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Published: March 5th 2009
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The second weekend of my life in Leicester I took a day trip to a nearby town called Nottingham. For those of you who are Robin Hood fans you will recognize it due to its proximity with Sherwood Forest where Robin and his merry men hid in a giant hollow tree. Madison, a girl I spent a lot of time with at the London orientation, came with me. We left on Saturday morning by train, and the trip only took about 45 minutes. Once in Nottingham we were a bit early for anything that we wanted to see, so we had to wait a bit and decided to pass the time by wandering around the city. First we walked past the castle so we would know where it was, we took pictures with a Robin Hood statue and looked at the old buildings around the area. The oldest pub in England, Trip to Ye Old Jerusalem, is located in Nottingham at the base of the castle. We had a chance to walk up to the newer center of town to the square and walk around the fountains, and then we walked down the street to the Cathedral before heading back to
the castle to look around. The Cathedral was very old and had beautiful stained glass windows. The castle was open by the time we had walked back so we decided to go check it out. I have to say I was expecting it to be a bit more “castle-y”. You know the image you picture in your head (the one with tall turrets and a draw bridge)? Well now all that is left is a palace that holds the museum and gardens surrounded by a tall wall. There was a description and map layout of what it used to look like, but I think it deteriorated. Now where there used to be a great hall and kitchens there is now a children’s playground and of course we played on it. The playground was made up of castle shaped jungle gyms and so we had to pretend we were defending our home! Isn’t that what you would expect out of all 21 year old college students? Well sorry to disappoint you, but we had a good time. Anyway…after our playtime we went into the palace to look around. There is a museum dedicated to the history of Nottingham that was pretty
cool, it explained a lot about how the town was built and what the castle was used for over time and all that kind of stuff. But if there was ever to be a contest for the museum with the MOST RANDOM COLLECTION, I think this one would win. Other than the Nottingham history there was a collection of plates and dishes, swords, cloth garments, paintings, vases, and a bunch of nature items. It was not really what I was expecting…
After we finished in the museum and walked the lawn/garden of the castle grounds we stopped for lunch in the oldest pub in England, Trip To Jerusalem, just so we could say that we’ve been there. The place was really small with low ceilings, but still functioning. It had a nice ‘homey’ feel to it and the food was really good, so I approve. Next we walked to the bus station to take the bus to Sherwood Forest. We almost didn’t make it to the forest. It takes a lot longer by bus than I had read and we were kind of worried about not being able to find a bus back to Nottingham. But no worries, we
made it there after a nice scenic ride and were dropped off in a little town with instructions to walk about 10 minutes down the highway and we should find the welcome center. Needless to say we thought we got lost…yeah. There was this random little village-y thing right near the Sherwood Forest Conservation Center, and it was the wrong place. We finally figured out that we just needed to walk further, so we did and continued our search for Robin. There was a really neat path through the forest that led to Major Oak. Major Oak was the tree Robin and his merry men were rumored to have hidden in. The tree is gigantic! And hollow, so there are supports around it to help preserve it…that’s what the poles are in the pictures. Madison and I ran into a couple of groups of kids dressed up in Robin Hood gear and battling with fake swords and bow and arrows. It was quite entertaining! Unfortunately we were not able to stay long because the sun was setting and we needed to get back to the bus, but we had a good time anyway.
That is about the extent of
my first away trip in England and I think I can count it as a success! Enjoy the pictures.
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Amanda
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Picture 22: yes they do look vicious...the dog on the right is baring his teeth. A clear sign of pre-attack mode, in case you didn't know.