So much to catch up on!!! There have been a few late nights recently which has made me very unmotivated for blogging. Let's see where we left off..... ah yes, arriving in Nottingham. The very next day, I drove out to Chatsworth House to see where one of the Mitford sisters lived when she was the Duchess. There will be a forthcoming post about that momentarily. Saturday was spent in Nottingham. After having breakfast with Katie (the day after we had gone out with her work friends for her leaving-do.... what a lovely British phrase), I headed into City Centre. I wandered around a bit and ended up joining a tour led by this fellow dressed as Robin Hood. He took us around the town and gave us interesting information about the old buildings, as well as a history and literature lesson about the origins of Robin Hood. I didn't have anything to write with (I really need to take a note out of David Sedaris' book- no pun intended indeed- and start carrying around a little notebook and pen at all times) so here is what I do remember.
Robin Hood really is an amalgamation of many different people, ideas, myths and identities. He started out as a poor robber who would disguise himself in a friar's hood (hence the named Robber in the Hood), eventually became a yeoman sung about in a ballad, an aristocrat who was dispossessed of his land, to a former crusader. There is no certainty about his time but it was Sit Walter Scott who placed him during the time of the Crusades and with Richard the Lionheart. He is mention in 13th and 14th century literature by name although with no reference to exactly who he was. His band of Merry Men "robbed from the rich to give to the poor", which was a phrase also created in the 19th century. His love for Maid Marian came about after a story about him praying to the Virgin Mary. When it become unpopular for people to pray to saints, Mary turned into a girl named Maid Marian. Try as we might, we will never be able to solve the mystery of who Robin Hood really is. 
This guy was great. So funny and a pretty good story-teller as well. Very passionate about his tour and about the history of Nottingham. Plus he can pull off the costume quite well.
Considered the oldest pub in Nottingham, built in 1189 during the Crusades and used as a stopping point for pilgrims heading down to Canterbury as well as Crusaders off to the Holy Land.
Nottingham Castle is built on sandstone (in fact, the whole town is on sandstone) which made it better to carve through than cut out. The indentation sat the bottom left of the picture is where an old door used to be. 
Nottingham is known as the City of Caves. There are hundreds of caves underneath the city streets, including this pub. These caves were used as hiding places, storage areas, houses, prisons, malting beer and of course, as protection during WWII. Very creepy. 
The Galleries of Justice- now a museum/tourist attraction, once the site of an old prison and then later the courthouse. People were hung on the front steps up until 1864.
The original 13th century stone-work on the front facade of St. Mary's Church.
Both of these buildings were part of the lace industry in Nottingham. Lace was the biggest Industrial Revolution invention for the town and just recently, the last factory closed, which is very sad. These buildings were made to impress those merchants coming to buy the lace to sell around the world. IN the top picture, the s-shape street ensured that people walked around the inner street, making it a lot more exclusive for the merchants.
A fresco of the beloved Robin Hood in one of the indoor shopping malls.
The "Riviera" in Market Square. Nottingham has no beach so it created its own. It was quite precious- you had to give it to them for their good effort. The sand was a weird color though...
When that had concluded, I only had about an hour before meeting Katie and her friends so I wandered around a bit more, popping into a few bookstores and reading on the steps of the Galleries of Justice before meeting up for tea. We had a very proper tea, champagne included of course, with lovely little cakes and sandwiches. Actually, it was technically my very first proper British tea and it was lovely. Katie's friends were quite nice and we all had some great conversations.
With a slight issues with Katie's burglar alarm on my way out of Nottingham, I made it back home to Oxford luckily still in one piece. I met up with Roni and we went to her friend Tommy's house for a party. We wanted to leave on the early side the following morning but not before Team America beat the most annoying un-American jerk-face in a game of beer pong. I even sank the winning shot- so proud.
Early the next morning, Roni and I headed off to Eastbourne, down by the sea. Before hitting up the shore, we stopped at Long Man. Long Man is a huge, probably 240 foot man literally carved into the hillside outside the town of Wilmingdon. I've wanted to see the Long Man since I got Weird England and he certainly did not disappoint. What just baffles me is what led someone (and no one really knows when he was created- it could be as early as the first centuries or as late as the mid-19oos) to create this huge man up on a cliff. It's so bizarre but incredible at the same time.
When we arrived at Eastbourne, we found that there was a huge Airbourne festival going on. There were military men all over the place, many booths, lots of food, people all over the place, military vehicles and, about ten minutes after we arrived, an air show just like the Thunderbirds. We took a short break from our scheduled events to watch- it was pretty spectacular. There was a guy who explained what was going on the entire time and helped us keep an eye on where we should be looking. I know Roni really enjoyed it.
Once the show was over, older WWII planes did their show but we headed up to the South Down Ways and wandered about to Beachy Head. The areas near car-parks were very populated but the paths were nearly empty and the colors of the sky, the sea, the grass, the plants, the flowers, were just indescribable. They were absolutely gorgeous and bright and the camera did not capture their glory properly. At Beachy Head, we had incredible views of the white cliffs and a sweet little light house. It really wasn't a long walk at all but a jaunt on the downs was exactly what we wanted.
We were starving by the time we got back to we picked up some fish 'n chips and ate down on the pebbles on the beach. The water looked so inviting and I wanted to put my feet in but the beach was really packed and so we decided just to head out. Our next stop was Charleston House, where the Bloomsbury Group would live outside of London. Virginia and Leonard Woolfe, Clive and Vanessa Bell and their children, Duncan Grant, Dora Carrington, Lyton Strachey, among others, all called this place home. Unfortunately there weren't tickets for a house tour until 4:30 and we didn't want to pay the price to only have half an hour there. So we wandered through the bookstore and then headed up to Henley, famous for its river and regatta. We ate our standard flake, wandered along the quayside and sat on a dock for a little bit before heading back to Oxford. All in all, a wonderful two days.
No comments:
Post a Comment