Trip to Lincoln – Shopping and Dining and Pretty Things

There’s been mutterings from T’Other ‘Alf that we don’t go away enough. I have to say I am quite lazy about such things, which is odd as I love getting out and the chance to actually do a bit of photography from time to time – you know, that activity I was very obsessed with for some substantial time.

So, one morning, a few weeks ago, we booked a trip to Lincoln, somewhere we’ve both never been.

I’m very glad we did – it was a lovely weekend an Lincoln is actually a pretty fab place. It’s interesting the striation of the city centre, which climbs up to the castle, cathedral via the very approriately named “Steep Hill” – the very bottom is quite run down, and predominantly discount and pound stores, and cash converter type shops. In the middle, there are the larger chains – pretty much everything you would expect, and then moving right up the hill you find the boutiques and poketty shops¹ – lots of galleries and antique shops.

The River Witham runs through the lower end of the city (more about this later) and one of the most iconic buildings in Lincoln must be the High Bridge² with its lovely tudor buildings. As soon as you get past the city centre proper this theme of stone and red brick takes over.

Right at the top, the Newport Arch, a 3rd-century Roman gate marks another boundary into the city and the cobbled street of East Bight is endemic of the scenery round this part of the city.

We stayed in The Tower Hotel, which is right by The Castle and the Westgate Water Tower, dating from 1911 and holding nearly 300,000 gallons.

Of course, visiting the Cathedral is probably a must, but it was getting quite late in the day at that point, so initially we just had a bit of a walk round the area. I used my phone for these photos, but have edited them a little to warm them up slightly. I also took a panorama outside the Cathedral.

After this we went for a couple of drinks and later, some dinner in The Duke William, which was very good indeed. The Cathedral was lit up purple, and we wondered what the people of the Middle Ages who built it would have made of that witchcraft – we walked off our dinner round the Cathedral, and there seemed to be a bit of a low level moped party in the grounds…

More later, about the Castle, Cathedral and some brief railway nonsense.

1. This is my Partner’s term ↩︎
2. Also know, more worryingly as The Glory Hole, by waterfarers, apparently (though I am unsure why) due to it’s impassability in times of flood – I am not 100% clear as to why… ↩︎