Travis and Jeff played squash together, while Jeff's dad and I had some quality time at a local bar. We all met up later that night to try yet another pub Jeff and I had been meaning to try. Pretty good food and atmosphere.
Thursday, Travis and I explored Notts and visited the Galleries of Justice which was awesome. Sorry to our visitors so far that I didn't take there...would have definitely been worth it. This building was used as a court room to convict murderers, thieves, and pick pockets...just to name a few. It was also used as a gaol (jail) and reformatory school. The tour was really interesting as we had numerous tour guides depending on what section of the building we were in. We learned some amazing things about the criminals of Nottingham and surrounding areas. They executed people right outside of the building by hanging them in front of tons of people (sometimes thousands). There are many other gruesome facts I learned, but I'll try to keep them to a minimum.
I made Weaver take this picture. Can you tell how excited he was?!
We were each given a conviction number, which identified us as a criminal and gave us a pretend crime to be convicted of. My card read that I was a cow theft and my punishment was execution. Other people were thieves as well, but their punishment was transportation. Transportation meant that they were sent on a boat to Australia for __ years. Many of them died by the time they got there though.
Stealing cows is a serious crime!
At first we thought it was for a head...we quickly changed our mind after this photo was taken that it was probably for the waist! Whoops!
Carvings from the convicts in the "exercise area" which was only for marching around for an hour.
We also learned the roles of men and women while in the jail. They were mostly confined to their cells, but were only given amenities if they had money. There was also an area called the Pit which was for the poorest people, and it was basically a hole in the ground that they had to stay in. Pretty scary in that area!
The "pit". I tell you what, the mannequins set up around this place freaked me out at times.
There were numerous exhibits that taught you more about escapes (two escaped via helicopter in 1987), staff's responsibilities, and other miscellaneous items. I even took my own mug shot. See below...watch out I'm pretty scary!
(1st pic) The execution spot once moved inside the building grounds (2nd pic) the area for children.
Don't mess with me! Am I right?!
On a less-scary side of things, we headed to Pitcher & Piano which I have taken pictures of before. If you don't have time to reread that post...Recap: A local restaurant that converted an old church into a beautiful pub.
Beautiful inside, especially with hardly any people!
A pint in front of this background...so perfect!
Thursday night, Jeff came home early and we headed to the Robin Hood Beer and Cider Festival. Yes, another beer festival...It was a really neat environment as all of the beer and food tents were set up on the grounds of the castle. We were given these cute little 1/2 pint beer mugs as a souvenir as well as drink our beer from the night in it. We were given an allotment of tickets to sample a huge variety of local breweries. I found some new beers that I really enjoyed, and I think the boys were the same way. Although, they were a bit more daring than I was and tried some really nasty beer as well. Not too many pictures, as we were just enjoying the environment.
On Friday, I decided to explore some areas of Nottingham that I had not been to and dragged Travis along. We went the long route and walked down by the canal since it was actually a nice day. It eventually rained later in the day...There are so many beautiful churches in Nottingham, and I have been in zero. Well minus the church that was converted into a pub. But I feel that doesn't count. ha! We made it to two different churches in the city center, which were both so quaint and beautiful.
St. Mary's Church
St. Peter's Church
We also went to this park called Arboretum that is just north of Nottingham Trent University (1 of 2 universities in Nottingham). It was really pretty. It had a small lake and even had some caged birds that were on display as well. Andrew came down on Friday night, and the boys headed out for a guys' night. Jeff and I ended the weekend relaxing, as the last month has been pretty busy!
The lake at the park
Not normally a "bird person", but loved seeing these little guys!
Onto the next adventure...
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