we went to Lincoln …


arch at Lincoln Cathedral
Originally uploaded by ramtops

… via Grimsby (we didn’t stop), and Cleethorpes, where we breakfasted on tea, sausage, bacon, egg, fried bread, beans and hash brown for £4 each.

Cleethorpes bore that unmistakeable air of British east coast resorts out of season – I’m very familiar with it, having lived in Great Yarmouth for some years. I rather like these places out of season, and it has a lovely beach, with some rather disconsolate donkeys waiting to pimp their rides.

On the way to Grimsby we spotted a completely barking building, and stopped off to have a look; it was Thornton Abbey, closed until April, but will be well worth a look in the spring, I think. Those monks did themselves proud, there’s no doubt.

We found somewhere in Lincoln to park for £6 for more than four hours – I’m torn between saying "Six quid? That’s practically an armful", and "Six quid – that’s a bargain for city parking". Anyway, we paid it. For my own reference, it was in Westgate, close to both castle and cathedral.

We went and looked at the cathedral, but we didn’t pay and go round it – that’ll be for another day, as will the castle. The cathedral is *huge* – I had no idea – and utterly impressive. The city is very like Norwich (which is unsurprising when you think about it), and had a lovely feel to it. Although when people say Lincolnshire is flat, they’re clearly excluding Lincoln itself; some of those hills are lethal!.

tea and teacakeWe had tea and teacake in nice tea shoppe, walked along the dock area, all round the old part of town, before meeting up with Dave and Linda (WANOLJ) for an early chinese buffet at the Laughing Buddha, to celebrate his birthday.  Pete got a new hat, as his was very motheaten, and I bought a lovely bright red soft woolly scarf, both from the Edinburgh Woollen Mill.  And we got some barley flour from a health food shop, and some salmon for the Tribe in the pound shop.

Home by 8.30, and a lovely day out – we shall be going *there* again, that’s for sure.

6 thoughts on “we went to Lincoln …”

  1. We took the kids to Cleethorpes in September; J in particular was ‘why on earth would I want to go *there*’. Six hours later, he had gone beachcoming, paddled in the sea, gone up to the top of the helter skelter and been too scared to come down, built several sandcastles (but failed to buy sandcastle flags from the thoroughly rubbish beach shops), eaten fish and chips from a fantastic fish bar where the kids’ sized fish & chips would serve most adults for £2, bought rock with Cleethorpes all the way through it and wasted an entire pound on penny falls. Thoroughly fantastic day out, even if he is really too big for donkeys now.

  2. I must disagree with you, on this. Lincoln is very dull and boring and I don’t like it there, whereas Norwich actually has shops and interesting parts to it. This may be coloured by my different experiences (my brother lives in Norwich, whereas all Lincoln has seen me do is my GCSE Geography coursework there…).

  3. I remember going to Lincoln on the train when I lived in Nottingham. Of course you have to look at the Lincoln Imp, but the thing I remember best was how the castle used to be a jail, and the chapel there had separate stalls that closed behind each prisoner to keep them away from their fellow inmates during services. Well worth a look.

  4. I am visiting a friend who lives near Lincoln next month and he’s going to take me on my first tour of a city from the view point known as “level with the average backside”. You make it sound like a beautiful place. I can’t wait!

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