, we found our rental car had a flat tyre again. After many phone calls with the rental company, they had the AA visit us, and the AA man found that we had a bald tyre with two punctures. He repaired both punctures and recommended a new tyre. More phone calls and eventually we had approval to take the car to a nearly tyre shop, to get a new tyre fitted (free of charge to us). It was 11:30 before we were fixed and ready to start our day.

We drove to Holt and went straight to the train station.

This was an impressive setup. The train journey is only 20 minutes long, from Holt (near the sea) to Sherington (a seaside town).

They have much rolling stock and rotate what's in use, and on a given day they have one steam and one diesel train in service, alternating, passing at the halfway point. Other stock is stored in rail yards along the way.

The stations are very authentic to the older days, well kept, and have many props such as piles of old suitcases. Also the waiting rooms are nicely kept and at Holt they had a fire going (burning coal of course!). You really get the feeling you're at a train station of yesteryear. All the guards and station staff are dressed in authentic attire and they issue and clip cardboard tickets.

The steam engine and carriages were in beautiful condition, made for a very pleasant experience.

Sheringham is a seaside town with a long, narrow main street comprised of many bakeries, pubs, toffee stores, and in general more "ma and pa" stores. There was no sign of the usual High Street chain stores where we walked.

It was now 2pm, and we really needed lunch. We went to a nice pub where I had a steak pie and beer, Gwen had fish & chips, Helen has scampi and chips. The pub was nice and warm inside so we relaxed there a while.

We looked in the shops for a while longer and planned to catch the diesel train back, but just missed it so had to wait in the "Ladies Room" at the railway station for the next train.

By the time we returned to Holt, the day was nearly over, so we drove home via many B-roads which are narrow and winding. We had dinner at home and were early to bed, still having jet lag.

Not a bad day's effort considering the troublesome start to the day. At least now the car will hold air in the tyre (fingers crossed!!!).