Nottingham

Here I am, again.  There came a point when I realized I was so busy blogging, that I needed to take some time to actually LIVE out the present experiences.  Then, of course, I became so far behind with keeping this updated, that I pretty much gave up.  Given that I'm safely home in Vancouver again, it almost seems silly to write about my travel experiences in hindsight, as, anyone who is interested can just ring me up and ask about them.  Nonetheless, I think I shall continue blogging, at the very least, as a personal journal, so I don't forget my experiences abroad.

Nottingham.

I've heard many things about this place, and felt obligated to visit here, both from the legends of Robin Hood, and because I needed to know if my pent-up regrets for not going on exchange here, instead of Leeds, were justified.

They weren't.  I was entirely underwhelmed.

Don't get me wrong, I saw some very lovely sights here, in fact, some of my prettiest pictures were taken along the canal.  The castle caves were pretty cool, too.  The city itself, however, I didn't feel was anything special.  Though, of course, I may have experienced what I now dub, "The Matthew Tour," which is where you visit a city, and completely miss all the visitable areas of it, as with Matthew's trip to Glasgow.  Now, I'm not necessarily defending Glasgow, (which reminds me, I forgot to blog about my trip there with Dad and Uncle Paul!), but Matthew completely missed the city center, and spent a couple days wandering around vacant suburbs.  Whoops.

On route to Nottingham, I had a brief layover in a town called Chesterfield.  I had a little laugh, and assumed that this is where certain furniture originated.  I went for about a 10 minute walk, saw nothing impressive, and caught the train to Nottingham.  In Nottingham, after leaving the train station, I wandered Southwest, until I found the lovely canal that I walked along.  Given the time of year, (October 20th), the yellow leaves made my morning walk quite enjoyable.  In fact, I thought to myself that my trip to Nottingham was worth it just for that walk.  Here are some pictures to show you how pleasant it was.

Ny'aww!  So lovely!  I saw the castle across the water, and eventually crossed a bridge that enabled me to approach the castle.  This area was nice; I could see someone comfortably living here.  At this point in time, I would like to mention that I sneaked into Nottingham Castle using secret passage ways.  Yes.  Seriously.  The actual story is a little less impressive, but I will let you bask in the amazingness of that phrase.

Now, at the castle base, my geologist-student self squee'd with joy at these caves.

Dat sedimentology.

 Mmm.  Finding my way to the cave entrance took a bit of effort.  I think another tourist asked me if I knew where the entrance was, while I myself was searching.  Another person asked me if I knew how to work the parking meter.  I didn't. But they were kind enough to point me in the direction of the gate entrance.  So, I go through, and see that there is a guide giving some information to a tour group!  I eagerly join the crowd, and learn a little bit about the castle, and some surrounding museums and pubs.

It's secret, I swear!

Then the tour guide says, "Now, if anyone wants to go back through the caves, let me know, otherwise, show your ticket at the main entrance to get back into the castle,". 

I couldn't pass this up.


I shyly approach him, and say, "I would like to go back through the caves," and he agrees, taking me and a couple others into the tunnel, mistaking me as a member of his tour group.

So, we exit the tunnel, and I have successfully infiltrated Nottingham castle.  Yay!




The castle itself is not a traditional castle.  It's more of a palace-fortress.  It's built on a hill, with massive walling around it, but the building itself more resembles a museum.  In fact, it currently is a museum!  I took some pictures of old clothes before being told not to do that.  To be fair, I did not see any signs anywhere telling me that photography was not allowed.

Aside from the pretty period clothing, I don't have anything particularly interesting that stand out about the palace.  I remember reading about the history of Nottingham up to present date.  The exterior gardens were quite lovely.  

Castle Exterior

Walkway up from entrance

Some tunnels in the gardens

The gazebo eats your entire party.  Start again.

Upon exiting the castle grounds, I went through the giftshop, where I felt bad for not paying the entrance fee.  To make up for it, (sort of), I bought an expensive card at the gift store, which I then wrote a lovey-dovely message in, and mailed to Donald upon returning to Leeds.  The card, today, is sitting on his dining table.

I walked away from the castle, and then came upon the city center.  I had a quick lunch at a cafe, and then proceeded to meander around.  That's when I came to a discreet pub, which had a bold claim on its ad board.  "Best hot chocolate in England," or something to that effect.  Intrigued, I felt this needed investigating, so I entered.  I was quite impressed by the atmosphere of this pub.  I was spacious, yet cozy, and had a classic feel.  This is notable, because of how unremarkable it looked from the outside.  I approach the bartender, and ask what makes their hot chocolate the best in England.  He looked a little flustered, and explained that, "maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration," but that it did have maltesers in it.  Intrigued, I ordered a large, remembering how the hot chocolate from Scarborough ended too quickly.  I'm told to pick a seat, and that my drink will be delivered to me.  I choose a cozy spot in the corner, and pull out the Lord of the Rings novel I had in my pack, (which I had been borrowing from the Leeds Uni library.  When, my hot chocolate arrives, I'm at a loss for words.

It... It's beautiful.  And it was delicious.  No regrets.  I'm very happy I went for the large size.

St. Barnabas Catholic Church

Upon exiting the pub, quite satiated, I proceed to wander around the city.  This is where I may have pulled the "Matthew Tour," as I ended up leaving the city center, and went through some suburbs.  According to some directions, I was looking for a church that looked nice.  I found it, and was quite impressed.  I remember vaguely that there were paintings of six winged angels that caught my eye, as those have some personal significance to me.   I donated 50p, and lit a candle for Rita here.  I sat for awhile, and enjoyed the quiet atmosphere.  I'd been making it a habit to light candles for Rita in each church I visit.

After my visit to the church, I wandered uphill a little more, where I found a bead store!  Yay!  Unfortunately, it was mostly crappy, plastic beads.  The gems they had behind the counter.  What appeared to be malachite caught my eye, and I asked to see them.  As the lady brought the beads forward, I could then immediately tell they weren't malachite, because they were shiny.  I was very confused; I had never seen a stone like this before.  Finally, I figure out that they were tiger's eye that had been dyed green.  I was a little disappointed that they weren't labeled, and the lady had no idea what most of the stones were.  Suffice to say, I didn't buy them, despite them being pretty.

I wandered around the suburbs a bit, before eventually deciding to return to the city center, to be closer to the train station.  I walked past some nice houses, with some nice stained glass windows.  I also passed by a bank with a funny sign.  On return to the city, I decide that it would be fun to try to find the Sherwood forest.  That was a dumb idea, because Google Maps later revealed that it was far to the North, well beyond walking distance.  This hunt lead me to the less-than-nice areas of Nottingham.

Nothing eventful, here, until I finally get a bit closer to the railway, and see something off in the distance that I would like to get a picture of.  Some smoke stack and some factory buildings, I think.  I walk through a grassy field to get a better picture, and the later find out that I had trespassed on BBC Nottingham.  Whoops. 

What happened, was that after crossing the grassy field to take the shot, I look to my right, and see a short cut to the main road.  One thing that you should know about me, is that I hate backtracking.  I consider it to be boring, and often a waste of time when you could use another route.  While exciting, this does lead to the "Windsor Problem" if you remember that.  Roads in England seldom go straight, or connect in a grid-like manner.  Anywho, that isn't the problem this time, as I do see the main road.  So, I follow this lane that goes through some buildings.  Eventually, (right in front of the main road) I get to a fence with a locked gate!  How frustrating!  Clearly this gate is to prevent people from entering this facility, but I am trying to exit!  So, naturally, I hope over the fence.  I look at the sign which was only readable from the outside, and said something along the lines of, "DO NOT TRESPASS,".  So, really, I think this whole fence is silly, because I accessed the grounds purely by accident via the other side.  There were no warnings or fences the way I came; only a little lane through some buildings.  I didn't even realize it was BBC until I saw this sign a little further on, once I was on the "proper" side of the fence.

So, I head back to find the train station.  I have a little time to kill, so I find a wireless hotspot by a Gregg's bakery.  Thank you Gregg's, for always having Service at _TheCloud.  You made my trip much more communicable.  I realize that this was the area of Nottigham I should have visited immediately after my hotchocolate break.  This was the more active city center, with classic pedestrian roads, instead of the wandering through the suburbs earlier.  Some man sits next to me and starts talking to me about Christianity or something.  I don't really remember the conversation too well, as I was mostly concentrated on checking Facebook with my Wifi, but he seemed like a nice fellow.  I told him that I visited St. Barnabas, and he recommended another church to visit as well.  I didn't, because I had to catch the train to get home.

Home to Leeds.