Spontaneous. (Coffee Corner, Norwich)

 Café Corner,

Norwich,

Opening times 

Mon-Sat 08:00-16:00, Sun 10-15:00,

Recommended 

As a free spirit one thing I love is being spontaneous so I was excited to see that I had selected today to be one of the four days of spontaneity (DoS) that I allow myself each year and schedule accordingly on my wall planner. Therefore today the rule book would be spending the day with the waste paper basket, but don't panic as I always empty the bins on a Tuesday I knew I would be able to get it out again tomorrow.

To start this mad day I asked today's cafe cycle guest, Big George, to turn up at 9:30ish instead of our normal 9:00 sharp. Next I wouldn't be following a route from my cycling GPS or even be taking a map, however to avoid any danger of getting lost I spent last night memorising the way we would go, fun doesn't have to be irresponsible. Finally instead of stopping at a cafe half way round the route I opted to go completely off piste and picked a cafe to visit at the end of the trip. I know your thinking he's gone absolutely spontaneous crazy but that's the way I roll (4 times a year).

When Big George arrived promptly at 9:30 we set off on my spontaneous 32.37 mile memorised loop. It was tough going into a strong wind but we made good progress. After a few miles I was surprised when we came across a well kept milestone on a tiny country road in the middle of nowhere. It said LONDON 100 miles. I was puzzled why this was here as I couldn't believe anyone would ever include this particular road when heading for the capital. Even if they did there are surely far too many route options from here to know which one was the right one to be exactly 100 miles. However as I was having a planned DoS I would have to wait until tomorrow before checking on Google maps to see if it was really possible to find an exactly 100 mile way there before writing to the council.

I s it really possibly to find a route to London from here which is 100 miles

The rest of the ride went smoothly before we finished our loop at today's venue of the coffee corner.

Outside the Coffee Corner

Coincidently the Coffee Corner is at the vertex (look it up on Google) of two roads and has a small outdoor seating area which despite the crazy mood I was in I decided was too cold to use today so we went inside to a small but very cosy indoor scatter cushion based seating area.

Indoor scatter cushion based seating area

As the Coffee Corner is a very small cafe it only had a very small cake selection with just the one cake although it had some very impressive icing.

Only cake in selection

I ordered a slice and a hot chocolate. I was very excited and pleased when a big jar of real chocolate chips (milk or dark) was got down from the shelf and knew this was going to be an excellent proper chocolate drink and not one made with cheap sugary powder I too frequently come across.

Big George ordered a filter coffee and bacon sandwich. Although it was a DoS ride there are some lines which cannot be crossed and cycle cafe reviewing rules is one such line so as a bacon sandwich is not cake Big George would play no part in any cake related reviewing today. However, I was prepared to rate things in a different order from normal and asked for his coffee rating before I had scored my hot chocolate.

Drinks, featuring superb looking hot chocolate, and cake

The hot chocolate was unsurprisingly excellent and scored very highly. Big George was also impressed by the quality of his coffee. Finally my cake not only looked good but was very tasty as well so top marks on the food and drink front.

Overall the Coffee Corner was a very good stop for the end of a cycle ride and, especially for hot chocolate lovers, I would recommend a visit.

We left and cycled the short distance home. I thought my final DoS of the year had gone very well and has inspired me to make sure I plan next years four days of spontaneity to coincide with cafe cycle rides as well.
Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.5	7.5	3.0	7.5	6.75	6.65

Spontaneous memorised route

Click here to download 35 mile Norwich Hingham loop gpx file for your gps