Nod to Nottingham

After spending almost a year in Nottingham, it was already time to go. With my thesis handed in and my train ticket to Brussels, I left Nottingham for the last time in early September. Overall, I enjoyed my year there. It’s a big enough city that there is always something to do or see. However,  if you do get bored with the city itself, the distances in the UK are so small that fun is never far away. I’ll comment here on some of the cool things I did in the second half of my year here. For my comments on the first part of the year see my previous post.

Beginning in January I had several friends come and visit me – which is an excellent excuse to be a tourist! One of the places that I really enjoyed taking people (winter or summer) was Wollaton Park. This municipal park and deer reserve is very large and is great to walk/cycle around, have a picnic in summer or visit the manor house – which has free entry. One thing to keep in mind is the opening times. Since the park is surrounded on all sides by a large brick wall, make sure you leave before it closes and beware that during the winter this can be quite early.

For most tourists, and I agree, seeing Nottingham castle is a must (and not just during the beer festival!). If you go on a sunny day you are also treated to a great view of the city. The inside of the castle has a couple of sections, one contains rotating art exhibits and a permanent military museum and the other part (the more interesting part) contains a history of the city and of the legend of Robin Hood. There is also an optional cave tour for a couple of pounds more.

If you get a ticket to see the castle, a visit to the Museum of Nottingham Life is also included. This small museum is located just a few minutes away from the Castle near the pub Ye Olde Trip Jerusalem. This museum only takes about an hour to see. It covers the history of society in Nottingham from the early 20th century until modern times. What is cool about this museum is that they let you touch almost everything – old toys, washing machines, a barber’s chair amongst many other things!

Another combination ticket that is worth getting if you want to see something off the beaten track is the Galleries of Justice and City of Caves. The Galleries of Justice was particularly interesting to me because of my legal studies, however it can be appreciated by anyone – young or old. For the first part of the experience you are led by a variety of guides representing various parts of the justice system in the 19th century. You get to see what a court room, prison cells and an exercise yard looked like a century ago. Then towards the end you are left to your own devices to learn about criminals who were sent to Australia, the current criminal justice system and a special section on youth justice.

You also visit the City of Caves museum on a discounted combined ticket with the Galleries of Justice or a separate ticket. The entrance is located in the Broadmarsh shopping centre not far away from the Galleried of Justice. This museum shows you a small section of the underground caves of Nottingham and their various uses throughout history. This doesn’t take too long and if you’ve done the cave tour at the castle, this may be repeating a lot.

If you want to stop for a cool lunch in between I can recommend a few places. There is a cool Spanish tapas place next to the Galleries of Justice – not entirely authentic, but reasonably priced and tasty nonetheless. If you are looking for atmosphere and willing to pay a bit more, why not check out Pitcher and Piano and have a pint in a church. While this is in fact a chain of bars, this location is particularly cool because it is an old church building.

Another stop in the same area is the Nottingham Contemporary. This modern art museum is free and has a few room which house temporary modern art exhibits. It doesn’t  take very long to see it all, but if you have nothing better to do it is worth checking out.

The last aspect of Nottingham I explored was where the best place was to go for a traditional British Afternoon Tea. I looked at various suggestions from a list, but many were several kilometers away from the city. In the end we tried two: Lee Rosy’s and The Walk Cafe. Our favourite was definitely the The Walk Cafe. While Lee Rosy’s had a good selection of loose teas, it didn’t serve the traditional afternoon tea with the scones and sandwiches. The Walk Cafe is reasonably priced and there you can order everything from a simple pot of tea up to a Champagne afternoon tea with all the trimmings. It has a bit of a modern spin, but is enjoyable nonetheless.

There are still many places in and around Nottingham that I didn’t have time to see, but I believe I got a good feeling for the place in a year. My top three picks for ‘must sees’ while in Nottingham are 1. Nottingham Castle 2. Ye Olde Trip Jerusalem 3. Wollaton Park. Everything else is icing on the cake!

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