Lack of Volunteers.

New guests but no new cafe

Today was an exciting day in the world of cycle cafe reviewing. Not only had I found two new cycling guest to accompany me but we were going to visit a tea room in a museum. Not any old museum but one that had a display on local brush making through the ages. With the weather set fair then days potentially don't get any better thgan this.

I was joined on the planned 36 mile ride by Mike and Andy as first time cycling guests. They have previously joined one of my Cake Crusader sportives and often ride together but I was keen to see how they performed on a cafe cycle ride.

My plan was to ride South to Attleborough before heading back to the Wymondham Heritage museum where we could go to the Bridewell tearoom and check out the brush making exhibit. I had tried to go twice before but each time it had been closed as it is not open in the Winter or on Norfolk show day.

It did not turn out to be third time lucky as on arrival the Bridewell tearoom was again closed. Apparently the tea room is manned by volunteers and there weren't any today so they were unable to sell the tea, coffee and home-made scones and cakes as advertised. 

Bridewell Tea room sadly shut again

As I had promised Mike and Andy refreshments we went to the Garden House Tearoom instead as it is always a good stop (see martial Bliss) although sadly it doesn't have an interesting brush making exhibit.

As I try to avoid blogging about the same cafe twice, although for consistency we did do ratings, I decided I would rate the new cycling guests instead in three categories

New cycling guests Mike and Andy in the Garden House tearoom Garden

1. Conversation Quality. What was quality of cycling guest/s chat whilst on bikes and in the cafe. Especially how interested did they appear, real or otherwise, when I talked about doing my Ironman triathlon or any other triathlon or running event.

Mike and Andy scored very well here and I was able to bring up my ironman on at least 3 occasions without any obvious yawning. 9/10

2. Cycling ability. Was the cycling guest/s able to keep up on the ride without ever threatening to go faster than me thus encouraging me to think I'm good at cycling.

Andy was particularly good at pushing us along at a high speed but always letting me get to the top of the hills first, just. Mike performed well in the not threatening to go faster part. Overall one of my quickest cafe cycle rides of the year. 8.5/10

3. Cafe rating capability. Was the cycling guest/s fully focused during cafe rating and able to clearly justify their scores.

Both guests were fully engaged with good rationale on their markings. Only negative point was when there was a suggestion on how I could improve my rating system. I had to remind them it was my rating system but they were welcome to have their own system and blog which I would contribute to if asked, which they didn't. 7.5/10

My new cycling guests had performed very well and I think I shall now rate all my cycling guests in future to make sure standards are maintained.

Despite stepping in at short notice we enjoyed our visit  to The Garden House tearoom and collectively we scored it slightly higher than before. My Ginger and chocolate cake was exceptionally good and a contender with cake of the year 2015.

Excellent chocolate and ginger cake

Map of route we took.

Click link to download 36 mile Norwich Attleborough loop GPX for your GPS