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Too bad they don't use all those funds to fill the potholes in the parking lot.
Here in Lincoln since Monday afternoon. We have to pay for parking, and I've figured it out thanks to the help of our friends Ian and Samantha. I also chased down a "parking warden". They wear a very official uniform and walk around with some type of handheld device to write down the license plates. A quirky system, as the warden told me, it is impossible to capture all of them. This is our car park in Lincoln. It is free for thirty minutes during the day. It is free at night from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. the next day. We are playing the game.
In the morning, before 8 a.m. I move the car to an NCP (National Car Parks) parking lot a block away. It is £12 for 24 hours, £6.50 for the early bird special, in before 9 a.m. and out by 23:59 p.m. I choose the early bird special. At 5:50 p.m. I go get the car and hope there is a spot available for free overnight. So far, it has been working, although some people come racing to beat you. It's really quite interesting. The NCP is a private contractor for the U.K. government.
We arrived in York last week. It is a very easy city to drive in, with a population of 200,000. The city is clean and orderly. Nice people, friendly and eager to help. Even a drunk at the bus stop gave us good information and wished us well on our tour of the city. We boarded the bus, which is two blocks from the hotel. Yep, the hotel was a small boutique and much more affordable. It had a fridge, and it worked out well for our stay.
This building was located a block away. We thought it was a school or government building. They are condominiums! It doesn't look like a very nice place to live.
Right as you get off the bus at the city center, you encounter the gates to the city. York is surrounded by a walkable wall that, at one time, created the fortress. The underpinnings are foundations left by the Romans.
When you walk inside the gate, the atmosphere changes, and you feel almost as if you are back in time. Most streets don't allow cars, and it is very walkable. Everyone is smiling and having fun. There are shops of all kinds that sell tea cakes, pastries, sausages, and much more.
We stopped into the art gallery. The website says it's free and asks for a donation. When we got there, they said there was a charge of £12. One of the volunteers asked me where I got the information, and I showed him on my phone. He said they started charging 2 years ago and guessed they hadn't updated their webpage.
Looking at a shop that specializes in tea cakes, they really looked good. The building is an original set of seven remaining houses built in the 1300s. You can see it is sinking on the right side. Imagine how many families and businesses have come and gone in 700 years.
The first open-air market we've seen on our trip. Several stands celling fresh fruits and vegetables. Many were giving out samples. There were also people selling Thai, Vietnamese, bread, and other good eats.
This street, known as The Shambles, housed all of the meat markets. You can see that there are parts of the houses that jut out over the street. They say people would reach out and shake hands. Similar to the Callejon de Besos in Guanajuato, where people would stick their heads out and kiss each other.
The butchers would slaughter their animals, and the blood would pour down through the street. You can see a couple of meat hooks still embedded in the walls. The overhangs were built to shade the meat from the sun to reduce spoiling.
Of the three days we were in York, we decided to take a walking tour. It is a free tour, and of course, you give the guide a donation. It's two hours long, and the guide was very well-versed in history. In the group were a couple from Lithuania and another from Los Angeles. It was fun to share experiences as well.
York Minster has the largest stained glass window, which was created around 1405. It is 73 feet high and contains over 311 individual pieces of glass. The stained glass depicts scenes from both the Book of Genesis and the Book of Revelation.
Someone asked about the scaffolding on one side of the church. The guide explained that there will always be scaffolding. It rotates around the cathedral, moving to a new section every 10 years. Stones are carved and replaced, surfaces cleaned, and general upkeep and maintenance performed. Next door is a stone works where the stones are reworked or copied for replacement.
St. Mary's Abbey was home to the Benedictines starting in the 11th century. Around the mid 1500s, King Henry VIII closed the abbey and began dismantling the structure. Pieces were used in other buildings, and locals also had their share to take for their homes and businesses. In the gardens nearby, you can see recently discovered Roman sarcophagi uncovered in the last 30 years.
We had to leave the tour early. We met friends from SMA that we had met earlier in the year. Les' niece and her husband live near York, and we got together for lunch. Very nice people. After lunch, we took a stroll along the river. We had a great afternoon spending time with them.
Picking up the fish and chips, it started to rain. I saw this wonderful rainbow, and a second was forming behind it.
While in York, we didn't have a kitchen, only a fridge. It served us well. Breakfast was cereal, breakfast of waffles, and eggs Benedict in a cozy place called the Forest. There is a Chinese restaurant nearby where we ordered fried rice and kung pao chicken with curry sauce. The last night we shared a fish and chips from the same place. Really good food, and the Chinese family was very nice. A lot of pointing, but the place was packed both times I went.
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