May 15, 2012: Nottingham Castle

Yesterday’s post actually ended at nine thirty this morning.  At that point I took a quick nap and at eleven thirty this morning we kicked off our day.  Originally I was going to be going in to London today so that I could work from the Canary Wharf location but the people that I should have met with were out on holiday yesterday and today there was a transit strike so I would have lost the entire day just attempting, and likely failing, to get down to London.  So we stayed in Nottingham and counted it as a blessing that we got more family time in this nice city.

So since we had the opportunity, we set off to go tour Nottingham Castle.  The weather was great again today so perfect for more walking around Nottingham.

The castle tour was pretty cool.  The castle itself is actually long gone but the original wall and some other stuff still remain.  Later additions to the castle grounds are still there and there is a bit to see including some really beautiful gardens and some amazing tunnels through the rock on which the castle used to stand but we did not have a chance to go through them today.  Hopefully someday we will return to Nottingham while studying the English Civil War so that the girls can learn about the war that started inside the castle and tour the tunnels when they are old enough to appreciate that.

Liesl really enjoyed the castle and at the end of the tour we headed down into the basement where they had a fun exhibit for the younger kids called Hood in the Woods which had videos, stuffed animals, fake food and dress up stuff for the kids.  Liesl and Luciana played down there for quite a long time.  Loads of other kids came through and Liesl made new friends, mostly older girls in their tweens, whom she convinced to hang out with her.  It was really cute.

We left the castle and got lunch at Pret a Manger which makes the best sandwiches, even though they are a chain.  We ate and walked through the markets and streets of Nottingham.  It was a nice walk.  We stopped and got a Robin Hood Jacket Potato while on the street too, with cheese and spicy vegetarian chili.

We returned to the apartment and Dominica took a nap while I worked and Liesl watched more British television.  This evening, Stef came over and he and I walked over to the Old Angel where Huw was waiting and I dropped off the remaining beer from the previous night so that he could take that home.  We had two pints at the Old Angel and then Stef and I took off to do some quick grocery shopping at Sainsbury’s to get kid supplies and dinner for Dominica and the girls.

We went to bed early tonight.  Tomorrow we have to be up super early.  It is going to be a really long day getting out to Brugge, Belgium.  Our first train leaves Nottingham at 5:31am which means that we have to be up at 4am tomorrow in order to make it.  That’s not going to be run.  At least we got today as a real touristy day in Nottingham.

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