Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
On our last day in London the plan was to tour the Houses of Parliament and “do’ that part of the city plus whatever took our fancy. After breakfast we set off on quite a lengthy walk from our hotel down to the Thames at Westminster. But….it was only 10:15 and the Houses tour was not until 1:15. So we decided a little trip on the river would do. There is a lesson here – plan ahead - (not that it actually mattered) but our little trip set sail at 10:30 and we didn’t get back until after 7. Excellent value at 30 pound for the two of us but not actually what we had in mind. Still - lunch in Hampton Court is always a good thing!
Then, the next day it was a reasonably early start to St Pancras to catch our train to Nottingham. A smooth voyage and then we used the GPS to find our hotel. It was quite a walk up the hill but not too far. We lunched at The Olde Trip to Jerusalem (supposedly the oldest inn in the country) and had a good wander around. We also had tea at the same pub. We must go back tomorrow as we have discovered that they have a haunted model of a ship. It is now enclosed in glass as people die when they touch it!
Nottingham is considerably cheaper than London and it seems that bars etc have free WiFi and if you buy 2 large glasses of wine you get the rest of the bottle for free. Not bad merchandising. Today (Saturday) we wandered the city and visited Nottingham Castle. We also wandered up to The Lace Market area (now totally devoid of lace) and explored many old streets, alleyways, churches and gates. In the middle of the old Market Square is a carnival / beach / entertainment area set up for summer. There is a beach and all of the traditional English rides from our past readings of English school and adventure stories. I have never seen such a good helter skelter and was sorely tempted to have a go!
We are approaching the end of week 1 – we have been busy and my feet are tired tonight. The cold hasn’t gone yet! Tonight we ate in our room –“ noice” new blue plastic plates and cups from Tesco’s and we had smoked Scottish salmon, English ham, French brie, snow peas, tomatoes, mushrooms and a bottle of Jacob’s Creek Shiraz Cabernet 2007 vintage. We have lots of strawberries and blueberries for tomorrow as we couldn’t eat any tonight.
In the next 2 days the plan is to visit the caves underneath the city, Sherwood Forest the Justice Museum and the Museum of Nottingham Life. With any luck on Monday we will meet up with our friend Marilyn for a coffee. Tuesday is the day we pick up the car and head north. I hope to upload all blog entries here as we have quite good connection speed and it is impossible to know what will happen after that.
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