Winter is coming. (Alby Tea rooms, Alby)

Alby Tea Rooms,

Alby,

Opening times Tue-Sun 10-4:00,

Recommended 

It was the first frosty morning of the year so I had to dig out all my warm layers for today's cafe cycle ride. I was joined by Big George as my cycling guest. Despite the cold we decided to head North today and would be going up to Alby which is beyond the Wall so hoped to avoid any white walkers. Winter is coming.

The leaves on the trees were all on the way out as we were treated to a magnificent display of autumn colours. Big George was so excited that he put on his orange cycle top in order to blend him. Can you spot him in the photo?

Fabulous winter colours and Big George

To keep warm we cycled hard so the 25 miles up to the Alby tea rooms flew past.

Alby tea rooms is part of the craft centre and gardens. It has a nice courtyard outdoor seating area but it was too cold for that so we headed inside.

Outside Alby Tea Rooms in the outdoor seating courtyard yard area

I was impressed with the cake selection which had a good range of interesting sponge cakes. I opted for Pistachios as I can't resist green cake.

Good selection of sponge cakes

There were also some good looking sausage rolls which we tried for #SROTY and agreed that they could well find themselves in the sausage roll off in a few weeks time.

Potential finalist for #SROTY

We sat at a large table and I noticed that the tea rooms had been decorated with old vinyl records, singles and albums, in and out of their covers. Vinyl record decoration is clearly very 2017 as it is the second tea room I have been to decorated in this way in the last week. I wonder what 2018 will bring.

When our refreshments arrived Big George's cappuccino had the most froth I have ever seen but he said it was still a nice one. My hot chocolate wasn't as good but performed very well on the hot part as I burnt my mouth on the first sip.

Cakes and drinks ready for testing

The pistachio cake was nice and I'm sure Big George would have enjoyed his cake too if he could have been bothered to have one.

The Alby tea rooms was a very good stop on such a cold day and I recommend a visit.

As this was my third ride with Big George in the last two weeks we had long since run out of things to talk about so I made sure we returned at just a fast enough speed to make conversation difficult and therefore weren't embarrassed by the silence. I have decided not to ride with Big George again for at least a month by which time we hopefully would have done some new things to talk about.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
5	7	8	7	7.2	6.84

Route

Click here to download 45 Mile Norwich Erpingham loop GPX file to your GPS