What no art. (Thornham Deli, Thornham)

Thornham Deli,

Thornham,

Opening times Everyday 8:30-17:00,

Highly Recommended 

Today I was going to attempt to combine culture with cycling by popping into Damien Hirst's (who is an artist) exhibition during today's cafe cycle ride. Big George was my cycling guest and informed me that he is not only a rugby loving Scotsman but a bit of a culture vulture as well, apparently.

To make todays adventure possible we would be starting from Fakenham then doing a 50 mile loop to take in Damien's stuff at Houghton Hall followed by a stop at Thornham Deli (which incidentally was recommended to me by a cyclist wearing wellies, but that's another story.)

We arrived at Fakenham town centre car park to discover that 6 hours of pay and display would cost us £3.80. Unlike the typical rugby loving scottish stereotype Big George immediately offered to chip in. He dug into his pocket and offered me a Euro and a 5p piece. I accepted the generous 5p contribution, purchased our pay and display and we were off.

One of the many views available to us in North West Norfolk (hope you like sky)

Houghton Hall was well sign posted and only a few miles into our ride. On the way we discussed the latest news of our student sons (2 each) who were back from university. We agreed how when we were at Uni we went to more lectures, did more work and got up before lunchtime (probably) unlike the youth of today blah, blah, blah, rant, rant, rant, aren't old people great etc etc. 

When we arrived at Houghton Hall we discovered that it was not only students but Artists how can't be bothered to get up in the morning as Damien didn't open up until 11.00am and it was currently only 10. I did spot some cows in the grounds so took a photo of them in case they were concrete, stuffed or pickled ones and an exhibit (they weren't).

A possible exhibit of concrete cows at Houghton Hall

With Art now off today's agenda we had to refocus on the cafe part of the mission and sped on to Thornham with the wind behind. Unfortunately for the last section we had to turn into a strong gale. It is always difficult to chat when cycling into the wind with anyone and as I normally can't understand anything Big George says, as he speaks in Scotch, then conversation became impossible until we arrived at Thornham Deli.

At Thornham Deli 

Even though it was only 11:30 the deli was packed and we were lucky to get a table. While Big George kept guad of our seats I went to check out the cake selection, which was an excellent one with everything a good effective cake selection (ECS) should have, including brownie to check out for Brownie of the year #BOTY.

Today's cake selection

I was informed that everything in the ECS was made on site. I naturally selecting the brownie. Big George ordered a cappuccino and ham sandwich. As a ham sandwich is not cake he took no further part in any cake reviewing activities during our visit.

Our drinks arrived and were both top drawer scoring well in their relative hot drink categories

Cakes and drinks and Big Georges phone (which is neither a cake or a drink)

The brownie was excellent too and easily made it into my current top 8 contenders for the brownie off in December. I even took another piece home for Mrs Crusader and the parasites to taste and confirm it's high quality. (for a full list of the current top 8 brownies, with photos, go to the new cake crusader website)

Excellent brownie

Thornham Deli had proved to be a high quality stop, making up for the lack of modern art on today's ride. I highly recommended a visit but it appears to be busy venue at peak times although they do do take away coffee and cake as well.

The way back was into the wind and fairly hilly so, probably due to lack of cake, Big George fell behind. As I waited longer and longer at each junction I could easily have read a book or even written one. Which reminds me I have recently written a book which is available at Amazon or on Kindle (click here for details) and from next week will be stocked at Jarrolds in Norwich.

Cover of the sort of book I would have had time to write while waiting for Big George

We eventually made it back to the car park where I decide that it was probably a good job that the art exhibition had been closed as due to the speed we returned at our pay and display would have certainly run out although I'm sure Big George would have chipped in another 5p towards any fine..

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.9	7.5	8.3	8.1	7.0	7.76

Route

Click here to downlaod 54 mile Fakenham Hunstanton Loop gpx file for your GPS