King's Lynn and Hunstanton

In pursuit of seeing another part of England, we set off on Saturday Sept. 24 to see the coastal area called "The Wash."  This is area is due north of Cambridge and accessible via train to King's Ferry and then a bus to Hunstanton.  On a map of the UK The Wash looks like a little bay along the eastern coast which then flows into the North Sea.  We wandered around King's Lynn after about an hour's train ride from Cambridge.  The town is at the mouth of the Ouse River and once upon a time had been more prosperous than it is today due to its membership in the Hanseatic League.

Explorer George Vancouver in front of the Custom House (today's Tourist Information Center)

The Coasthopper (a bus, not an insect) took us from King's Lynn to Hunstanton, about 30 minutes away.  This is the westernmost resort town in Norfolk.  It did not disappoint.  It is billed as a Victorian resort and looked every bit the part from its neat homes to its lovely gardens.

One of the main attractions is the walk along the beach with the the water on one side and the striped cliffs on the other.

The red layer--called red chalk--is limestone and has many fossils as does the white layer of limestone above it.  We didn't see fossils but we did notice how lumpy the red rocks were--like bits of dough smooshed together.

Looking out to the sea, we saw birds that looked and acted like small pelicans diving straight down for a meal. Further in the distance we could faintly make out a cluster of wind turbines near Skegness on the western side of The Wash.

(The faint white images towards center left are the turbines.)

The cliffs dwindled away and we climbed up to the North Promenade for a different view of the sea and several other landmarks: the Lighthouse and the St. Edmund Chapel ruins.

We read a lot about St. Edmund in this area.  King Edmund of East Anglia was killed by the invading Danes in the 800s and was revered as the first patron saint of England.