Hobbiton hillside

I'm in Norwich, staying with my cousin BJ (technically my step-cousin, I guess. Uncle's daughter from his first marriage, when he still lived in Scotland). It's nice to have a real bed, and actually pretty good to have a day where I'm not rushing about- we decided that, as it's Easter Sunday, nothing would really be open, so we're just relaxing. Plus Paul, BJ's husband is a footballer, and he's got a game tomorrow.

The train trip out was funny; once we'd passed the industrial city edges, it felt a lot like we were in Hobbiton. Very LOTR landscapes. It's pretty, extremely quaint. A lot of England seems so surreal, because it's so associated with books I've read; LOTR, Bronte, Dickens. It seems so odd to be in such a landscape, almost like a story itself.

Saw a bit of Norwich yesterday, went to the Cathedral- beautiful, begun in 1096, not fully completed until 15thC, when the present spire was completed (the original fell off in 13thC!), and strolled around the streets, all windy and cobbled. Norwich has been a major centre since well before the Norman invasion, and has long been one of the largest provincial centres in England. It has SO many churches, which I love- by medieval times there were around 50 churches for a community of maybe 6000!

There is a castle, built by the Normans, which has been used as a gaol and is now open to the public as a museum, but I prob won't have a chance to see it before I go tomorrow. :( Oh well, plenty more castles around, I am sure.

BJ is currently tormenting Tyra- her enormous rottweiler, named after Tyra Banks, who wears a pink diamante studded collar and is utterly spoiled, and hugely friendly. Tomorrow we'll drop Paul at his game, then drive to Cambridge (swoon), from where I'll catch the train back to London. Then it's out to Greenwich, where Lisa and I are staying. Probably Bath on Tuesday (unless Cambridge gets me all in the mood for universities, in which case I'll visit Oxford), another day of London sights Wednesday (hopefully seeing inside Westminster), and Belgium Thursday (beer and chocolate! Beer and chocolate!).

Oh, following up from comments on my last entry:

- Les Mis was great. I'd never seen it before, and I actually didn't know how it ended! Loved it. How do they possibly perform it without a rotating stage? Despite fairly small theatre, set was fantastic (especially liked the use of the bridge for Javert's death), lighting very effective (particularly liked the backlighting used to display the 'anonymous' poor, so they were faceless for a large part of the song), and overall a strong cast. Epenine was particularly notable.

- Rami, I think perhaps you should have glazed over during this part of the entry :) Sutton Hoo is a major burial site from Anglo Saxon times. It's a ship burial, so the king/ lord was buried within his ship, and the inhabitants had goods and treasures buried with them, like we would associate with, say, Egyptian burials. It's a really significant archaeological find, and TOTALLY fascinating to English history geeks like myself.

- Haven't gotten a new phone number yet, although I should. Am spending stacks in text messages, but want to wait until Europe as apparently a lot of English SIM cards will still charge me international rates in Europe? I'm going to investigate when I get to Paris, I think, but from what BJ says, UK mobile carriers are quite pricey. So no, Jorel, that wasn't me texting you weird numbers. Although I did text to let you know I was ok, but that was from my normal number, possibly with international codes tacked on?

Hope you're all well, thanks for leaving comments- glad to hear how you are.