Nottingham, UK (2008)

Carmel and I popped up to Nottingham for a Saturday to visit Johanna (also known as JZ, pronounced in England as Jay-Zed, which is definitely not as cool) and go to a bbq at Bernard’s (old Berkeley collaborator, now at Nottingham).  We visited Sherwood Forest, which is where the Robin Hood lore was set.  We also visited the city centre, castle and underground caves.


Here is the Major Oak, which is over 800 years old and headquarters to Robin Hood.  It’s really fat and needs to be propped up by these military-grade looking beams.

 


Johanna, Carmel and me in front of the Major Oak.

 


No one was allowed near the tree past the fences, but this girl’s father let her go (because he’s extra special?  Yeah, that girl is going to have problems later in life…), which caused all the other kids to be jealous and force their parents to explain why they couldn’t go play by the tree but this girl could.

 


The Sherriff of Nottingham will surely fear this band of post-docs!

 


Next we visited the castle of Nottingham.

 


Posing with the statue of Robin Hood outside the castle.

 


Johanna contemplates the whole arrow-through-the-head gag.

 


Whoa, let’s just stay calm here, you can have my money, no one needs to get hurt.

 


Carmel sadly hands over the wallet.

 


Next we checked out supposedly the oldest inn in England.  Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem was where crusaders went before they embarked on their journey.

 


A chair inside the pub with a sign that says, “Here sits the 'Pregnancy Chair'. Legend has it that any female who dared to sit upon this ancient chair very quickly became pregnant.”  Carmel did a little fake-out to annoy endless parents/relatives.

 


Nottingham was built largely on sandstone, which is easily carved.  Beneath the city lies a maze of tunnels carved primarily by people who were too poor to live in normal homes above ground (and subsequently had to pay taxes to the evil Sheriff of Nottingham).  The caves were perfect bomb shelters during WWII.

 


Looking for the loo in the Pit and Pendulum pub?  Examine the bookshelf carefully…