Photo catch up

Norwich Cathedral

Norwich Cathedral

Gate to Norwich Cathedral Close

Norwich Cathedral

Roof boss, Norwich Cathedral Cloister

Norwich Cathedral

Norwich Castle

Chapel at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge

Gandhi, Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury, London

St. George's, Bloomsbury, London

Crocus field by the Cam, U of Cambridge

Norwich

Pig Farming

As noted in the prior post, we took a day trip to Norwich.  The train ride there passed several pig farms.  Who knew pigs had these little houses! 

Our first stop was Norwich Cathedral, which was very impressive (and very old, founded in 1096!).  "One of the finest complete Romanesque cathedrals in Europe, with the second tallest spire and largest monastic cloisters in England, it houses more than a thousand beautiful medieval roof boss sculptures."

We then wandered over to Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, which made me realize that there aren't any castles around Cambridge.  I guess it is too flat?  The castle is Norman and all that is left is the keep, which after being a palace became a prison, and now is the museum part.  In a new wing is a huge eclectic art gallery.  We particularly enjoyed the teapot gallery with its collection of over 300 teapots.

As dusk was approaching (and hoping all the soccer fans were gone) we wandered back to the train station, following a heritage trail of interesting old buildings.

Football (soccer that is)

We got to the train station today about 10am and immediately noticed all the police presence.  So we were wondering what was up, it isn't usually like that.  Was there some sort of terror alert? Then when we got to our train we observed that all the police were getting on our train in particular!  So I asked, and it was because there was a football game that afternoon in Norwich (our tourist destination of the day).  At the next stops, people in green and yellow started getting on.  We later learned that the team is called the Canaries, that explained the bird on the jerseys. Then the beer cans were opened.  I guess tailgating starts that early in the US too?  Once we actually arrived in Norwich there was even more of a presence, police vans everywhere and officers outside of all the pubs.  It was like Pittsburgh during the G-20 (ok, that is a slight exaggeration, but downtown Pittsburgh has nothing like that level of security during a Steeler's Game). Luckily the stadium was in the opposite direction from the tourist sights, and we took a late train home to let things clear out (good choice reading the news):

Police praise Norwich and Ipswich football fans as East Anglian Derby passes without major incident: "The match, which saw the Canaries beat Ipswich 2-0 in their fourth consecutive win over their rivals, resulted in just four people being arrested in the lead-up and during the game held this afternoon at Carrow Road. About 2,000 Ipswich Town FC supporters travelled to the city for the mid-afternoon kick-off with friendly, but firm policing. Earlier in the morning 14 Ipswich supporters were given direction to leave notices by British Transport Police as a result of their behaviour at Norwich train station..."