Travel Tuesday: Across the Pond

This week's travel post takes us back to the spring when I was in Norwich, England for a conference. Since I was presenting a paper and would be there for the whole conference, I stayed on campus at the University of East Anglia. This first picture captures the pretty flowers that were just starting to bloom all over campus. What you can't see is that there were also bunnies hopping around everywhere! So cute! In fact, I literally stumbled into a rabbit hole one day while I was walking around taking pictures. Unfortunately it did not take me to Wonderland. ;-)



One night during the conference we went into the city center for the keynote speech. It took place in this building, called the Forum, which also contains a library, restaurants, etc.



This is one of the many beautiful churches in the city.


After the conference was over, I spent my last night at a hotel in the city. It's about 3 miles from the campus to the city center. I know this because I ended up walking the whole way there! Luckily I had some comfortable shoes on! I recommend getting a bus map and time schedule if you're going to go outside of the city center. Once I made it to the city, I checked into the Beeches Hotel -- this is a nice smaller hotel that is located within walking distance to good restaurants, shopping, and the main historical attractions. I spent the evening just walking around the city. It started to get a little bit chilly as the sun went down so I stopped at a little coffee house called the Waffle House for a hot chocolate. It was so good! This place was not the same as the greasy dives in America by the same name. :-) I was tucked into a cozy corner sipping on my hot chocolate and reading on my Kindle when suddenly I couldn't help but overhear the conversation at the table next to me. Three giggly teenage British girls were discussing Glee! How funny! I was glad to hear that the show is popular over there too.



This was an interesting shopping area that you get to by walking through a churchyard -- see the grave stones on the left? There was a huge H&M store and also a Zara store, which I had never been to before. It was fun browsing through all the cute clothes but I didn't have any room in my tiny little suitcase so I didn't buy anything on this trip except a navy polka dot scarf at the train station on my first day, but that was a necessity for the chilly evenings!



Between my hotel and a beautiful cathedral was this lovely Victorian garden.





It was a fun trip and I had a great time at the conference. I was also very lucky because only a few days after I returned home, that volcanic ash cloud shut down travel in Europe.

Stay tuned for other posts in the near future about my adventures "across the pond"...