Our one day holiday

We decided to drive to the Atlantic yesterday for our one day holiday.  Our first stop was Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem (http://www.triptojerusalem.com/).  A very cool place.  I won't summarize the website but I do recommend checking it out.  According to the website, knights and men-at-arms would gather to rest at Nottingham Castle on their trek to Jerusalem as part of the Third Crusade.  We didn't tour the castle on this trip but it is on our to do list, maybe when we have some visitors from across the pond?

Good enough for the crusaders, good enough for me.

 

The group standing next to a new meets old section of the castle.  You can see the old cave entrances in the rock next to the new brick building.

The pub is actually part of the rock at the base of Nottingham Castle.  Per the website, the castle brew house is the same location as the existing Inn brew house.  King Richard the Lionhearted and I drank out of the same brew house.

Similar shot as previous, zoomed out a little to show the castle walls above. 

Another old meets new shot.  Museum in front, Inn on right and castle wall above.

Pic of the bar inside.  The interior is separated according to the caves, I didn't snap many pics inside but there are multiple little rooms on multiple levels inside the Inn.  The entrance is to the left behind me.  Obviously I didn't lean far enough to miss the camera.   

The Kevin Coleman pic of the day - I can't stop without having an Olde Trip at a 922 year old pub.  Olde Trip was semi-smooth tasting, not bitter, good overall. 

Our table inside the Inn.  Shows you how the caves shape the dining rooms.  Small tables also.

An out of order pic (caused by me rushing to get this post done before we leave this morning).  This is from outside the castle, I made the kids pose by the Robin Hood statue.  Karl was embarrassed, I guess I am doing my job as a parent.

The Dana Johnson pic of the day - we tried mini burgers topped with onion rings with a side of chips plus a side of chorizo crisps and sour cream dipping sauce.  Their crisps are our potato chips.  The crisps were thin sliced and fried, think fried pepperoni slices.  I don't like sour cream so that didn't do anything as a dipping sauce for me.  The burgers were a mixture of plain burgers, cheese burgers, and cheese and bacon burgers.  All burgers had lettuce, onion and tomato as well.  Everything tasted good to us.  Note the size of the Ocean Spray cranberry juice can in the background.  

Medieval coat hook.

After Nottingham we drove through Boston on the way to Skegness. Lori and I agreed that Boston looks like a separate day trip some other time, it looked to be a neat town to explore. Trivia fact - The town of Boston, Massachusetts is named after this town because some prominent colonists from Boston, Lincolnshire, England emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts.  No pics taken on our drive through Boston.  A frustrating note on British driving.  Most A-roads or carriageways (our highways) do not have bypass towns, they go right through them which is how we saw most of downtown Boston.  Motorways (our freeways) do a better job of bypassing towns but they are rare around us.  The A roads are also separated in two digit, three digit and four digit roads.  A52 is a two sometimes three lane major roads with a speed limit of 70 mph.  Yes they drive in miles per hour over here.  A157 is a two way country road that is sometimes 1.5 lanes wide and can be very winding and scary with a 40 or 50 mph speed limit.  A1517 (don't remember the exact road number) is a two way country road that is one lane wide and pretty much means you are lost.  More on those later.  We have been advised to stay off of B roads altogether.   

We followed this for a while, it reminded Lori of our dog Bear at home which she misses greatly.  He is partying at Bob and Lona's while we are here. 

Our final destination was Skegness (http://www.skegness.net/).  It is a seaside resort town with an amusement park setting although when we left in the morning it was just a point on the map.  It was pretty busy while we were there so I can only imagine what it is like in the summer time when the weather is nice.  It was a little cool and windy, temps were in the low sixties but the wind made it feel like fifties.  It is a Danish settled town, local history plaques said the name comes from Skegg (bearded one) and ness (nose).  The Danish Viking settlers apparently wore beards and the geographical layout of the land looks like a nose. 

The Jolly Fisherman statue.  It looks like he is dancing but he is actually being blown back by the powerful gusts of wind. 

Clock tower in background is a town landmark and was built in 1898-99 to commemorate the Queens Diamond Jubilee in 1897.  The nation was celebrating Queen Victoria's 60th year of reign by building clock towers in 1897.  Many other towns build clock towers in 1887 to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, or 50 years of reign.  I wonder how many of these clocks Queen Vic actually saw?

Hames Confectionery - I think Confectionery is a French word for "can we stop there?".

I wish Dana were with us - I am told English people are to polite to tell you how they really feel, especially to say no or kick you out.  I am thinking Dana would have tested that theory at the Liberal Social Club.

You can't turn down a Hames double cone of ice cream.  I opted for pastry instead but would have tried the whippy (soft serve) cone.  Kalle had the mint chocolate chip and white chocolate flavors.  Mint was good, white was not what she was expecting.  She also got hers dipped in sprinkles.  Karl had chocolate delight covered in chocolate flakes.  He said it was good. 

Leaving Skegness was an adventure.  We planned on going back to Nottingham Ikea to pick up a few things that aren't available online but Lori inadvertently put in Barrow Alaska Ikea.  Our first clue was when she tried following our sat nav path on the road atlas and couldn't find the towns we were going through.  Instead of heading west we were heading north.  Way north.  And directionally following your sat nav path doesn't always work here because the roads are not built east, west, north and south as in America.  I think the roads are built to follow the existing sheep paths; sometimes you go north then south if you destination is west of you.  But the good news was we saw more English country side which was beautiful.  I took some pictures but they didn't do the scenery justice.  Green rolling hills alternately covered with crops, green grass, light brown soil.  Small towns with hundred year old aged brick wall homes, spired churches, castle turrets in the distance.  Intermittent hedge rows to parcel out the land in some places, short lines of green leaved trees in other places.  The solitary tall tree to attract a lightening strike.  Hills full of sheep, flocks of birds descending on farm plots to feed, cattle seemingly dropped in handfuls.  Pheasants along the side of road, sometimes with their immature brown youngsters in tow. 

We did manage to find Ikea before the store closed but all of the driving makes for a long day.  Especially when the sat nav's do not seem to account for traffic delays here.  I am not sure if it is a setting we don't have turned on but the 1.75 hour drive from Nottingham to Skegness was actually almost 2.25 hours.  Lesson learned. We sure are racking up the lessons learned the hard way. 

  

Thanks for listening,

Jay