Nottingham

We originally planned on staying at a Certified site while visiting Nottingham, but we couldn’t find it so we ended up spending two days at a campsite just outside a major water park. It is also a bank holiday weekend (long weekend), making it harder to stay in popular campsites. However, this campsite was massive. It only had 20 pitches with electrical and every other “pitch” was located in a large field (about 300 pitches). Julie and I decided to park close to the toilet buildings, but further away from the tenters and in a somewhat level spot. Our intention was to head into town today, but the bus that comes by every 10 minutes didn’t show even after 30 minutes so we decided to go on tomorrow (Sunday May 4th) instead.

Once again the campsite staff were incorrect about the bus schedule. The bus itself only came by once every 30 minutes, rather than every ten like they informed us. They were however, right about it making stops in front of the campsite today. The first 15 minutes on the bus were awkward though. We got on, we sat, then the bus driver pulled over, shut off the bus and started to read the newspaper. We did ask him if he was driving into the town centre, to which he simply replied “yes”. After his break, we were on our way into town. Nottingham is much larger than Julie and I expected. We also thought it to be very modern. Once we visited the tourist information office, we learnt that what we had come to Nottingham for, was actually located a fair distance away. We decided to visit Nottingham’s Castle, the castle grounds were okay, but the remainder of the self guided tour was a waste of time. We then made our way to the oldest pub in England, hopping for a seat and a pint. “Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem” is said to be the oldest pub in England, opening its doors in 1189AD. We walked in, saw how much a half pint was (£6) and left. With out much more to do, we decided to do some window shopping in a mall and have lunch before heading back to the van. We came across a game store in the mall and purchased the British edition, travel pack version of Monopoly (it was only £4.99).