Isobel waits for early breakfast in the Red Lion
A Postcard From Peterborough, Cambridgeshire - 29th May 2026
A chance to do a rather special trip to Normandy has come up, however the return date is the same day on which the passport reaches less than the three months' validity required to visit any of the Shengen countries. This therefore means a) visiting Peterborough for a same-day passport renewal appointment and b) having to leave the Red Lion Hotel in Cromer a bit early in order to drive the 80 miles in time for the 11am appointment. Luckily, the hotel is particularly accommodating and lets us do breakfast a bit earlier than usual. The passport process itself only takes around 15 minutes, after which there's four hours to kill which we do by looking around the cathedral, wandering around a bit and then doing lunch like teenagers in Nando's. There's also the revelation that Peterborough's quite nice in places - all that can be remembered about previous emergency-passport visits in 2002 and 2007 is the cathedral and some grim concrete underpass, but then the passport office has moved since then.
previous album: A Bus Trip to Wells Next the Sea, Norfolk - 28th May 2026
The hotel restaurant is, unsurprisingly, quiet
Isobel gets some very fancy eggs for breakfast
Peterborough's town hall
Isobel gets a coffee in the Argo Lounge
Peterborough's Guildhall and cathedral square
A fancy late-Victorian building
Peterborough Cathedral's grand entrance portico
The cathedral close
Peterborough Cathedal's nave
Isobel looks up at the ceiling
The south aisle
The south aisle flanked with crochet curtains
Crochet poppies and flags
A titanosaurus skeleton in the cathedral
The cathedral's choir
The chancery and its grand ceiling
Unusual fancy tiled floor at the crossing
A titanosaur skeleton lit up in purple light
The titanosaur ribcage
There are some tiny dinosaur models around
The titanosaur, from one end to the other
A later Gothic fan-vault ceiling
Isobel looks at stuff
A stegosaurus on a capital
Another dinosaur on a bench
A memorial to Bishop Mandell Creighton
The eastern nave window
One of Peterborough's 12th-century sarcophogi
Capitals and arcades in black and white
The spectacular chancery ceiling
The 8th century Hedda stone
Looking right up at the crossing
The intricate carving of the choir
The titanosaur's head
There's some sort of fossils display on outside
Bridge Street in Peterborough has a European vibe
A model cow outside Food Hall
A nice fruit and veg stall on Bridge Street
An empty shop
A concrete relic of the 1960s
The 80s-ness of Rivergate Shopping Centre
City Hall on St. Peter's Road
An alternative view of the Cathedral
Very fancy windows in the NatWest bank building
The western Great Gateway
Cathedral Square and the Great Gateway
Isobel outside Pizza Express
A view from Nando's
Isobel gives the hairy eyeball
Peterborough Nando's
There's a statue on a building-society roof
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Isobel waits for early breakfast in the Red Lion
Isobel waits for early breakfast in the Red Lion
The hotel restaurant is, unsurprisingly, quiet
Isobel gets some very fancy eggs for breakfast
Peterborough's town hall
Isobel gets a coffee in the Argo Lounge
Peterborough's Guildhall and cathedral square
A fancy late-Victorian building
Peterborough Cathedral's grand entrance portico
The cathedral close
Peterborough Cathedal's nave
Isobel looks up at the ceiling
The south aisle
The south aisle flanked with crochet curtains
Crochet poppies and flags
A titanosaurus skeleton in the cathedral
The cathedral's choir
The chancery and its grand ceiling
Unusual fancy tiled floor at the crossing
A titanosaur skeleton lit up in purple light
The titanosaur ribcage
There are some tiny dinosaur models around
The titanosaur, from one end to the other
A later Gothic fan-vault ceiling
Isobel looks at stuff
A stegosaurus on a capital
Another dinosaur on a bench
A memorial to Bishop Mandell Creighton
The eastern nave window
One of Peterborough's 12th-century sarcophogi
Capitals and arcades in black and white
The spectacular chancery ceiling
The 8th century Hedda stone
Looking right up at the crossing
The intricate carving of the choir
The titanosaur's head
There's some sort of fossils display on outside
Bridge Street in Peterborough has a European vibe
A model cow outside Food Hall
A nice fruit and veg stall on Bridge Street
An empty shop
A concrete relic of the 1960s
The 80s-ness of Rivergate Shopping Centre
City Hall on St. Peter's Road
An alternative view of the Cathedral
Very fancy windows in the NatWest bank building
The western Great Gateway
Cathedral Square and the Great Gateway
Isobel outside Pizza Express
A view from Nando's
Isobel gives the hairy eyeball
Peterborough Nando's
There's a statue on a building-society roof