Follow in Empress Elizabeth of Austria’s 1887 footsteps in a remarkable town where visitors still flock for restorative holidays, seeking peace, fresh air and the health-giving waters of the North Sea.

The Sea Cure is a 45 minute long audio walk presented by Sarah Lowndes, set in the English seaside town of Cromer which illuminates the town’s long history as a holiday destination, with archival music, field recordings and reflections on sea bathing for wellbeing through recent centuries.  The Sea Cure will guide listeners through the winding lanes and stunning promenades of Cromer, in a one mile loop route which traces a vivid re-imagining of the 1887 visit to the town by Empress Elisabeth of Austria.  Elisabeth was revered as the most beautiful woman in Europe and adhered to rigorous diets, remedies and procedures to maintain her constitution and her looks. In Cromer, the Empress tried to come to term with her loss of her infant daughter, a grief that had haunted her all her adult life, walking for miles along the clifftops, reading poetry and hunting for fossils on the beach and bathing in the sea. The Sea Cure invites listeners to follow in Elizabeth’s footsteps in a remarkable town where visitors still flock for restorative holidays.

You will need your own smartphone and headphones to listen to the audio. The audio can be streamed or downloaded from Spotify, iTunes or Google Podcasts.

The Sea Cure was commissioned by Norfolk & Norwich Festival as part of EXPERIENCE a Norfolk County Council initiative designed to help audience experience the magic of Norfolk in the autumn and winter.