[ Nov.2018 ] The main attractions in Lincoln in the middle of England are the Cathedral and the Castle.
The second day of our stay there happened to be Remembrance Sunday, but we thought it would be quiet in the afternoon, so visited the Cathedral.
There was a counter with a plate for the entrance fees and a member of staff was sitting there, so we approached him, but he said that it was free on Sundays.
However,
only about half of the inside space was open to the public on the day, so we decided to visit the next day.
We moved on to the Castle.
At the entrance gate, a person was standing there and he said “It will be closed in 30 minutes”.
He said that if we just walk around the garden, it would be free, so we did that and decided to revisit the next day.
In this season, the days are so short and it was already becoming a little dark, but it was too early to go back to the hotel, so we went down to the lower town.
We knew by then that there are many arches and gates in this city and there is one in the lower town, too.
This is the place that had been very crowded on the day we arrived.
This arch is called Stonebow, which was built in the 15th century on the site of the Roman south gate.
It was a meeting place for the guilds and since then it has been used as the council meeting place for nearly 500 years.
When we went through on the day, it was already quiet, but during the day, apparently you can visit inside with the guided tour.
Walking the main street, you will come across a bridge.
The name of this bridge is High Bridge and it was built in 1160.
On the bridge, there is a half-timber house, which was built in 1550 and that makes this bridge the oldest inhabited bridge in the UK.
The river underneath leads to Brayford Pool, a lake which was a port that thrived in the Roman era.
App
arently, this port is still used as a yacht harbour.
At one point on the river, we saw an interesting sculpture.
Two people are stretching their arms over the river.
This sculpture, called Empowerment, is made with aluminium and steel and is about 16 metres tall.
According to our guidebook, it was made from over-sized turbine blades.
It was made in 2002, celebrating Lincoln’s industrial heritage.
On the river, some narrow boats were moored.
The reflections of the boats and surrounding buildings were very beautiful.
Now it was getting really dark, so we decided to go up the hill to the hotel.
It felt very hard to climb the steep “Steep Hill” after all the walking on the day.
