So there are a LOT of weird and strange customs in the United Kingdom. One that has fascinated me since I was 8 years old is the Coopers Hill Cheese rolling festival traditionally held on the Spring Bank Holiday or the final Monday of May. This year I managed to convince Spaz that we should go.
We first stopped in London for a couple of nights with the Fleiss family :-) We went and walked through Hyde park on a lovely sunny day, saw the new Propaganda exhibition at the British library, some of the British museum as well as the Lichtenstein exhibition at the Tate Modern. Whilst I should say that the highlight was the Lichtenstein exhibition as I got to tick off a lot more of his artwork from my must see list, the highlight was the circus. This was no ordinary circus. This circus was the AirCraft Circus, where students do a 15 week training period then perform in a final concert. After the students performed, their teachers then put on a show. WOW!!! what a show, the displays of strength, agility and burlesque performance were truly awesome. In London I managed to get Spaz to do a very very cheesy touristy photo that I now cherish :-)
We left London from Paddington station (we didn't see him by the way) and 2 hours later we were out in the rolling hills of the Cotswolds, in Gloucester. We walked to our lovely little 'BandB' and dropped off our bags and then set out on exploring the little city that is Gloucester. It is a rather little city that is easy to explore on foot. We went to the lovely cathedral and then found a great pub to have dinner in. The Tall ships festival was going on whilst we were there so we walked home via the docks.
Monday morning we had a proper 'English' breakfast and headed out to Coopers Hill. The bus ride there was great, a double decker with free wifi (so got to play with the new travel toy, a 7'' tablet). 20 minutes later we got off the bus and started our 20 min walk up to the hill. We walked in a lovely long line of people up to the hill. Everyone was friendly and in good spirits about the fun we were about to watch. We got to our position in the shade, half way up the hill a couple of minutes before the first race started. It was won by an American who came to the hill 3 days before so that he could practice. We then saw a couple of other races, another mens race, a ladies race and a kids race (where the kids run up the hill) before we saw our first real injury, a dislocated or broken shoulder. Worse was to come with a man in the following race then breaking his ankle. (Race won by a ninja btw!) Seeing his foot hang from the bottom of his leg is something that I won't forget quickly. We decided that we had seen enough and started to leave.
We walked to the pub the bus stop before where we got off as we wanted a more local experience. I am soooooo glad that we did. The pub was full of a dozen locals who were super friendly and up for a chat. We heard a few stories about previous cheese rolling events, some history and the fact that winning the event for 30 odd years may not be so good for your health :-) Once we were sufficiently tipsy we headed back into town and our BandB for a well earned nap! We returned to London on the Tuesday to explore for the day before flapping our wings back to Gothenburg
Here is a link to the lovely summary of the event - http://www.cheese-rolling.co.uk/index1.htm
We first stopped in London for a couple of nights with the Fleiss family :-) We went and walked through Hyde park on a lovely sunny day, saw the new Propaganda exhibition at the British library, some of the British museum as well as the Lichtenstein exhibition at the Tate Modern. Whilst I should say that the highlight was the Lichtenstein exhibition as I got to tick off a lot more of his artwork from my must see list, the highlight was the circus. This was no ordinary circus. This circus was the AirCraft Circus, where students do a 15 week training period then perform in a final concert. After the students performed, their teachers then put on a show. WOW!!! what a show, the displays of strength, agility and burlesque performance were truly awesome. In London I managed to get Spaz to do a very very cheesy touristy photo that I now cherish :-)
Monday morning we had a proper 'English' breakfast and headed out to Coopers Hill. The bus ride there was great, a double decker with free wifi (so got to play with the new travel toy, a 7'' tablet). 20 minutes later we got off the bus and started our 20 min walk up to the hill. We walked in a lovely long line of people up to the hill. Everyone was friendly and in good spirits about the fun we were about to watch. We got to our position in the shade, half way up the hill a couple of minutes before the first race started. It was won by an American who came to the hill 3 days before so that he could practice. We then saw a couple of other races, another mens race, a ladies race and a kids race (where the kids run up the hill) before we saw our first real injury, a dislocated or broken shoulder. Worse was to come with a man in the following race then breaking his ankle. (Race won by a ninja btw!) Seeing his foot hang from the bottom of his leg is something that I won't forget quickly. We decided that we had seen enough and started to leave.
We walked to the pub the bus stop before where we got off as we wanted a more local experience. I am soooooo glad that we did. The pub was full of a dozen locals who were super friendly and up for a chat. We heard a few stories about previous cheese rolling events, some history and the fact that winning the event for 30 odd years may not be so good for your health :-) Once we were sufficiently tipsy we headed back into town and our BandB for a well earned nap! We returned to London on the Tuesday to explore for the day before flapping our wings back to Gothenburg
Here is a link to the lovely summary of the event - http://www.cheese-rolling.co.uk/index1.htm
