I've covered the obvious routes from London to the north, and was wondering about stopping by either or both of these places next time. Has anyone been to these places? What is to see/do there, and what are the surrounding villages like?

Should add that I've done the usual - googled them; looked up their official tourism websites etc etc. But there's nothing like the word from people who've actually been there, as visitors.

We visited Wisbech, on a boiling hot day, coming off jet lag some years back, with 3 kids in tow, so Im a bit jaded about it. Its a rather picturesque dutch style town with many old buildings. If you are in that area, definitely visit Ely, and some of the Fens churches (our kids derisively called them "Cathedrals of the Fens" as in Oh no, another Cathedral of the Fens... they are very interesting.
Lincoln is also very much worth a visit, in the same general area.

there are many fascinating and ancient parish churches up through East Anglia and Lincolnshire - out in the peace of the countryside. Guides to them are available in local tourist offices - its like a treasure hunt finding them.

I should add that the land around Wisbech is dead flat agricultural land - drained fens - look for the steeples to find the churches and read Dorothy Sayers "The Nine Tailors" as preparation for this area.

We often drive round the Kings Lynn bypass, and I've occasionally had business in the area. The town has an interesting history, having been more or less England's major export port back in the days when our wool dominated the European market.

A couple of momths ago, we had an hour or two spare, so decided to look at KL, which we'd never set foot in except to get a cab fromn the station. We spent those hours trying to find anything to see. - and failed

However, as jjkbrook says, there are some lovely churches in the wider area (never leave home without a copy of Simon Jenkins' '1000 Best Churches' in the car). Go eastward a bit from Lynn, and you hit Sandringham, Brancaster and ultimately Cromer.

Kings Lynn is quite hard to take a shine to. It does however boast Britain's smallest pub (as opposed to every other town in Britain which claims to have England's oldest pub).


http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/herita...rticle_1.shtml

Sandringham (one of the Royal Family's residences, where they stay for Christmas) is not far from King's Lynn.

It seems like there would be things to see in Kings Lynn if you do some preparation, have a map and know where to go - Like Wisbech, it has quite a dutch look. Maybe on a market day

http://www.interads.co.uk/~jbh/