The Round Church was modelled after the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, as was the Temple Church in London and was built by crusaders in the 12th century. The rather striking polygonal tower sitting on top of the church was added during the 15th century.
I don’t often do audio tours when I’m travelling, I suppose because I always have a rough plan of what I want to see on any particular day and between that I enjoy wandering around the area following whatever route strikes my interest. On this occasion I had no real plan for the day I arrived in Cambridge and Booking.com was offering me a deal on this particular audio tour so after checking in at my hotel I headed out to explore the Cambridge Backs.
Eltham Palace and Gardens is an English Heritage property in London that has been on my to visit list for a very long time. Finally last October I set aside a day to visit. I travelled via train from London Bridge to Mottingham (about 20 minutes) then it was an easy 15 minute or so walk from the station to the Palace. As an English Heritage member admission was free. From the entrance with the car park (there is another entrance around the corner) you walk along a path by the side of the gardens until you’re crossing over the bridge and the moat as it was in the 14th century.
Another February, another Light Night event. This is a real highlight of the arts calendar in Nottingham and as ever there was so much going on that we always have to be quite selective about what we visit. We started off as we have before at Sneinton Market which had an interesting light display in a box named Geist, the design of which is based off of a neutrino or “ghost particle”.
This interesting monument just outside the centre of Cambridge and not far from the Fitzwilliam Museum was named for Thomas Hobson a local entrepreneur who carried goods between London and Cambridge and he gave money towards this project, a man-made watercourse providing clean water to the city. He’s also where the expression Hobson’s choice comes from*.
I’m on the Lakeside Arts mailing list so when I saw this exhibition advertised I immediately knew that I wanted to see it, and then proceeded to not find time to do so until it was nearly over (it ended on 7th January). Contemporary artists have come together to reimagine the Victorians through modern photography, sculpture and a surprising amount of taxidermy.
When I went to visit the exhibition at the Archaeology Museum I moved through the connecting corridor from the museum to the Djanogly Gallery which takes you through the gift shop area. But just before that there is also an exhibition space and it was here that the Missing Chapters exhibition caught my eye. I hadn’t heard anything about it and nor could I see any information about it on the Lakeside Arts website.
The Fitzwilliam Museum has been on my to visit list for a very long time and I made sure to fit it into my plans on this trip. Entrance is free but it is advised to book a timed ticket anyway for the exhibitions even though they’re also free. When I visited the exhibition was Islanders: The Making of the Mediterranean and I had a ticket for opening time at 10am which meant I had plenty of time to wander around the exhibition and then through the rest of the museum without it feeling too crowded.
In that weird time between Christmas and New Year I decided to go up to the Lakeside Arts part of the University of Nottingham campus as there were a few free exhibitions running that I’d been meaning to go to before they closed and realised I was fast running out of time. This bears exhibition was in the Museum of Archaeology which you can find just along from the South Entrance to the campus – if travelling by public transport there’s a tram stop very close by.
Last Boxing Day my Dad and I decided to go for a walk around Gedling Country Park for a bit of fresh air and nature. Lots of other people, and their dogs, had had a similar idea so we did have to wait about 10 minutes before we could find a parking spot but after that the park is so big that it was easy not to feel crowded.
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