PAUL

...and his merry men

It may be over 700 years since Robin Hood was supposed to have lived, but the county of Nottinghamshire certainly isn't going to let that stop them from hanging on to their favourite legend that continues to bring them hope, joy and £££.

On Saturday (2 Feb), we went on a day trip with the university's student union to walk in the footsteps of England's favourite outlaw (or something like that). We were lucky enough to have a small amount of snow in Leeds that morning (see photos and movies) though it had all disappeared by the time we returned home that night. Sherwood Forest was our first stop where we took a short walk to find "The Major Oak", a base for Robin and his merry men while they stole from the rich and gave to the poor. The tree has a hole in the truck which "you can imagine may have been big enough for an outlaw to hide in." The tree is a good metaphor for the whole Robin Hood story in Nottinghamshire: propped up, fenced off, knotted and old with a few holes (nothing that can't be fixed though). We bought a couple of Robin Hood pins in the conveniently placed "Robin Hood Shop", and then boarded the bus for Nottingham.

Our first stop was Tiggun Cobauc, or the City of Caves. After an unexpected entrance through the top floor of the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre, which nearly resulted in the cement filling of the caves during it's construction, we began our tour of the sandstone caves. The caves date back to the 13th century and include an "enchanted well", Britain's only underground tannery in the 15th and 16th centuries (where we had to politely refuse a job offer to work for 20 shillings a year from our time travelling tour guide), an air raid shelter (or replica of) used in WWII and the remains of Victorian slums.

Having felt the fresh air and English sunlight (as opposed to the real stuff) again we headed off to Nottingham Castle. The Original Castle was totally destroyed following the Civil War and was replaced by a "Magnificant Ducal Mansion" in 1674. Nowadays it serves as a museum, which contains among other things, the Sherwood Forestry Regiment Museum as well as an art gallery (there are no photos from here as we weren't allow to take pictures for some reason). Unfortunately, with only half a day in the city we decided we wouldn't have time for more than a quick squizz in here and soon headed off to use the other half of our joint ticket across the road at the Brewhouse Yard Museum of Nottingham Life. This was a fantastic little museum where we were encouraged to pick up, and in some cases smell, various items. The third level was a recreation of Nottingham lane ways containing old hairdressers, tobacconists and hardware stores to name a few (see photos for this one).

A brisk 20 minute walk/jog took us to Sneinton, once a village and now really more of a suburb of Nottingham, and the site of Green's Windmill. Built in 1807 the windmill is still in operation today and you can buy flour from the shop and science centre beside the windmill. We were able to go inside and climb to the top of the windmill, even seeing someone at work packing the flour. Li took some great movies at the top of the windmill which we will hopefully have up soon.

For our final stop, we returned to the base of the sand stone cliffs below Nottingham Castle to find Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, "The Oldest Inn in England", AD 1189. Being a Saturday afternoon/evening just about every seat inside was taken so we had a drink outside in the courtyard (Olde Trip Ale and a rum and coke of course). The building itself isn't an amazing architectural feat, however, inside is quite intriguing and is largely made up of sandstone caves with a history all of their own. We didn't take any photos inside here as it was impossible to do so without shoving a camera into someone's face. If you're interested there's a website http://www.triptojerusalem.com/ where you can take a virtual tour.

Then it was back on the bus and back home to Leeds.

On the local front, weeks 2 and 3 have seen the pace of uni pick up a bit more but we've still managed to find some time for socialising such as the university's Irish Society's "Evening of Irish Drinks" last night, which involved Irish Whiskeys, Bailey's, Irish and Bailey's coffees and Bailey's milkshakes. (Just to qualify, we didn't try all these drinks between the two of us so, no, we haven't become a couple of alcos).

Hope you're all well and enjoying the recent rain we've been hearing about (hey we're allowed to complain about it here, you're not) and send us some emails to let us know what you're up to if you haven't already. Bye for now.