Admin. (Snettisham Park Farm Tea room, Snettisham)

Snettisham Park Farm Tea Room,

Snettisham,

Mon-Fri 10:00-4:00,

Sat-Sun 10:00-5:00 

Last Monday I had to give myself a good talking to as so far this year I have only been averaging one ride per week instead of the 3 or 4 I have done in the past.

So on Tuesday I persuaded Mrs Crusader to join me on a windy ride as we went in search of fruit scones for my 2019 fruit scone of the year contest. I knew the Piano Tearoom at Kettering Hall would be a great source but on arrival I was shocked to find that it had closed down in January. As a plan B we decided to go to a new cafe I had meaning to test out off Unthank road in Norwich. On arrival I was shocked to find that this too had closed down, before I had even had a chance for a first visit.

I know it is sad when cafes shut up shop but it also causes me a great deal of admin as there are blogs to update, maps to alter and forms to fill in which meant the rest of the day was taken up with paperwork.

On Thursday I had better luck when I went to Hard to Please House in Aylsham to meet up with Andrew for a trip to Holt to test out the scones there. Despite the by now gale force winds it was a successful trip with scones obtained from Byfords, The Owl and Horatio's. They were all of similar quality with Byfords being marginally the best.

The Holt scones.

This left Friday for my third ride of the week, the purpose of which was to continue my search for the top ten best free car parks to start a bike ride from. For this ride I was joined by Big George as we set off to Burnham Market to park on the green.

Parking on the Green at Burnham Market

There are a series of free spaces in the centre of the village and although it was a cold and windy Friday in early March it was still very busy with only a few spaces remaining. I imagine on a nice summers day that spaces would be at a premium. Compared with the other two car parks in my current top ten then I didn't find it as aesthetically pleasing so combined with the potential capacity issues this car park could only manage 3rd place in my top 10.

The ride itself was a 40 mile loop with a choice of 3 new (to me) cafes to be visited in the Sandringham area. I offered big George the choice of a visitors centre, twee tea shop or farm shop cafe. I was worried that none of them would do a fried egg sandwich (on white, no garnish) which is Big Georges favourite mid ride fuel. By making him decide which we would go to then if no fried egg sandwich was available I could claim that the other venues had them and blame him for his choice. Very cunning I thought.

It was another windy day and hard work as we left Burnham Market in a clockwise direction heading for Sandringham on a rectangularly shaped route.

You can see how windy it is by how fast the windmills are going round in the photo

After we had completed the more windy South and West sides of the ride we arrived at our first potential stop which was at the Sandringham visitors centre. Big George didn't like the look of this one as the car park was full of tourists (he doesn't like tourists), the tea room looked too visitor centre cafeteria in style and it was shut so we decided to move on to option 2.

This was a tea room a couple of mins down the road and although many people had recommended it to me it was far too pink for Big George so without evening stopping we pushed on to our 3rd choice of Snettisham Park Farm Tearoom which met with his approval mainly because we had run out of any other options and he was hungry.

Outside the tea room at Snettisham Park Farm Tea room.

Things looked promising as there were several signs saying they welcomed cyclists (which we were) and they had a nice large outdoor seating area (although it was too cold and windy to bring it into action today).

Outdoor seating area

We parked in the special cycle parking area zone right by the entrance and went inside. I went straight to check out the cakes (which was a reasonable selection) but Big George had been distracted as the farm also did deer safaris and as Big George is a huge fan of Disney's Bambi he was keen to go on one. Sadly I had to explain we didn't have enough time so, in a sulk, he came and ordered his refreshments but refused to have any cake with his coffee meaning I had to do cake rating on my own. Then to cut off his nose and despite it being available he refused to have a fried egg sandwich and went completely off piste by ordering pasty and beans.

Today's refreshments

We both thought our drinks were at the lower end of the drink rating continuum but I did think my Victoria sponge was excellent. Although not part of my scoring system we both thought our lunches were very good and felt re energised ready to tackle the remainder of the route.

When I got back to my secret underground office at Crusader Towers there was yet more admin as I wrote up this blog, car park info and cafe review plus updated associated datasheets before having to fill in two 'cafe visited but not stopped at' forms. Hopefully next week there will be more riding and less admin to do.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
5.2	5	6.3	7.4	6.5	6.08

Route

Click here to download 40 mile Burnham Market Snettisham loop gpx file to your GPS