Northern Road Trip: Day 1 – From Oxford to York via Nottingham
I had been intending to go to York for a while, but the distance (or rather, the bad state of British rail infrastructure) always posed an annoying obstacle to me. The connections are indirect, long, and expensive, taking up more energy, time, and finances than the visit itself. After overcoming my fear of driving on British roads, however, I unwittingly entered a whole world of new possibilities.
Johnny and I decided
to rent a car from Heathrow, where I picked him up when he came back from China.
We spent our first night in Oxford, finding a parking spot on the very street
where he lives. It turns out that, contrary to my worries, many of the parking
spots around the city are only reserved for residents throughout the day and
are in less demand during un-metered hours.
We departed early in
the morning on the following day. Making a stop at Nottingham, where, once
again, finding streetside parking proved remarkably easy. Unfortunately, the
city’s most famous attraction – Nottingham Castle – has been closed for some
time, so we only got to see the ramparts, as well as the statues of Robin Hood
and his band of merry men below them. We also made a brief visit to the centre
of the city, Old Market Square.
Having done little
research on what there is to see in Nottingham, we made a last-minute decision
to make a stop at the nearby Wollaton Hall. We did not venture inside the
building (which, reportedly, featured in one of the Batman movies), and instead
walked around the grounds, which are home to a large population of fallow and
red deer. We saw both, though the first group was much more entertaining,
rising on their hind legs and sticking their heads into trees to spice up their
ordinary grazing patterns.
From Nottingham, we
continued to Edwinstowe. Well over half an hour removed from Nottingham, the
town’s claim to fame is its connection to the Robin Hood legend: it stands at
the edge of Sherwood Forest, the home of numerous centuries-old trees including
the famous Major Oak. Also in Edwinstowe is Saint Mary’s Church: the place
where, according to folk tradition, Robin Hood and Maid Marion were married. We
were told that there is a hidden face in one of the stained windows, but we did
not find it, and having refused to ask for a tour, we felt too sheepish to ask
the volunteer to point it out.
We arrived in York
while it was still quite bright outside, though any such claim has to be made
with the qualification that the weather in Britain has been terrible for the
past few days. Walking past the town walls and York Minster, we spent a few
moments in the old town before eating dinner, buying cake for Johnny’s
birthday, and returning.
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