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.

Ride a Cock Horse

Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross

to see a fine lady upon a white horse

with rings on her fingers and bells on her toes

she will have music where she goes.

Well we have made it to Banbury, which is famous for the nursery rhyme and Banbury cakes (not the urban dictionary version). The town is also known for having the highest percentage of single mothers and you can easily see where Little Britain got their Vicki Pollard.

The weather has been absolutely glorious with temps of around 30 for the past 3 weeks and continuing. The Brits are not happy as nowhere has air conditioning so the warnings and press coverage has been hysterical saying that schools and work should stop at 82F (27c).  They are reporting that the heat wave has contributed to over 600 deaths so far.

Michael had been working in Bicester, which is a short train trip from Banbury.

Headed down to Oxford last Sunday and had a great time looking around the wonderful buildings and college grounds. Amazed at how many young tour groups were going through the city. We had lunch at the Lamb and Flag pub where JRR Toking read the first part of the Hobbit to

Thomas Hardy, Graham Greene and CS Lewis used to meet known as the "Inklings".  Michael thought that maybe the beer was better in this pub.

The college library had an exhibition called Magical Middle Ages to Middle Earth, which featured Tolkien, Lewis Carol, JK Rowling and other authors, which was very good.

Whose this wag that has his picture on the sign and why is it in Oxford?

We are able to explore the area until late, as it is still remaining dark until 10.00pm.

The town also has a lot of canals so it is interesting walking along the banks seeing the boats and how they have kitted them out. All are holiday makers, as the trade boats stopped when the trains came in. The waterways were fixed up in the 60’s and apparently in 10 years time they will not be maintained by the waterway authority, which is sad to think of a bit of history going. In saying that the whole country is covered in canals.

 

On our last night we toasted the memory of Heather Trott (Hev) with a Woo Woo.  The drink tasted just like the Nyall Decongestant my mother used to give me as a child.

Oh, and please don’t mention the cricket! 

Maybe It’s Because I’m a Londoner

Well, we have made it to the old country, land of hope and glory etc.

 

After leaving Toronto on a night flight we reached London and waited in an express queue for an hour at Heathrow Airport listening to a short, bald South African man berating his wife for leaving their Wimbledon tickets in the safe back home.  Nasty little man probably thought that he was showing everyone how useless his wife was when all he was doing was proving what a tosser he was! We took the express train to Paddington, which was very good and looked new even though it was celebrating 20 years.  The journey only took 15 minutes.

Once we got the accommodation sorted which was 3 floors up with no lift (sound familiar?), headed off to explore Primrose Hill, which is a lovely area with little high street shops tucked away and of course Ye Olde English Pubs (more gastro now than traditional) know as the Washington. The apartment was only 15min by tube from Baker St.

Lovely fox seen from the 3rd floor in the backyard

We then caught the train to Baker St and Michael route marched us through the sites.  It was nice to see the Sherlock Holmes tiles at the station that I remember from my visit 30 years ago. We were happy to marvel at the old buildings and started the quest for the gourmet English fare of steak and kidney pudding, egg and bacon butties, bangers and mash, Aragon chicken pie and fish and chips. The quest started well with one pub having the steak and kidney.

That evening we walked up to Primrose Hill, which has a marvelous view to the city. We discovered it does not get dark until 10:00 pm but worse is that it gets light at 4:30 am.  The apartment could really use some black out curtains from the Blitz.

 

 

The next day we walked from Primrose Hill through Regents Park. Michael was on squirrel watch, but found penguins instead.  The London Zoo is on the edge of Regent Park and we looked over a low fence and penguins were looking up at us. On a positive note squirrels were found. 

 

We walked through Queen Mary’s Rose Garden where all the roses are out on display, some the size of bread & butter plates. 

 Just beautiful. From there we walked down Baker Street and meandered through the streets of London or as Michael likes to say “flaneuring.” In Hyde Park we saw the memorial to the London bus and underground bombings which is a very somber memorial consisting of steel poles with the victims names, date and location of death. 

 

We also saw the Australian war memorial, which although modern was well done. 

 

Then we continued onto Buckingham Palace and happened to arrive bang on the Changing of the Guard.  Unfortunately neither the Queen nor corgis were in residence much to Michael’s annoyance.

 

We then wandered up to Trafalgar Square where Canada Day was being celebrated and off to the pub for some lunch. We also checked out Fortnum and Mason’s and found a barber for Michael in Jermyn St which has only been trading since 1730 and booked an appointment for the next day as Michael has not shaved since September last year and is starting to look a little scruffy.

The following day we took Michael in for his haircut and shave. The rugged lumberjack look is if fine for Canada, but we felt a more refined look for business was appropriate in London. Plus it would stop him frightening people when he boomed out “G’Day”.   He now resembles a startled turtle that has emerged from hibernation.  On the positive side, he also looks 10 years younger.

 

Michael found a cheese monger that has only been in business since 1670 to pick up a bit of cheese. No Monty Python skits allowed.

Whilst Michael worked I wandered around soaking up the glorious sunshine they are having. We have also been keeping an eye on rugby progress and the tennis.

The following weekend headed down to the Shard which is a complete eyesore.  One wonders how such a monstrosity was approved and it really is a blot on the landscape as it can be seen from miles away.  The Gherkin is bad enough but at least it is surrounded by other tall buildings, so that at best it is partially hidden. We then walked to St Guys hospital to see the old operating theater that was in the attic of a church in the hospital grounds. The theater was used on public patients and could accommodate 150 people packed in like sardines to watch the operations. This was in the days before anesthetic and pain relief so it would have been a horrifying spectacle.

 

 

We also walked around Borough Market, which was excellent and full of fresh produce. Then we walked part of the Dickens walk to end up at the Dickens pub to see the last half of the rugby. There were many happy Englishmen that day and two sad Aussies.

We explored a bit further and ended up at the Camden Markets, which used to be the old horse stables for the canal boats being towed. The markets are massive selling everything from clothes, jewelry, household items etc of very good quality.  The place is a hipster’s paradise and I know that Tim would love it there.  We finished the evening with a visit to Amy Winehouse’s local.  How cool are we!

Decided the place was a bit small with Michael working and no room to sit so found another place in Albion Street near Edgware Road, which had Hyde Park at the end of the street and was much bigger and nicer (and not up 3 flights of stairs). There is a large Iranian and Iraqi community with plenty of Middle Eastern restaurants and very flash and expensive cars as well. Michael chatted to a heavily armed Old Bill who was standing on a street corner. He was very friendly and assured us that there was no criminal activity and that he was only guarding a VIP. As there were three of them it must be one important VIP and a hefty expense on the taxpayer.

We caught up with Ann and Vimal who were visiting to see family. It is funny seeing friends on the other side of the world, and it was lovely to catch up on what is happening back home. As usual Michael corrupted Vimal into having a pint of Fullers like Vimal did when he lived here 40 years ago.

at Harrod's shrine to Di and Dodi

 

We also caught up with Michael’s godmother Margaret who as not aged a day since I meet her 25 years ago. I had warned Michael not to race off and leave Margaret behind and be mindful of her age.  Needless to say, both of them walked off leaving me behind as Margaret goes on regular walking holidays and is as fit as a fiddle. We started the day with coffee on the banks of the Serpentine River in Hyde Park followed by a wonderful lunch and long chat.  The only disappointment was that we couldn’t find the Mr Darcy statue, which had been erected in the river. It must have been removed.