Beyond Borders: Nottingham

The third day of our mini break brought us to Nottingham, the home of the ever famous and possibly non-existent Robin Hood. As stated previously, Nottingham seemed to be a bit on the sketchy side at 10 p.m. at night. It's absolutely fine at 9 a.m. in the morning. I awoke at 7 a.m. because I can't seem to sleep to any normal hour and we were headed into the city center by 9 a.m.

Caves!

Now, we had absolutely no plan of action beyond finding breakfast. Coffee and food were necessities. Once these were satisfied, we made our plan of action. It began with going on a tour of the city, given by a really crazy dude who dresses up like Robin Hood. He gives tours on Saturdays in the summer but his tour this particular Saturday was at 5 and not 11. :(

We did not despair, however, and entered the local mall to go to the Caves. There are all sorts of caves located underneath Nottingham. They were built by the locals and some date back to the 13th century. During the time of Henry VIII, there was actually a Tannery in these caves, although it then opened into the forest. Today, it is all entirely underground. These caves were also used during WWII for bombing shelters. How's that for today's history lesson?

I agree with you, pub, and not Wikipedia

We then took another tour at the Galleries of Justice Museum. It detailed the history of Nottingham through its justice system. We began with a trial where the Sheriff of Nottingham was brought to trial by Robin Hood. Then we continued to follow through the cells and the dungeons as actors told us the history of life for prisoners in Nottingham from the 17th-20th centuries. It was really cool but by the end, we had had enough of jails, dungeons, and the legal system. Thus, we awayed to the pub !

And to a very cool pub did we go. It is supposedly the oldest pub/inn in England but Wikipedia tells me other places also hold that title. Called Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem, it is built into a rock face near Nottingham Castle. The food was good, as was the beer, and it was a nice middle point of the day. The beer made us drowsy, however, and we just decided to wander for the rest of the day. We took photos with the Robin Hood statue, went to a nerd store, saw a large street fair/beach festival (Nottingham does not have a beach. So yes, they brought in sand. Weirdos.), and then purchased some travel towels for our showers.

Robin Hood!

We finally made it to our rail station by 6 for a 7 p.m. train that would take us to Cardiff. It was rather uneventful for most of the 3.5 hour ride until a bunch of drunk 18-22 year olds boarded the train and sat in our car. I tried to get all of my stuff tucked away but they spied Cotswold and that was the end of it. They started yelling about triceratops and one dude attempted to act out what one looked like. It was quite hilarious, I must say, but also rather frightening.

We arrived in Cardiff at 1045 p.m. only to discover that everything was closed. Well except for some pubs and nightclubs. And no one was serving food. We walked around some really sketchy parts of town at 1130 p.m., looking for food, but to no avail. Thus, we ended up going to a 24-hour gas station to get food....but we couldn't go into it. We had to walk up to the window, guess what they may have in the sandwich variety, were given two ham sandwiches, and made it out alive. I guess I can say it was a successful evening then. Check back later for our adventures in Cardiff, this time with a new addition: Jenny! Til then!
- Kate

The second day of our mini-break found us in York and after having a bit of a disappointing start to the trip, we were hoping to have a better day. (Spoiler: We had a very successful day!)

We started by walking the mile from our hostel into town where we purchased York Passes. For 34 pounds, we could spend up to 60 pounds going into a bunch of sites in town. It seemed to be the cheapest way to see everything in town and we definitely made it count.

First stop: The York Minster. It's probably the coolest and biggest spot in the city. It's absolutely gorgeous. Built in the 13th century, it has some of the most beautiful stained glass I've ever seen. The organist was practicing while we were there so that made it even more amazing. It's almost too hard to explain in words so I'll just post lots of photos for your viewing pleasure.

Then we went to the Roman Baths (after a short Starbucks visit) and they were also awesome. You see, York was the major Roman city in the Roman province of Britannia and when Diocletian restructured the Empire in the late 3rd century, York became the capitol of Britannia. It was closer to the raiding armies of Britons and Scots and the military could better handle them from that position. That's when London (or Londinium) lost its prominence in the province. And this ends my random historical lesson of the day.

Then we went to Jorvik. This can only be explained at Disney World for the Vikings. There was a major Viking settlement in York and the York Archaeological Society has spent a lot of time uncovering it. They then recreated an entire village which you can ride through, complete with sounds and smells. It's awesome. They also have people who explain the objects and they were super helpful. I could go into a lot more detail, but it was one of the better museums I've ever visited and I would recommend going there if you find yourself in York.

We jumped ahead several centuries to the Georgian Period and visited the Fairfax House. It was quite pretty but we just took a quick look through. Nothing too enthralling. Then we climbed Clifford's Tower, which overlooks the city. It was part of the castle that stood there during the time of the War of the Roses but only the tower remains.

We stopped for a short lunch before heading back out on our adventure. We headed to the York Castle Museum, which has some really interesting and different exhibits. They recreated a Victorian town that you could walk through and actually go into shops to purchase goods. It was so cool! Lots of creepy alleys but totally awesome. And all of this in York. Who knew? Then we walked to Middlegate Bar, where we toured a small museum connected to this gatehouse on the Medieval walls of the city. Then we walked along these walls to get to the rail station to print out our tickets. We had one more stop: Barley Hall, which took forever to find but was discovered tucked away. It was a cool little museum that also had costumes from movies on display. And I got to see one of Colin Firth's outfits from the A&E Pride and Prejudice. I about died.

Alas, that ended our time in York...but we still had to get to Nottingham. It started off well, as most trips do. We arrived at the rail station on time and boarded our train just fine. We needed to change at Grantham for a new train to Nottingham but when we arrived, we were told that all trains to Nottingham were cancelled. I very unceremoniously dropped my bag in annoyance, tired and not in the mood to find another way to get to Nottingham. But they were running buses! So we boarded one (even though I thought I was done with buses for the remainder of this trip. I was wrong) and headed to Nottingham. Much to our chagrin, a stag party was behind us and they were all drunk. One gentleman (if I can call him that) opened the emergency door while the bus was moving to relieve himself out the back of the bus. The bus driver was not happy after that. Then there were some odd people filming the people on the bus with their phone, as if to remember this trip for posterity. I would like to black it out from my memory forever, so there are no photos of it.

We finally arrived at Nottingham and said stag party man ran off the bus and relieved himself in public. Does this still make him a gentleman? I'm not so sure. We got to the hostel, which was very nice but in a rather dodgy part of town. Since we hadn't eaten since lunch, I dragged Melissa from her warm bed to get food at a not too sketchy Chinese place just down the road. Thus ended our long day in York and travels to Nottingham.

- Kate (P.S. The formatting was screwy this evening so the photos are below)