[ Nov.2018 ] I continue talking about sightseeing in Lincoln in the middle of England.
We walked along the Walking Course from our guidebook in the morning, but now we were cold and tired.
We decided go into the next attraction, Bishop’s Palace.
It was clear that English Heritage, the government-owned conservation organisation, was running this place, so I expected to pay to get in, but in fact, it was free.
That was because they were doing some projects and only limited parts were open to the public.
We looked at the places that we could see and had a rest, watching their video.
This palace started being built in 1163.
The various bishops added parts, but in 1648 during the English Civil War, it was badly damaged and the bishop at the time had to move to Cambridgeshire.
The restoration work was done only in 1838, which means that it was abandoned for a long time.
The newer part, which was built in the 18th century, is now a hotel.
One thing that surprised me in the video was that this palace and the Cathedral were damaged by the earthquake in 1185.
I did not know that there was an earthquake so severe that it broke down these large buildings in England.
When we came out of the palace, we found that the weather had become better and the blue sky was spreading.
It just so happened that it was Remembrance Sunday, the memorial day for the end of the first world war.
Besides, this year is the 100th year since the war ended, so there seemed to be a large-scale event in the Cathedral.
Earlier, we saw some families who looked like they were from the scenes of a costume drama, and other uniformed people hurrying towards the Cathedral. 
When we approached the Cathedral, the ceremony had finished and many people were coming out of it.
Some groups of people wearing uniforms started marching, led by a band.
We were lucky to see this unusual scene, but on the other hand, because of this, we could not enter the Cathedral then and also, we found out later that our hotel rate was higher than usual.
Because the town was full of people, we were worried that we could not find a place to have lunch, so although it was a bit early, we hurried to the pub, which was recommended on the internet.
The pub was called Stag’s Head and is located away from the old town, beyond Newport Arch, the Roman gate.
When we got there, we found that on Sundays they serve only carveries: roast beef, roast pork and so on with Yorkshire Pudding and some boiled vegetables, a very traditional English meal.
While I was keeping our table, my husband went to the carving counter on his own and that was his first experience.
Maybe because he looked obviously a foreigner in the very English environment, the staff helped him kindly and he had some chats, too.
Not only on this occasion, but most of the shop assistants in Lincoln were nice and friendly, calling out ‘Hello!’ to the customers.
It might be that London is peculiar in that most of the shop assistants have a bad attitude.
