Millennium Square

Hello again!

Today, I'm going to continue with one of the other places from my list. I was thinking about putting it in "places" but I think that it is quite an important one, and it has a lot of the most important buildings in Leeds there, which I am going to tell you about individually in other blog entries.

Millennium Square is the Leeds equivalent of the "Plaza Mayor" in Spain. It was built in 2000 to commemorate the start of a new millennium and it has a commemorative monument that you can find on one of the corners of the square. It is surrounded by many of the most important monuments in the city, such as Leeds Civic Hall, Leeds City Hall, Leeds General Infirmary and Leeds City Museum. But it is not just an enormous square, as they hold all kinds of events here. Last year the rapper Example played there, but their has also been groups such as Kaiser Chiefs, Snow Patrol or Fall Out Boy. Around this time they have a German Market where they sell artisan products and traditional German food. You can also drink some German beer.

In winter they have an artificial ice rink that you can skate on (Ice Cube) It is a bit expensive on a student budget but you only live once. There is also a big BBC screen where they project the main sporting events, like the last Olympic Games, Wimbledon or the World or European football Championships.

One of the most interesting facts about this square is that on the 30th April 2001, the former South-African president Nelson Mandela came to Leeds, to unveil some gardens close-by to the square, the Nelson Mandela Gardens. Apparently in his speech he mixed up Leeds and Liverpool. But I mean it's Nelson Mandela, you have to let him off.

Well that was short and sweet, but I had to start with the places that are most emblematic of Leeds. I want to say to you not to worry, I have been thinking of starting my entry on clubs and pubs very soon. It's not all going to be buildings and monuments.

As always feel free to comment whatever you like and if you enjoyed this blog, please click on the "Like" button which is located a bit below this entry.

Enjoy and behave yourselves!

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