Indian summer. (The Owl Tea Room, Holt.)

The Owl Tea room,

Holt,

Opening times Mon-Sat 08:30-17:00,

Changed Hands

As we have been having an Indian summer this year it has been disappointing that I have not been able to go on a cafe cycle ride for over a week. So I was glad that I had been able to round up two guests, Chris (Mrs Crusader) and Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please), for a ride today.

We met at Andrew's house in Aylsham where I had foolishly put Andrew in charge of the route. He planned for us to go to The Owl Tea Room in Holt but didn't yet know the route or how long it would take. His approach was to let these two things develop organicly as we went along. Fortunately my new bike GPS tracks the route so I should be able to share it once I can work out how that feature works.

Our first challenge was determining the number of layers to wear as these autumn days start cold and misty before they warm up. We didn't want to have too many 'hot top stops' which Chris is very fond of wanting. Fortunately we only needed the one and got to Holt at the required body temperature.

The Owl tea room has a small continental style outdoor seating area at the front and a lovely walled garden outdoor seating area at the back. To make the most of the sun we opted to sit round the back, which was extremely pleasant. In a desperate attempt at an image make over and to prove he is in fact 'extremely easy to satisfy' Andrew wanted to give a 10 rating for the Ambiance but then the sun went in and normal service was soon resumed.

Outside the Owl Tea Room.
 In the outdoor continental pavement style seating area

We went inside to check out the cakes and award the effective cake selection (ECS) score. The cakes were spread out throughout the store, with some in the counter area, some in the bakery area and others on random shelves. This made cake comparison difficult as you had to weigh up the options by going from one area to another.

Cakes on display behind a Victorian style window lattice

After much running around the tea room I settled on the nut fridge cake. I still don't know why it is called a fridge cake as it wasn't in the fridge, didn't look like a fridge and didn't taste of fridge. Chris went for a skinny mocha and chocolate sponge and Andrew cappuccino and coffee and walnut cake.

The nut fridge cake was very nice and the walnut coffee sponge was an excellent example of it's type. The chocolate sponge was not as good as the other cakes especially as the chocolate flake decoration, that had originally attracted Chris to the cake, turned out not to be authentic Cadburys which didn't go down well with her. 

Cakes and drinks ready for cafe cycle reviewing

Although not part of cycle cafe rating we had lunch at the Owl tea room as well as cake. We were all very impressed with the food and enjoyed excellent stilton quiche, pizza type thing and accompanying salads. Myself and Chris thought they were one of the best cafe stop lunches we had had (and we have now had a lot). Andrew (who remains notoriously hard to please) saw his attempted image make over crack further as he didn't like the number of rasins in his colesaw. Apparently there is no place for fruit in salad.

The Owl proved an excellent cafe cycle stop and even better if you want some lunch.

It is now nearly a year since I started the Norfolk Cafe Cycle Tour Blog and on the way back I shared with Andrew some of the new ideas I have for year two. He thought they were jolly exciting so I to hope to be announcing some of these new features soon.

Ratings for The Owl Cafe based on 2 visits. Last visit 30/12/2021

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.78	7.0	8.25	8.5	8.5	8.01

Route

Click here to download 32 Mile Alysham Holt loop GPX file for your GPS

Norfolk Cafe Cycle Tour Sportive 6 (34 miles via The Mill Cafe Bar and Restaurant, Yaxham)

Note Mill Cafe is now closed down

Yesterday saw the 6th Norfolk Cafe Cycle Tour sportive take place. Due to injury, apathy and foreign holidays the trip was whittled down to only 4 riders registering at race HQ.

One of the riders was Dr Hans who had been very disappointed with the quality of the first aid kit taken on the last sportive, particularly as it lacked any gauze, and he insisted on checking it had all the first aid essentials before we were allowed to set off. The kit was laid out and his approval given.

First aid kit getting the medical thumbs up, including two pink tablets no one was sure about

So under a grey and drizzly sky we set off on the ride out to The Mill Cafe Bar and Restaurant at Yaxham which had performed very well on my previous visit back in January (see Is there such a thing as a free lunch). We hadn't gone far when we realised no one had remembered to pick up the first aid kit after it's inspection so if there was a medical emergency today Dr Hans would have to improvise on equipment. I decided not to tell him in case he made us go back for it.

On the navigation front I had finally read up on how my sat nav was meant to work and it was now operating correctly. We therefore arrived at the Mill Cafe Bar and Restaurant near Yaxham with out further incident.

Sportive entrants with bikes parked up in outside seating area of the Mill Cafe Bar and Restaurant

On arrival we parked our bikes and as it was still a bit cold and grey we decided to sit inside. The Mill Cafe Bar and Restaurant has a number of indoor and outdoor seating areas to choose from and on this occasion we went for the leather sofa seating area. Before we sat down we checked out the cakes, of which there was only a small but tempting selection. Dr Hans and Little George (Son) opted for rocky road while myself and Chris (wife) went for the white chocolate and raspberry sponge cake. Little George also had a cheese scone and I was pleased to see it was warmed up and stuck to the advice from the scone rhyme; "Cheese scone hot, fruit scone not".

Drinks and cakes on the coffee table in the leather sofa seating area

The hot chocolates and coffees were all very good and scored well. The cakes were also excellent and I thought the bit of rocky road I tried was the finest I had had despite not being a supporter of the marshmallow. Last time I came I had not been a big fan of the cheese scone but George reported that it was now very tasty. When I had totted up today's ratings the Mill Cafe Bar and Restaurant had come out with practically the same overall score as on the last visit and maintained it's place in my cafe top 10.

With drinks and cakes consumed we had to set off home. On the way back I took the opportunity of consulting Dr Hans on my bunged up ear, due to three swimming sessions last week. He advised I put olive oil in it for a few days which I will do but as added innovation I will put vinegar in the other ear in case I come across a salad that needs dressing.

It was another successful Norfolk Cafe Cycle Tour Sportive and everyone said that they were already looking forward to the next one on October 18th. All welcome.

Updated scores for The Mill Cafe Bar based on 2 visits.

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.0	8.0	6.5	7.38	7.5	7.48

This is map of the route
Click here to download 34 miles Norwich Yaxham loop GPX file for your GPS

Celebrity ride. (Every Days a Picnic, Hedenham)

Every days a Picnic,

Hedenham,

Opening times Mon-Sat 09:00-17:00, Sat 10:00-16:00

Highly Recommended

Today was the first time it had been possible to arrange a ride with Big George since our epic ride to Paris a few weeks ago (see London to Paris by bike day 1). As well as catching up with him we were going to start thinking about a possible route for next years trip.

Due to Big George having a dentist appointment we only had time for a morning ride. Fortunately last week I noticed a new cafe, called Every Days a Picnic, on the Norwich to Bungay road just outside Hedenham so this seemed an ideal opportunity to check it out.

Once again I had my new Sat Nav which had failed spectacularly to navigate correctly on its first outing earlier this week (see Garden Delight). I thought I had worked out what was wrong so confidently set off. Unfortunately once again it must have got confused as it made me follow a different route from the one I planned and we were soon going in totally the wrong direction. When I eventually realised it must have gone wrong again I switched it off and corrected ourselves using the old fashioned method of following sign posts. However we had to speed up to make sure that Big George would get to the dentist. We eventually arrived at Every Days a Picnic cafe. Note to self 'open and read Sat Nav instructions before next ride'.

Outside Every days a Picnic cafe in outside seating courtyard area

Every Days a Picnic cafe has a well presented outdoor seating courtyard area where we parked our bikes before going inside to check out the cakes. The staff were very friendly so we got chatting and I happened to mention my cycle cafe review blog. I was extremely pleased when they seemed to know all about it and had even forwarded a post to a biking friend of theirs. Big George was getting very excited and didn't want to miss out. He leapt forward to introduce himself. 'I'm Big George'.he said, 'and I'm often the star of the blog'. After much more Big George led blog chat I reminded him of our time constraint and was eventually able to check out the cakes. There were lots of tempting ones to try but I was persuaded by Mrs Picnic to go for the Chocolate and Guinness cake (although I was very tempted by banana and walnut). I therefore awarded a good effective cake selection rating.

Some of the cakes on offer,
which were all made on the premises and looked very good

Now that Big George thought he was a celebrity he clearly felt he no longer had to pander to my cafe reviewing needs and instead of ordering a cake he went for a bacon ciabatta. As a bacon caibatta is clearly not a cake, celebrity or not, he would be playing no further part in any cake related reviewing activity today.

We sat outside where Big George wanted to know if the other visitors to the cafe wanted his autograph (they didn't).

Cakes and drinks ready to taste.
 Note the extra bit of home-made cake with the drinks which was a nice touch
 and makes a change from a pre wrapped biscuit

The chocolate and Guinness cake was superb and would be a definite contender for the 'Norfolk cafe cycle tour cake of the year 2014' award (if there was one). (Note there is now and it did win!!) As the barista had promised, Big George's Cappuccino had excellent froth and he thought it was a very good guest drink. My hot chocolate was nice but not as chocolaty and thick as the best ones I have had.

Mrs Picnic quizzed me on what I thought of the cafe as they had only been open 10 weeks. I said it was right up there amongst the best cafes but the hot chocolate could be a little stronger, she assured me that next time I came I would get an extra spoonful of powder. I look forward to coming again soon and recommend a visit.

On the route back I tried to arrange a date for the next ride with Big George but he only wanted to discuss image rights and his new 'Big George' merchandise range. He made it clear that in future I was only to deal with him through his agent and he set off for the dentist, I assume to have his teeth whitened.

(note I also visited EDAP on sportive 7 and again in November 2016)

Ratings for Every Days a Picnic cafe based on 3 visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.33	7.83	7.5	8.5	7.42	7.52

Map of route

Click on link to download 31 mile Norwich Hedenham loop GPX file for your GPS

Garden delight (South Green Cafe bar, Mattishall)

South Green Cafe,

Mattishall,

Opening times Mon- Fri 09:00-16:00,

Sat-Sun 09:00-15:00

With summer coming to an end I decided it was about time I combined cycling with the world of gardening. For clarity, by this combination I mean I would cycle out to an open garden for a look round, not that I would trying to do the weeding whilst riding my bike. Earlier this year I had successfully combined cycling and art (see looking for art), and had been given the National Gardens Scheme booklet at one of the galleries. The booklet informed me that the High House gardens near Shipdham was to be open to visitors yesterday.

Therefore myself, with guest Chris (Mrs Crusader), set off for Shipdham where, on route, we would include a cycle cafe review stop at the South Green Cafe bar at Mattishall.

To add excitement to the trip I had installed my new bike sat nav and planned to test it out. I had foolishly let Chris have my old one so she could follow the route as well. Things started badly as the new sat nav didn't work the same as the old one. Obviously, whilst still riding, I started to fiddle with it in order to try and make it find the route we were meant to be on. With my attention distracted I didn't notice that Norfolk county council had installed a street light right in the middle of the cycle path. I only became aware of it when I hit it with my shoulder and ended up sprawled across the pavement. I will be writing to the council to ask them if they could move the lamp post back a bit in case I need to fiddle with my sat nav in the future.

Fortunately I knew the route we were taking to Mattishall as it was becoming clear that my new Sat Nav didn't and we arrived at South Green Cafe bar in Mattishall safely.

Arriving at the South Green Cafe bar in Mattishall

On arrival I was pleased to see an outside seating area overlooking the river so we could sit outside and keep an eye on the bikes. First though, we went inside to check out the cakes. They were displayed on a welsh dresser display area. There were not many cakes to choose from but the ones there were looked nice so I awarded an appropriate effective cake selection (ECS) rating.

Cakes on the welsh dresser display area

I ordered Victoria sponge with my hot chocolate and Chris ordered chocolate cake with her skinny mocha. We then we returned to our table in the outside seating area. Unfortunately the noisy extractor fan didn't help the ambiance of what should have been a peaceful setting and got a little annoying by the end of our visit.

Cakes and drinks ready for tasting

The drinks were both fine although not exceptional with the hot chocolate part of both drinks being a bit sweet. The cakes were also nice without being great so overall South Green came out as a solid but not spectacular stop. As an aside the baguettes we had for lunch were very good.

We set off again for our garden venue. By now Chris was getting the hang of her hand me down bike sat nav which, unlike my new one, was taking us on the correct route. I was getting uncomfortable with the new found cycling independence this was giving her so when she went over a bump and it fell off (the sat nav not the wife) it gave me the excuse to confiscate the GPS and nip in the bed any more ideas of her organising rebel trips.

We arrived at the Hill House garden and were warmly welcomed as they said they wished more people came on bikes as they had limited car parking space. However they became less welcoming when we wanted  to cycle along the edge of the herbaceous border, so to avoid an incident we parked our bikes and walked round instead.

One of the very nice flower beds at the Hill House garden

The garden was very nice but as I don't know much about plants we raced around everything rather quickly, although we decided we should have more purple in our garden.

By now my new sat nav was completely lost and decided to totally freeze up. Despite this we managed to get home safely. I think the new sat nav might be good if I new how it worked properly and I may even be tempted to have a peak at the instruction manual before my next ride.

I think the cafe garden cycling combination works well and I look forward to planning some more combined trips next year.

Ratings for South Green Cafe bar

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.0	6.0	5.0	6.5	6.5	6.00

Click here to download 44 mile Norwich Shipdham loop gpx file for your gps

More Tea. (Calorie neutral cafe bike ride world record fact find)

Calorie Neutral Bike ride World Record Fact Find 

You may recall that when I first entered the world of cafe cycling one of my aims was to set the world record for the most cafes visited on a calorie neutral bike ride. I have had some set backs on this goal as first the Guinness book of world records refused to validate this activity (see Going alone) and then I had my 'funny turn' and hospitalisation earlier this year (2014) delaying further progress.

So yesterday (Sept 2014) I took the opportunity to take my plan forward by having a trial run and fact find to see how a world record attempt might work.

Since the Guinness Book of so called World Records washed their hands of me I consider myself the self proclaimed arbiter of this record so I have come up with the following rules.

1. The holder of the record will have visited the highest number of different cafes during a single day.
2. All cafes must be independent and not part of national chains
3. All cafes must be visited within their normal opening hours and not open early or kept opened late for a record attempt
4. At each cafe a standard portion of cake or a scone (fruit or cheese) must be consumed. Biscuits, flapjacks or anything pre-packaged will not count.
5. At each cafe a hot chocolate must be consumed. 
6. From the time of arriving at the cafe 400 calories must be burnt off before the next cafe can be visited thus making the ride calorie neutral. (400 calories is based on in-depth internet research on average calories of cakes or scones plus calories of a typical hot chocolate). 
7. If extra calories have been used between cafes then that is tough as they can not be credited against other legs of the ride.

Using the simple set of rules set out above I planned a 5 stop trip visiting some of my favourite cafes to see what I could learn about high speed cafe cycling and to be able to set what I believe a challenging number of cafes would be for an acceptable world record.

So yesterday morning I skipped my breakfast, so as to start the day on zero calories, and at 8.30 I set off to my first destination which was the Box Tree cafe in Brooke.

Early morning sun ruining my photo at the Cafe in Brooke.

On arrival I noticed the cafe had changed it's name from the Box Tree Cafe to just The Cafe. While ordering my hot chocolate and orange cake I enquired as to the reason for the name change. Apparently a rival Box Tree restaurant in Sheffield had baggied naming rights and written to all other Box Tree's to tell them to change their names. This seemed a little harsh but anyway I will update the blog with the new name as I don't want to be held responsible for anyone setting off for a short ride to Brooke and ending up in South Yorkshire. 

The Hot Chocolate was very hot, which normally I approve of, but made it hard to drink quickly. The cake was very tasty and made a nice breakfast. 

Hot chocolate and Orange cake for Breakfast at the Cafe in Brooke

I checked my calorie counting watch and noted that I had burnt 34 calories whilst at the Cafe. This was a bonus as I hadn't taken the cake eating calorie burn into account in my original planning. It meant I would have calories in hand for the rest of the ride, although rule 7 makes it clear that this will not give me an advantage.

Calorie counting watch showing I was well ahead calorie wise.

I left The Cafe in Brooke, pondering that they properly could have spent a little long coming up with a new cafe name, and headed off to the Hen House near Wymondham. On arrival I checked that enough calories had been burnt, they had, and headed straight to the counter to get my next energy refill. On this occasion I had a cheese scone to accompany my hot chocolate. 

I took the opportunity to ask if the owner knew the calorie content of the drink and scone. She didn't but appeared to be a bit of a calorie expert and was more than happy to perform some energy estimating. Her conclusion was that it would be about 180 for the Hot chocolate, which is from Holland although it wasn't clear if Dutch calories are the same as British ones, and 200 for scone plus butter. This seemed in line with my in depth on-line research so I happily went to the outside bench seating area where once again the hot chocolate was too hot to drink quickly.

Hot Chocolate, which is Dutch, and cheese scone refilling my calorie bank

While I waited for the drink to cool I got side tracked discussing saddle comfort options with some fellow cyclists and spent a lot more time here than I had planned thus falling further behind schedule.

The next stop was a ride up to Mattishall, and Tabnabs. On arrival I was very pleased to hear from Mrs Tabnabs that she had had several cyclists visit her after reading the recommendation from my blog. 

Outside Tabnabs where I got to use the outside seating for the first time.

I had heard on the cafe grapevine that a new Peanut cake was available so decided to try it with my next hot chocolate. Mrs Tabnabs likes to put a bit of gratted veg into her cakes as they help keep them moist. You can have peanut and courgette, or chocolate and beetroot or plain carrot cake. All taste great and as she pointed out, if you had a piece of all 3 cakes then you have also had 3 of your 5 a day before lunchtime.

Thick and hot hot chocolate with peanut cake

I did ask if they had any idea on calorie content but unfortunately no one in the cafe could help. Again drinking the excellent thick and hot hot chocolate quickly proved challenging but with the clock ticking I finished both and set off for Reepham.

I decided to go to Reepham railway station as on the last visit I had had a very tasty and infeasibly large cheese scone which I really fancied again.

There were several cyclist at Reepham Station.

I ordered the cheese scone and was pleased to see it was still infeasibly large and yet another hot chocolate. The scone was great but I really didn't fancy my fourth hot chocolate that morning. There was nothing wrong with it, in fact it was a very nice drink and I did eventually worked my way through it, however I knew if I was to have another at the next stop I would probably be ill.

Fourth hot chocolate plus infeasibly large scone

At this point I realised I would have to change the rules to include other hot beverages and not just hot chocolate. This would have the added advatage of reducing the number of calories needing to be burnt between cafes. Therefore rules 5 and 6 were amended to

5. At each cafe a standard hot drink must be consumed. (Tea, coffee or hot chocolate)
6. From the time of arriving at the cafe 300 calories must be burnt off before the next cafe can be visited thus making the ride calorie neutral. (300 calories is based on in-depth internet research on average calories of cakes and scones plus average calories of a hot drink (Tea, coffee, hot chocolate). 

With the new rules in place it was back to Norwich and my local Cafe; Stephanie's cafe in Eaton.

Round the back of Stephanie's cafe

Here I went for tea and blueberry muffin. The tea was great and refreshing and I manged two cups which settled my stomach down. 

Refreshing tea and Muffin round the back of Stephanies

I got home to study the data (see below for all you cycle calorie data buffs) and work out what a challenging cafe target would be for a world record attempt next year. I had lots of learns on the trip which I need to incorpertae in my next trial run in the spring before the big one next summer.

All 5 of the cafes I visited today performed really well and will definitely be on my final list when I do the world record attempt.  

	calories	time (min)	miles	av speed mph	calories/mile	calories/min
To Brooke	407	46	12.3	16.17	33.09	8.85
The Café, Brooke	34	17				2.00
To Wymondham	508	51	13.86	16.03	36.65	9.96
The Hen House	59	26				2.27
To Mattishall	404	33	10.23	18.6	39.49	12.24
Tabnabs	40	18				2.22
To Reepham	483	66	10.72	9.7	45.06	7.32
Railway station	60	25				2.40
To Norwich	553	57	16.1	14.34	34.35	9.70
Stephanies	33	15				2.20
Totals	2581	354	63.21	14.99

Route


Click here to download 60 mile 5 cafe tour route gpx file for your gps

New Roads please. (Kings Cafe, Shipdham)

Kings Cafe,

Shipdham,

Opening times Tue-Sun 9:00-16:00

It had been a week since the end of my London to Paris cycle cafe ride and my derrière had just about recovered. Therefore it was time I got back on my continued mission to cycle to and review all the cafes I can find in the Norfolk, North Suffolk and Cambridgeshire area. Today, with guests Chris (wife) and Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please), I had chosen a 41 mile round trip to the Kings Cafe in Shipdham.

On an increasingly cloudy morning we headed west at a nice fast pace enjoying the quite Norfolk country lanes. After a while we came to a long stretch of newly 'repaired' road. These days repairing the road seems to consist of tipping as much gravel as you can find in a load of uneven piles and waiting for the passing traffic to drive over the road in order to flatten the gravel out a bit. The amount of road 'repaired' depends on how much gravel you managed to find before you ran out. On this occasion a lot of gravel had been found and not much passing traffic had been by as we skidded and bumped our way through the piles of pebbles at a snail pace for sometime. Fortunately and despite a few near misses, none of us fell off but we were all a bit shaken by the experience. I have therefore crossed this road of my routes list for the next few months.

After this stretch the rest of the ride to the Kings Cafe in Shipdham was a breeze.

The Kings cafe is right at the end of the village in what looks like a converted pub. Inside has a nice bright feel and out the back there is a good looking patio outdoor seating area. As myself and Andrew had mistakenly chosen to wear only short sleeve cycle tops, and it was colder than it looked, we opted to stay inside.

Outside Kings Cafe in Shipdham

I checked out the cake selection in the glass cake display tower. There had obviously been a run on carrot cake as there was only one bit left. Although there were not that many cakes to choose from they were all ones I liked so I awarded a medium effective cake selection (ECS) rating.

Cakes on display in glass cake display tower.
There was also a lemon cake I seemed to have cropped from the photo and scones on the counter

I went for the last piece of carrot cake with my hot chocolate and Chris went for chocolate fudge cake with her Mocha. Andrew (who I'm starting to suspect isn't taking cycle cafe reviewing seriously) went for a pot of tea with egg and chips. Egg and chips is clearly not cake so he played no further part in cake reviewing and frankly I now wasn't that interested in his view on the tea.

Drinks and cakes ready for reviewing whilst Andrew eats his egg and chips

There was certainly no complaints about the size of the drinks however due to the large volume they were both very weak. Chris decided to ask if they could beef her Mocha up strength wise and the extremely nice waitress was very happy to do so. The new improved Mocha was excellent and doubled the mark Chris had originally given it. I only wished I had done the same with my hot chocolate. I now had a rating dilemma as to how to score the Mocha. I referred to the cycle cafe rating handbook which had a section covering such an occurrence stating that the average of the before and after drink rating should be used. So I did that.

The cake was good if not exceptional but we all agreed that, as long as the drinks were strong enough, the Kings Cafe was an excellent cycle cafe stop with a very friendly atmosphere.

On the journey home my thoughts turned to my next planned ride where I plan to break the world record for the most cafes visited on a calorie neutral bicycle ride (see going alone). I just hope there have been no more road improvements on my planned route to slow me down.

Ratings for Kings Cafe

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
4.0	6.0	6.0	6.0	7.5	5.90

Route

Click link to download 41 mile Norwich to Shipdham Loop GPX file for your GPS