Robin Hood Riding Through the Glen

Robin Hood, Robin Hood riding through the glen,

Robin Hood, Robin Hood with his band of men

Feared by the bad, loved by the good

Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Robin Hood

Well, if you found yourself humming along to the above, then you are showing your age just as much as I am.  The Adventures of Robin Hood was my all time, number one, favourite television show as a child.  There has never been a better Robin Hood than Richard Greene.

We have arrived at Nottingham and one does feel that the place loves Robin Hood or maybe just the tourist dollar it brings. A train and bus combination got us here safely and staying at the Ramada Inn, as we were keen to find some air-conditioned accommodation to survive the stifling 30c temp that was expected. Instead it was a pleasant 25c most of the time with some tropical rain. Wonderful weather we have been having. Interesting that few places have air-conditioning as it is not normal for summer to be hot for a long period of time. The location is very good in the centre of the city.

Nottingham is a lovely place with the CBD converted into pedestrian areas with wonderful old buildings. At the time of the industrial revolution it would have been very bleak and crowded, particularly down in the lace market area. Caught their only tram service to look around the suburbs, which was double the size of a Melbourne bendy tram. The line has only recently been constructed and is being extended.

The city even has its own beach for the summer with sand and deckchairs as well as carnival rides. “Oh I do love to be beside the seaside”.

The centre piece of the city is the Castle of Nottingham with lots of information on Robin Hood and statues. Beneath the castle is Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem pub which was founded in 1049 and was the starting point for the crusades after seeing Richard I. So Michael had some ye olde ale and crisps (I wish he would stop asking for chips as they get confused).

 

 

Walked out to Trent Bridge Cricket ground to see where we fell apart a week earlier and saw a nice memorial garden, with a good show of flowers.  I really hope we do better in the next test match as the cricket jokes from the English are starting to wear thin.

Michael caught up with old Baycorp people who live in Nottingham and they are enjoying life here.

We hired a car for the weekend and went first to Swaffham aka Market Shipley from the comedy/drama Kingdom. It was a lovely old town, with a nice market square. We had a drink at the Greyhound Inn, with a burger from a food van with a very talkative owner. He told us that he went to Melbourne on a blind date with a girl he had met on Facebook. The match was not a success so he did a runner and left 9 days early from Australia. The people you meet!

We then headed off to Cromer and Wells at Sea to see some of the other locations for Kingdom. It was a glorious day until we were 10 miles from the coast and could see the fog roll in. At Cromer we could not see the beach or water due to the fog, so we continued along the coast road stopping along the way until we found a beach. Not like the Kingdom one, but a pebble beach with only the dogs in the water. It was all very different to back home.

Stopped at Blakeney, which is a fishing town and had Michael had some dressed crab and watched the people swimming in the river and hunting crabs.

The next day we headed out to Sherwood Forrest to see where the legend is from. Fairly touristy and walked around the forest for a while and admired the old oak reportedly over 1500 years old.

 

We then decided to find a tart in Bakewell, which is in the peak district and part of a National Park. Lovely countryside, like an All Creatures Great and Small episode with small lanes and hedges everywhere. Bakewell was a beautiful village with lots of visitors. Had a wonderful roast for lunch with Yorkshire pudding cooked the way my mum did so I was very happy. There were three original and traditional Bakewell bakeries and we discovered the iced version is not the classic Bakewell tart, they also have a Bakewell Pudding which Michael tried.

It was an enjoyable drive going through the small villages and stopping off at some to walk around. Then headed back via the Motorway where the cars get up to 130Km and our little Peugeot was struggling to get to 100km.

We extended our stay for a few extra days and we are now on our way to Bicester for a few days of work. Not sure what happens after that, but that is part of the ongoing adventure.