Lincoln and York

We spent Saturday in Lincoln. We arrived on the early afternoon and checked into our guesthouse. We then walked into the city itself. We walked up to Lincoln Cathedral. It was uphill all the way and very, very steep at that! The cathedral is beautiful. It is at least 900 years old and was once the largest building in Europe.. That was in the Middle Ages, of course.

When we left the cathedral we had to walk down hill, little steps were necessary or you might end up rolling down! We stopped for a meal on the way down at a place called The Slug and Lettuce, cute name! We then walked back to our guesthouse. It was Armed Forces Day so there were lots of defence force folk, poppies, bands and even several flyovers. All very dramatic.

We spent a pleasant night in Lincoln then drove further north to York. We arrived here also in the early afternoon and spent the rest of the day exploring this beautiful old town. The Minster (church) is very impressive and the old town is just beautiful.

We watched some street theatre, a knife juggling unicycle rider, great fun, and even visited a beautiful shop called The Cat Gallery which sold all things moggy! It was very hard to get GG out of this shop. We had a boat ride on the river Ouse and looked at lots of the famous sights of York. A lovely day. York is beautiful. After a meal we went back to the guesthouse for the evening. Next stop, the Lake District......

 

 

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Rutland to Lincoln

Hello everyone. We are back in touch again. We have just arrived in Lincoln and booked into our charming guest house. GG's back is good at the moment so we no longer need to make regular visits to Boots, hooray!"

We had a wonderful time in Rutland Waters. It is the most beautiful area and the barn conversion we stayed in was fantastic. The views from both sides were great. We looked over the water on one side, across the fields full of sheep and lambs, and a lovely garden on the other side full of bunny families.

We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and were more than pleased with our accommodation. After unpacking we went for a walk and an explore. We are opposite the Finches Arms and about 5 houses away from The Old Post Office. Upper Hambleton is not big but by god it's pretty.

 

On Wednesday we explored the villages in the area. We bought some supplies and generally had a relaxing day.

On Thursday we went to Leicester to see the Richard the 111 exhibition and to see the famous car park. It was great. They are still excavating in the car park so we couldn't go in but you could see the area quite well, from the gates. The exhibition was fascinating. We spent ages there and then visited the cathedral. The exhibition was in the 14th century Guildhall which has been restored. Another amazing building.

It has been confirmed that he will be reburied in Leicester Cathedral in 2014.

 

We went to the Finches Arms for tea. I had scallops, yum, and GG had squid. It was yummy!

On Friday we drove to Cambridge. Friday, sadly, was very wet. We saw the wonderful colleges and walked down to the River Cam to watch the punts and the pinters, but the weather was not good! It was also graduation day for several of the colleges so they were not admitting visitors/tourists, only the students and their families. A miserable day for it!

Cambridge really is a bicycle town. There are bikes everywhere! They even have a bike park next to the car park!

 

 

 

 

We had a lovely time in Rutland and were sorry to leave this morning. We are now in Lincoln. The cathedral is ginormous! We will go out for a walk shortly.

 

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Keep Calm and watch this space...

Hello everyone out there in blog world (It's actually Benj here on behalf of Mum)

She has just informed me that they will be out of WiFi range until Saturday so not to panic if you have no contact until then.

They will try to pick up free WiFi where they can, but if it's unavailable they will be offline for the next few days.

Brighton to Canterbury via the 100 Acre Wood

We left Brighton and drove to Hartfield which is a town near Ashdown Forest. This is where A.A. Milne wrote the Pooh Bear stories. We visited Pooh Corner, the shop where Christopher Robin used to buy his lollies. It's now a shop dedicated to all things Pooh, sadly mostly the Disney franchised stuff.

We were given directions for finding the bridge to play Pooh sticks, so we drove to the car park area and began walking. The track, however, is not marked in any way and after 10 minutes walk and paths going off in various directions, we decided that we should head back to the car. Having no sense of direction is a terrible failing! We did walk in Pooh Country though and very pretty it was, too.

We then headed off for Canterbury. We found our accomodation, a 17th century coaching inn and checked in. The hotel is lovely! There are views of the cathedral from one bedroom window and the river Stroud from the other. It's quaint in the right way!!

Canterbury is a very pretty town. We walked around for quite a while and then visited the cathedral. An amazing place!

We are both sorry we are only here for one night. Back in the car today and off north to Rutland Waters where we have 4 nights in a converted barn. A slightly slower pace fore a bit!

Here is our lovely little car. Pretty cool, huh!

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