Nottingham 2014 – Part 2: Robin Hood And The Abbey

“Drive Left!”

Tuesday, 23.09.2014

The alarm goes off at eight this morning. Back home that would already be nine o’clock, so it actually is a good time to get up. Our chef prepares some kind of English breakfast for us with sausages, ham and eggs and some unbelievably fluffy buns.

The facilities on this campground are quite luxury, they even play music in the bathrooms. We could definitely have stayed another night but tonight the hockey game of our Hamburg Freezers is going to take place some 350 kilometers north.

At 10am we start the “wrong-way-driver” adventure. However, more difficult than sticking to the correct side of the road turns out to be calculating the correct speeds since they are readable quite well on big signs along the road, but given in miles per hour instead of kilometers. The Didimobile has to drive in front because it is the slower of both vehicles and so moaning about speeding was the first thing we heard from the chef’s car during the first break.

60mph x 1.604 are roughly 96kph which equals the Didimobile’s top speed. The second car’s crew however was sure having to convert miles to kilometers by 1 times 1.3, thus only 78kph would have been allowed. They had just mixed up the rates for speed and currency whereby they quickly stopped complaining but also were eased a bit about their calculated diesel prices.

The M25 orbital motorway around London is said to be one of Europe’s most congested roads, hardly anywhere in Europe shall there be more traffic jams than on M25. We choose the route via Dartford Crossing, a bridge and tunnel combination for crossing the River Thamse east of London. No queues, traffic runs absolutely smoothly. Luckily, I’ve got a co-driver with me who indeed is completely confused that SHE has to pay for the toll out of her window, but tavelling without a co-driver in a left hand drive must be quite a challenge.

Until 50 kilometers short of Nottingham we make use of the motorway, driving on the left is easier there than originally expected because making any mistakes when making a turn is nearly impossible due to the lack of road crossings even on British motorways. We leave the motorway in Stamford and continue our journey along A606 road. At every intersection there is a huge roundabout with cars rushing through at high speeds into the “wrong” direction, thereby signalling indeterminably. It needs getting used to, but after some rounds we start to see through it: Just grit your teeth and do it. And it actually works better than with most tiny German roundabouts.

The small hamlets with their old stone cottages and rustic pubs along the road finally give us the feeling for having arrived in what Germans think England is like. Unfortunately we do not have much time to stop on our way since we have some appointments with other German fans before the game starts to supply them with several alcoholic beverages since they are not allowed to carry them along on the plane.

Thornton’s Holt Camping Park lies some miles east of Nottingham in Stragglethorpe near Cotgrave, a cheap an delicious pub and a bus stop with frequent services to Nottingham are situated directly opposite the campsite.

The campsite seems to be an old farm, thus being quite basic with facilities* being inside a modified pigsty and some greedy free range chickens running around everywhere. 🙂

* Update February 2018

As of summer 2017 a new modern luxury sanitary building has been opened on site, making the old pigsty like facilities redundant. The new facilites feature floor heating, bright and spacious shower cabins and many amenities, making a stay there even more pleasant than it has always been for us (this roadtrip will start a tradition of going to Nottingham at least once a year thus having stayed at Thornton’s Holt five times from 2014 to 2017 yet with a 2018 holiday already booked).

We settle our cars on the pitches, connect them to the electricity, put on our fan gear and strike off. First we enter the pub opposite the campground. All-you-can-eat buffet for 5,-€ is really small money and the food is really good.

Afterwards, the public bus brings us directly into downtown Nottingham within 20 minutes. We look for the one’s who ordered the Schnaps and hand it over to them before heading towards the CapitalFM-Arena together. The game ends very surprisingly with a 3-1 win for Nottingham Panthers, but without having our moods spoiled we party like having just become European World Champion and thus get hold of a space in the heart of the local hockey fans, resulting in a more than active, long-lasting fan friendship.

It is a long evening, the beer is delicious and Nottingham has a great choice of pubs. Tired we take a taxi home, the last bus has left without us a long time ago.

A Visit to Robin Hood

Wednesday, 24.09.2014

Today’s programme is about some culture, and what else do German tourists associate more with Nottingham than the Sheriff and Robin Hood? An hour drive north of Nottingham lies the home of Robin Hood. Sherwood Forest consists of a visitor center where you get to know everything about the history of Robin Hood, a souvenir shop with lots of overpriced tourist kitsch and a walking trail through Sherwood Forest leading past the Major Oak, the mighty oak tree Robin Hood is said to have had his headquarters inside.

The trail is well designed, but the sometimes decades old wayside trees are mainly kept alive artificially, and because those old trees need lots and lots of space and light, all their neighbouring trees have been chopped down so the impression of a dark and bleak forest is completely lost.

The Major Oak is a mighty tree indeed, but at the same time already quite decrepit, thus meanwhile it has to be supported by several steelbeams.

All in all it was a nice excursion, but whoever has not been there himself yet does not have missed anything.

On our way back we discover a sign pointing out to an old monastery, Rufford Abbey. Time has left its mark on the monastery dating back to the 12th century. Many parts have been demolished or collapsed, only the western hallway and the country house are still preserved today.

In the evening we meet with some other Hamburg Freezers fans, who have also stayed in Nottingham for another day, for a small pub crawl. From a pub inside an old church building to the (supposedly) oldest pub in England Nottingham nightlife features pubs to suit everyone.