King's Lynn, Randomly

After Blickling, we drove on to King's Lynn, on the coast, to see a church and for a couple days' rest. Increasingly, we are finding mid-sized towns that have designated parking for RVs, some of which even permit overnight stays. King's Lynn was one, and the car park was within walking distance of everything we wanted to see. And more.

Actually it was not among the more scenic of our parkings, but being right next
to the Royal Mail depot assured us of an early start every morning; and on the
other side was a great view of the Lidl's

I've read (and seen) that there is only one statue of Cortez in
Mexico; probably the same is true of King John in England,
and, if so, this is it

No one's favorite king, except maybe in Lynn, which he granted market town
status way back when

It was a Saturday and the downtown was busy; still a market town

Among the numerous kiddie shows

I think that's Judy on the left

The smallish Saturday market has been held next to St. Margarets for aeons

Quite few aeons, as it turns out

The market was mostly specialty foods; at this specialty foods for pets store we
began to understand that, King John notwithstanding, there is some special
weirdness about King's Lynn

Grab a six pack for Tabby or Fido; then make a YouTube video of their antics

The excellent signage encouraged us to explore further

Among the more attractive old buildings

From the volume of noise coming from this square, I assumed the entire city,
except for Punch and Judy and Stevie Spud, would be there, enjoying the Saturday
rock concert; instead, the audience appeared to be immediate family and close
friends of band members

International cuisine of the future; all through the east of England we'd been
hearing Slavic accents we couldn't quite place; turns out there's quite a bit of
Polish and Baltic in the area

There's also a Tuesday market we didn't stick around for

City hall and associated old buildings

Closed, and quite rudely, for a wedding

Vicki stands for scale while I fume over not being permitted
a photo of the hall interior, not to mention the relics

RAF Oulton

Blickling's more recent past includes the RAF Oulton bomber base from WWII. Blickling Hall housed personnel and served as a mess hall for the base. The airstrip was only a couple miles away. In the early years of the war, Oulton was home to light and medium bombers, Vega Venturas, A-26s, and such. In 1943, the base closed, concrete runways and other infrastructure were built, and by April, 1944, the B-17s and B-24s that were to pulverize Germany arrived. Blickling houses a small but impressive museum of those times.

Map of RAF Oulton

Huge model, 8 foot wingspan

"Chaff"--tinsel dropped from Allied aircraft on D-Day to confuse German radar;
I'll never forget being in a conversation one day in the 80s between two WWII vets
in Dallas, Bill Stallcup, who flew a USAAF bomber and dropped chaff that day; and
Jerry Stover, who was a US Army signal officer on the beach, whose radio
messages apparently suffered as much as the German radar

Blickling Garden

Blickling's gardens are extensive; we did the tour that covered the formal gardens,
part of the park lands, and then the walled garden; stupendous!

Looking toward the temple

In the formal garden

The sculptured hedges were amazing

In the forest, with its wide avenues and eye catchers

Formal garden looking toward the Hall

Many huge old trees

By the artificial lake, obligatory National Trust croquet

Kiddie village

Jacobean compost point

National Trust gardens always include comprehensive and up-to-date gardener's
notes--this is, after all, a Nation of Gardeners--many of the people visiting are
here not merely to admire the beauty, but to get ideas and learn skills for their
own gardens (click to enlarge)

In the walled garden, under restoration since 2014

Spare parts

In progress

So I have spent 50 years eating artichokes, but never saw one in bloom until
last week; now they seem to be everywhere!