Nottingham Castle

old sandstone caves. ... all blocke off.

lace market built in 1400's

georgeon building now museum on site on nottingham castle

Better weather this morning, there is still little snow on the ground.
Nottingham castle is really not much to talk about. too many centuries spent on the loosing side of a civil wars will do that. they do have a really good history display in the ground floor. But the building is only built in the Victorian era.

Nottingham is very much an industrial town, from the 1850's. One of the industries was lace making. This is in a most wonderful old 14 c building. So now I have some lace for my table.

Nottingham

Yesterday i thought i would tour around but the weather is not cooperating, more snow and Nottingham comes to a standstill.

Nottingham is built on Sandstone caves, even the local shopping centre has caves underneath.
in these caves are an old tannery from 1509. Now some people may know that tanning takes lots of strong chemicals , but guess what they used back in 1509? Urea, then they went and rinsed the fleeces out in the local river water. great for drinking don't you think?

then I went to look at the courts of justice. An old courthouse and jail. it was just amazing what we did to people back a few hundreds years ago. shipping of people to colonies. Isolating people just drove them crazy. A depressing jail, all brick and dark back then . now its well laid out with lots of information.

Then of course i had to indulge in some more retail therapy on the way back to where I was staying. The Igloo hostel, at the back of the Victoria bus station. a wonderful old Victorian house , well located.

Books

( view from the train window)

there is nothing like a good book. !

And when you get to travel you get to read different stuff. i had bought 2 books to read when i was in Greece , but read them rather fast. one was ' the last wife of Henry the 8' which I finished on the plane before I reached London.
by the time I had got to Crete I was drastic for a book in English, when I found a book store in English , the options were some what limited. hence the ' Memories of a lady of pleasure' published in 1748. wonderful English society in London of the time. kinda raunchy but good reading. I ditched this book to some young girls i was sharing a room with in Athens
On the way onto Lincoln at the Nottingham train station, they have the usual book stores. I was looking for something to read again, 2 girls standing next to me suggested a book they one of them had just started ' the Gargoyle' By Andrew Davidson. Now someone recommending a book is a good a reason to buy it ( i told you i get drastic) if you want to read this, it's really good. An interest in European history will help.

Oh so you want to know what i did today, well I caught a train to Nottingham, found my self a hostel. so much cheaper than a b & b.
and spent the afternoon with my nose in the previously mentioned book.

Old Gainsborugh Hall

Caught the train out to Gainsborough, the have a old house that was built in ... wait for it... 1480
a wonderful old house. of the old nobility who was trying to impress the King. that's Richard 3 .
Richard 3 died in battle Bossworth field in 1488 to Edward 7
the house is really well preserved with kitchen and pantry , ( photos will be coming shortly) well worth the £4.00 for entry.
Gainsborough's was nice a enough to have market on Tuesday for me , i found another CD of Queens that I didn't have.
I had a Cornish pastry for lunch. Cornish pastry is like a stew inside a pastry. a really thick meat patotoes and carrots etc.
it was a wonderful sunny day , just some what cold. yes there was lots of snow the other day, i am sure that you have heard. some of it melted today some of it turned to ice. walking down the steep hills of Lincoln was not my idea of a good time. it looks like that trains are running in the smaller towns.
not sure what London is like today.

the weather

England is having the coldest weather in 13 years, this means snow in Lincoln.
i wanted to go see the Bishops Palace, but it was closed as all the steps are outside. and snowed on. they dont get snow that often.

So I was forced to go shoping. Yeah !
how fast can you spend 160 pounds ? 2 dresses and a pair of shoes.
this morning I posted some stuff back to myself to give me some space
i did find a Muesum, with all the roman stuff. this used to be the reitrement center for the Roman legons that were here.

Lincoln

medieval cities have these wonderful walls that you can walk round. this one is just around the cathedral close. the cathedral is fairly clean.

you can get black crap form the 20 century all over it , this needs to be cleaned totally every 20 years. the inside is amazing. the cathedral runs on a budget of 50,000 pounds every week.

this is just the nave. the entrance. there is a full length again behind the organ and choir.

the last of greece

Spent a wonderful day in tehe sun in Athens , doing the last of the shopping. I picked up some olive oil and some sponges. the olive oil was in a sealed metal 1 litre container. I went to check in with the airline and lo and behold they ask about liquids in my pack.Olive oil in metal containers is not allowed. it has to be in wooden ones. not that i am likely to find a wooden box in 1/2 hour flat. and i cant take more than 3 oz in my carry on. So being a very not happy camper i had to give away my olive oil. ( sorry don) i am very not happy.Arrived safely back in luton airport , and took myself off to the nearest hotel. by the airport. Holiday inn express. the have wonderfully comfortable beds to say the least. That's what i get for staying in hostels for this trip. but probably the most expensive night i will have £69.00 the staff were great and got me train time table to get me up to Lincoln yesterday.
it s windy her and cold well 1 degree c, 33 f saying in a wonderful B&b for 4 nights.
last night in looking fr a pub to have dinner in found the te snake and crown and had my fish and chips. ( it s an English thing) walked pas the cathedral and saw a sign for a ghost tour. what fun they are . well worth doing.