England (10-14 Oct) - Part 2 - Nottingham Castle and London

 After finishing up at Warhammer World, we drove into central Nottingham to visit the castle. Nottingham castle is famous for the legend of Robin Hood and there are several signs and statues around the outside of the castle.  We didn't pay to enter the castle as it was getting late and so we took some photos of the outside.

The Castle Pub - across the road from the castle

Nottingham Castle

The Castle Gatehouse

Tomas using the London red phone booth

Robin Hood Plaza

Robin Hood Statue

Just past the castle was the Oldest Inn in England, "Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem". Built in 1189 AD it is believed that it was a stop for the crusaders on their way to Jerusalem.

Our final stop for the day with The City Ground, the stadium of the Nottingham Forest Football Club:

We had an early night as the next day we were off to London early. I'd booked us a carpark at Wembley for the game, and we were able to check in early.  On the drive in I was hit with a migraine which is not what you want on a busy day - but some quick medication helped to knock off the worst of it and in a few hours I was functioning again.

Our first stop was another football ground, this one for Watford - Vicarage Road Stadium:

We then drove into London and parked at the Wembley car park.  We walked out to the main entrance of the stadium to get some shots in preparation for that evening's game:

The rugby sign on Olympic Way had a suspiciously high tackle..

We needed to place our votes for the 'Voice' referendum taking place in Australia, so we caught the subway into London and got off at Westminster. After a few quick photos of Big Ben, we walked down to the Australian High Consulate.

Big Ben

Westminster Palace

The London Eye

Bronze Sphinx on the Thames

Cleopatra's Needle

Monument of Belgium's Gratitude

The wait to vote wasn't too long even though the line was quite lengthy.  We also bumped into former Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard:

We had a few hours until we needed to be back at Wembley for the game, so we headed over to the British Museum. We were a bit rushed but managed to see some of the main exhibits:

Nereid Monument

The Rosetta Stone

Sarcophagus of Nectanebo II

Entrance to the museum

Human Headed Winged Bulls from the Palace of Sargon (721-705 BC)

Balawat Gates (883-859 BC)

Assyrian depictions of lion hunts

Pectoral, Aztec mosaic - Two Headed Serpent (1400-1521)

African Wooden Drum from Virginia, USA

We didn't get time to do the museum full justice, because we needed to leave to get back on the Underground to get back to Wembley.  This time it was a lot busier as people prepared for the game.

There were 81,116 people at the game

The game finished as a 1-0 win to England.  By the time we made the drive back to Nottingham it was past midnight.

The next day we had a quiet one, starting with a sleep-in and then heading back to Warhammer World to pick up a few more things and to the shops to get some food staples to bring home such as gravy powder and custard.