cultural copy cats

Perhaps Easter wasn’t the best time to visit, as Easter Sunday meant most of Nottingham was shut which led to several dull hours wandering around looking for something to do.
The city prides itself on its history, its shopping, its sporting prowess, its lace trade and its most famous ‘son’.
While Liverpool has the fab four, Nottingham has the legendary one - Robin Hood of course.
The irony wasn’t lost on me that, back home in Liverpoo,l the Bank Holiday Monday film on the Beeb was Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.
Like the Beatles, Robin is a cash cow that could easily be over-milked, although calling a dual carriageway Maid Marian Way isn’t the most romantic way of celebrating the love of a legend’s life.
True there isn’t a Merry Men-themed hotel yet but there are plenty of other Hood-related sites.
There’s a statue of the man himself outside Nottingham Castle, and the obligatory Tales of Robin Hood attraction - which I didn’t get round to visiting.
Jousting, archery and the like take place in Sherwood Forest every summer and in the museum shops there are plenty of wooden swords and shields, make-your-own castle kits and Robin Hood mugs and key rings.
But the city prides itself mostly on its shopping experience, made easier by something admittedly we haven’t got - the silent gliding tram system which winds through town from the train station.
Nottingham’s marketing people describe it as ‘capital for shopping’.
And it’s their literature which also has the chutzpah to describe Nottingham as ‘capital for culture’.
Well, they do have several theatres and concert halls, the Nottingham arena, the Cornerhouse complex and a number of museums.
But on balance they have little we don’t, and we have something they never will - capital OF culture.
Incidently it was the first time I’d seen the Bolshoi Ballet in 13 years and they were brilliant, just the kind of attraction we should have already secured for 2008.