Nottingham

Last weekend Jason had his first away game of the season against the Nottingham Panthers. My friend Carolina (Ryan Mahrle's wife) and I went down for the game and had a wonderful time. We were fortunate enough to get a ride with one of the fans that helps out with the team. His name is Nik, and he is one of the nicest people we have met over here in Newcastle. I had originally met him when he was helping me move into our apartment. Since then he has helped me drive stick shift with our car, fixed our hot water problem when we couldn't get hot water for a couple days, and now given my friend and I a ride to an away game. And I know some of my hockey friends that are reading this are probably thinking is this a "super fan," but he's really not. He's really just a nice guy that enjoys helping the team out! But anyways enough about the background information, I know you're interested in Nottingham.

So Nottingham is about 2-3hours south of Newcastle by car. We left that afternoon and drove down getting into Nottingham a couple of hours before the start of the game. We drove through Sherwood Forest, which was our first big site to see. Carolina and I were so excited thinking wow, this is where Robin Hood is from, and oh I wonder if we'll see Maid Marian!!!haha :) We were like little girls all excited about driving through this forest. (And I might add, it's really just a forest, nothing to it at all) but it was just the idea that we've been to Sherwood Forest that made it so neat. Once we got into the city we parked the car and Carolina and I went out to explore. We headed towards Nottingham Castle and found it, but unfortunately it was closing right as we got there. So then we decided to head to the oldest pub in England called Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem. It was such a cool place. The pub is actually built out of a cave and it has many different small rooms carved out with winding staircases. One thing to note that was very interesting about the pub is that there was a pregnancy chair there! I know what you're thinking what the heck is a pregnancy chair...well it said that whoever sits in this chair will become pregnant very soon and those that sit are forewarned of what could happen. Well my very good friend Carolina was like hey Shannon come over here and let me take a picture of you in this chair! Well before I sat down I read the sign above it, and lets just say I didn't sit down in the chair. Connor isn't going to be getting a cousin anytime soon! :) Sorry Con Con. But I did squat above the chair, which still made for a good picture! :) Overall, it was a very fun place, and we were able to sample one of the local lagers brewed in town. Carolina didnt' seem to enjoy hers based on the picture below... The first picture is of Nottingham's city centre. It's like the downtown. Nottingham Castle

Inside Nottingham Castle (or at least what you can see behind the gate)Robin HoodYe Olde Trip to JerusalemWalking through one of the stairways in the pubSign for pregnancy chair: Important Notice, Here sits the Pregnancy Chair. Legend has it that any female who dared to sit in this ancient chair very quickly becomes pregnant.

Umm, let me think about it, maybe...but don't think Jason will approve!

Guess Carolina didn't enjoy her the local brew :)

After enjoying a drink at the pub Carolina and I headed back towards the rink to catch a quick bite to eat before the game. We had a nice cheap meal, which was a good find and then walked to the rink for the game.

Nottingham Panthers have a very nice rink I might add. For those of you that would be familiar with this rink, it reminded me of the new Boston University rink. Very nice, brand new, with stadium seating and individual seats. And what was even nicer is that they fill the place too! The game was very exciting and we scored actually in the first 30 seconds of the period! It was a close match the entire game, but we lost in like the last 20 seconds when we got called for a penalty and they capitalized on it. Very disappointing loss, but Nottingham is supposed to be one of the better teams in the league, and we definitely hung in with them and actually should have won. So we'll see how well we do against them next time.Nottingham Ice Rink.