Norwich - The Hay Connection

It doesn't seem to matter where you go - even right across to the other side of the country. You're bound to meet someone who's been to Hay.
Sister Pamela at All Hallows retreat house has family in Clyro, and was camping at Llantony Abbey only a couple of weeks ago! (In the rain, so not much fun for her and little Matthew the dog).
We didn't find the Fat Cat (next time, maybe - and there will be a next time. We had a marvellous couple of days, with an awful lot of walking to fit everything in!). There were certain pubs that I wanted to visit for old time's sake, though, the first being the Rouen (now Number 12), which was the diggers' pub when we were working on the Castle Mall site. In those days it was being held up by scaffolding at the back so it didn't fall into the big pit that became the Castle Mall shopping centre.
Just down the hill is the Murderers/Gardener's Arms, which (oh joy!) is now a Woodforde's pub. I managed to find a pint of Woodforde's Wherry at the Hereford Beer Festival last year, and it was just as good as I remembered from twenty years ago, so we had to go in there. But (oh, calamity!) when the barmaid pulled the pump only the last dregs were coming out of the barrel - Wherry was off. Luckily they were having a mini beer festival with 25 other real ales as well as their regular selection, so we managed to find something to drink. They also had a little booklet with a list of all the outlets for Woodforde's beers.
Which led us to the Compleat Angler, down by the railway station, the next lunch time. Good food, a balcony overlooking the river, and both Wherry and Norfolk Nog, a lovely Old Ale.
The other diggers' pub used to be the Reindeer, then an independant brew pub with just about the best selection of real ales in the City. Now it's run by Elgoods, the old brewery part is now a restaurant, and they've moved the bar down the length of the pub. There was a nasty moment as we walked down Grape's Hill when I spotted a building site with a large hole in the ground where I thought the Reindeer used to stand. Fortunately I was mistaken - it was just along the main road at the bottom. Phew!
Just along from there used to be the Valori fish bar. Best fish and chips ever. We regularly used to go for 'Reindeer and Chips' in the evenings and walk back up to the Unthank Road eating our supper. Now it's the Golden Chips fish bar. We didn't try their fish and chips, it being such a hot day. Instead we went to Figaro's, close to John Lewis and St John Timberhill's. This used to be a Pizza Piazza and is now independantly run by real Italians, and the food was delicious.
We also managed to visit a fair few churches. I got married in St John's Timberhill, and I used to worship there and at St Julian's, which is how I knew about the retreat house. We had a good look round the cathedral too, which was always a lovely peaceful place to go when you were feeling stressed out. The Cathedral Close is wonderful, too, and we were convinced that there were little lanes there that only appeared after dark!
Mark was very taken by the movie and TV shop just opposite the Forum - which is new since I lived in Norwich. They built it when the old library burned down, and it is a rather spectacular modern building.
Another new building since my time is the Chapelfield shopping centre, on the site of the old Rowntree-Mackintosh factory. We used to sit out in Chapelfield Gardens with a permanent scent of chocolate on the air. And then Nestles bought it up and closed it down.
The best of it was, once I was there in the middle of the city, I didn't get lost. A few things have changed, but Norwich is still mostly the wonderful city I remember, and it was great fun showing Mark around for the weekend.

For pictures of Norwich, it's worth visiting Norwich Daily Photo at http://norwichdailyphoto.com/