Little Walsingham,
Thur-Mon 10:30-4:00,
Recommended
After last weeks rather brutal off road experience, on the King Alfred's way (see posts here), it was a welcome return to the road. I was meeting up with Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) at Hard to Please House in Aylsham. I thought to add to the excitement I would ask Andrew to pick todays route and cafe. This has not always worked out well in the past but I had faith that he would pull it off today.
It was a rather hot and humid morning as we set off and Andrew revealed we would be heading to Little Walsingham but our pilgrimage would be in search of cake. I have always found Little Walsingham to have a strange atmosphere with its unique combination of quaint Norfolk village, nuns and religious souvenir shops. To add to the eerie feeling today was also a partial eclipse of the sun. 
You can clearly make out todays partial eclipse (if the clouds weren't in the way).
We followed some nice country lanes round the quite lanes of north Norfolk as Andrew made up the route as we went along, with only the occasional check of his photo copied map with orange crayon route marked on.
Andrew checking his paper map as he continued to make up todays route
We found The Read and Digest on Little Walsingham high street, opposite the pump house. As the name suggests it's a tearoom/second hand bookshop combination with a small inside seating area, however all the action was taking place in the large outdoor seating area where we opted to sit.
Outside the Read and Digest in the outdoor seating area
Along the street was a series of blackboards (I didn't even know blackboards were still a thing) several of which were informing you that the tearoom was opposite the pump house, which everyone who had got this far would now surely know.
4 of the many Blackboards on display
For some reason the cake selection was not listed on a blackboard but the friendly waitress had it written down on a scrap of paper and although the list was short they all sounded good so I went for a rhubarb cake. Andrew had tea and a cheese sandwich but told the waitress he might have cake afterwards although we both knew he won't and he didn't.
As we waited for the refreshments and watched the world go by every thing seemed very zen and relaxed. But oh no, what was this? They had only gone and served the cake on a serviette. I could hardly contain my fury although when the friendly waitress came for the mandatory check that everything was ok I obviously said "lovely thank you" even though it wasn't.
Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!
When I eventually calmed down and peeled the now ruined serviette off my cake it was in fact extremally nice. As befitted the establishment the crockery was an eclectic mix and although my hot chocolate was very nice it had come in a very small glass mug so I had drunk it before I remembered to take a photo.
My empty hot chocolate glass mug as part of the eclectic crockery selection
The Read and Digest was a very pleasant if slightly eccentric stop and despite the #keepcakeoffserviettes incident I had excellent cake so I recommend a visit. You could even buy a plastic Jesus at the religious souvenir shop over the road (if you like that sort of thing).
The only excitement on the way back was to see if Andrews route would make it to 50 miles (it didn't 49.4) as we warmed up for my next cycling adventure which is a trip to Yorkshire in a weeks time, watch this space.
Scores
|
Guest Hot Drink Quality |
Effective Cake Selection |
Cake Quality |
Ambiance and Atmosphere |
Café Rating |
|
|
7 |
6 |
6.9 |
8.8 |
7 |
7.12 |
Route
