Weather Bomb. (The Barn, Holt)

Barn Cafe,

Holt,

Opening times Mon-Sat 08:45-17:00

Recommended 

I woke up this morning to hear that the UK had been hit by a Weather Bomb. Further investigation found that this was just a new way of saying it would be rather windy. As I had never done a cafe cycle ride in a Weather Bomb before I was excited to get out and see what it was all about. First I needed a guest who was up for some Weather Bomb action so I texted Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) and he was more than happy to step up to the plate.

We agreed to start from his house and head towards the north Norfolk coast for maximum Weather Bomb impact and thought that a cafe in Holt would be good. I hadn't been to the Barn cafe since before the blog started so we agreed to go there as it had been a nice stop previously.

It was difficult to know what to wear during a Weather Bomb but I knew I needed to at least double sock to keep my feet warm. Which I did.

On the way out I asked Andrew for today's cycling guest top cycling tip. Once again his top tip was focused on the winter cycle season.

Cycling guest top cycling tip No.5. To keep your cycling fitness and enthusiasm in the winter it is better to go riding little and often rather than wait for a nice day to go a long way.

We were following his top tip today and agreed that we should limited the ride to 30 miles in these conditions. After about 20 of these miles we arrived at the barn in Holt feeling rather windswept.

Outside the Barn cafe in the continental style outside seating area

There is a continental outside seating area available but despite the barn cafe's Weather Bomb proof heavy iron furniture we decided to sit indoors. We had a choice of upstairs or downstairs seating and decided on the table nearest the counter. This made it easy to check out the cakes.

On first glance it looked like a rather small selection but this turned out not to be the case. Once the friendly waitress had walked me through the cake offering it became clear that there was a good number I would have liked to try, it was just there was not a lot of each type of cake on display. I therefore awarded a high effective cake selection (ECS) rating. 

Don't be fooled by the size of the cake selection as there are lots to chose from

I went for sticky lemon cake with my hot chocolate and Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) went for fruit crumble cake, with crumble cake fruit of the day being plum. He also had a cappuccino.

Drinks (with nice decorative touch) and cakes ready for trying

The cakes were both excellent and got a good cake taste quality (CTQ) rating. My hot chocolate was certainly hot but not exceptional however Andrew thought his cappuccino was really good and gave it an 8. 

With his uncharacteristic high scoring I was worried that the Weather Bomb may have affected him. I needn't have worried as he soon went off on a rant about the Christmas music being played in the background. He became unhappy when Shaky wished everyone a Merry Christmas. I managed to distract him but he returned to the subject when each new record came on. We finished when Wizzard started to wish that it could be Christmas everyday. I liked their thinking as I'm getting a new bike for Christmas so would have lots more bikes if Wizzard got their way but as Andrew is only expecting socks he was not so keen. 

Apart from this the barn had proved to be a great stop and scored well placing it well up my cafe cycle table. They also gave me a loyalty card which I have added to my loyalty card picture library available down the side of the blog.

Just as we were leaving someone came in asking if they knew where the mystery alarm noise was coming from as no one could detect it's source. I sheepishly sneaked out as Alarmio (my Alarmed bike lock) had gone off in the Weather Bomb wind.The first part of my security system had clearly worked well but the second part (me chasing off potential bike thief's) had failed to work. I think I need to go on a bike security refresher training course. With no bike thief's in sight I disabled Alarmio and we set off again.

Although it had been windy the Weather Bomb was a little disappointing as I had cycled in much windier conditions. Worse I had overlayered (I had double topped as well as double socked) so got very hot on the way back. Fortunately the wind was from behind so we got back extra quick and I could cool down.

Ratings

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.0	8.0	8.0	8.0	7.0	7.40

Route

Click here to download 32 Mile Alysham Holt loop GPX file for your GPS