(no subject)
Jan. 26th, 2008 08:14 pmA nice day, by and large.
Norwich was great, as ever. As one of the country's most historically interesting cities (it was England's second city for a long time, until not long before the Industrial Revolution), with some of its most interesting architecture and finest churches, of course it was going to be great. It's in many ways an endearingly eccentric city, but also a surprisignly good one for normal things like shopping and museums (I went back to Norwich castl;e, which is about five museums in one, and has the Medieval Castle as its centrepiece (albeit as considerably knocked about by the Victorians).
The city also has some pleasingly suggestively thoroughfares, from Golden ball Street to Upper Goat Lane, by way of Rampant Horse Street and Squeeze-Me Alley. There's nothing to quite match York's Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma Gate, but it's still an impressive haul, and makes sense of finally buying the Mapp of Ankh-Morpork in an Oxfam shop...
Go to Norwich.
Once the crowds and the noise got too much, I escaped to Wymondham, a pretty market town just outside Norwich, which hasn't got a great deal going on, but is a nice place to be. Sitting by the Abbey ruins in the gathering dark, silent except for birds cawing in the trees, was very beautiful. I didn't get to meet the curate, who I knew in a previous existence as an accountant, but it was nice to be there. By the time I left the town's collection of oxygen thieves was gathering under the wonderful Market Cross, ready for another evening of sullen bickering, but I was homeward bound, enlivened only slightly by the sort of toddler on the train who yells at the top of his voice until his btreath gives out, just to see if he can.
So0mewhere underneath the map of Ankh-Morpork spread out on my tabel is a map of Rome. I'm not sure which is more complex.
Norwich was great, as ever. As one of the country's most historically interesting cities (it was England's second city for a long time, until not long before the Industrial Revolution), with some of its most interesting architecture and finest churches, of course it was going to be great. It's in many ways an endearingly eccentric city, but also a surprisignly good one for normal things like shopping and museums (I went back to Norwich castl;e, which is about five museums in one, and has the Medieval Castle as its centrepiece (albeit as considerably knocked about by the Victorians).
The city also has some pleasingly suggestively thoroughfares, from Golden ball Street to Upper Goat Lane, by way of Rampant Horse Street and Squeeze-Me Alley. There's nothing to quite match York's Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma Gate, but it's still an impressive haul, and makes sense of finally buying the Mapp of Ankh-Morpork in an Oxfam shop...
Go to Norwich.
Once the crowds and the noise got too much, I escaped to Wymondham, a pretty market town just outside Norwich, which hasn't got a great deal going on, but is a nice place to be. Sitting by the Abbey ruins in the gathering dark, silent except for birds cawing in the trees, was very beautiful. I didn't get to meet the curate, who I knew in a previous existence as an accountant, but it was nice to be there. By the time I left the town's collection of oxygen thieves was gathering under the wonderful Market Cross, ready for another evening of sullen bickering, but I was homeward bound, enlivened only slightly by the sort of toddler on the train who yells at the top of his voice until his btreath gives out, just to see if he can.
So0mewhere underneath the map of Ankh-Morpork spread out on my tabel is a map of Rome. I'm not sure which is more complex.