Four Days In Lincoln But First A Visit To Robin Hood

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Entering Lincoln through the only known Roman gate, built in 200 AD, and still used by modern-day traffic.   It was hit by an oversized moving truck in the 1950s, but all of the pieces were salvaged and returned to their original position.  The truck involved was too tall for the arch.  Fortunately, all of the pieces landed in place on top of the moving truck.

After we left York, we headed down the highway to Lincoln.  We stopped in Nottingham for a few hours.  We found the park and ride for the metro or tram that goes into the city.  Again, free parking and the ticket round-trip was $2.68.  It was a quick ride that dropped us off in the city center.  Three blocks up the hill we found Nottingham Castle. 

The original Nottingham Castle and fortress were built out of wood in 1079.  Henry II built the stone structure that exists today in the 1200s.   In 1476, Edward IV added apartments to the castle for his personal use.   The existing castle underwent a makeover in the 15th century.  There really wasn't much to see, and reviews were not very good.  The interior is now a museum.  We decided to walk around the area and then head to Lincoln.    

But not before finding Robin Hood and having a picture taken with him.  Behind him, along the wall, are plaques for all of his merry men!

The Mortimer House across the street from the castle is now called the Castle Pub.  They say it gets very busy there at night and on weekends.

What's interesting about this building (a law office built in 1910) is that just about every building in the U.K. is preserved to some extent, if not the original, and cataloged by a heritage organization, council, or local restoration society. 

We headed back to the tram and the park-and-ride.  Lincoln was still about an hour and a half away.  We were surprised to see that our Airbnb was three blocks from the Lincoln Castle, the cathedral, the gate above, and more.  It was one of our best stays.  Easy to find, and one of the most reasonable yet.  

York - Another One For The Top Ten

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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.  

Newcastle And The Vampire Rabbit

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We reluctantly left Edinburg.  We enjoyed many things.  Among those were the architecture, history, food, and warmth of our hotel room.  The weather this year has been brutal, according to the Brits we have talked to.  A lot of on and off again sun and rain, warmth and cold.

We hit the roads, both highways and winding country roads.   We saw more road traffic than ever.  Being retired with no real set schedules, we have forgotten those routines we had drilled into us for so many years.  Spring break is everywhere in the world, and here in the U.K., vacationers are on the go.  RVs filled the roads along with the very popular car-top popup tent rentals.  

We had no issues finding our apartment in Newcastle.   Driving in the U.K. has now become second nature.  We found parking in front of the apartment.  Not the nicest of cities or the cleanest.  However, each rental seems to have more positives than negatives.  A nice two-bedroom with one of our best kitchens for preparing meals.  Super good heating and comfortable heating.  Again, I planned it so we were just two blocks from a bus line direct to the city center.

Newcastle has a population of 330,000.  In a local museum, we read that the population in 1880 was 220,000.   I thought that the difference was quite low.  

We always check for the quirky things to see and do.  There were two, and one was the Phil & Lit Library.   Built in 1793 for a members-only meeting place where taboo subjects would be discussed, among those natural philosophy, or what is referred to as science today.   

Phil and Lit is not a public library but a membership, just as it was started.  It is the second-largest library in the U.K.  In the basement, members only, is a crescent-shaped meeting hall.  This meeting hall is where new scientific creations were presented.  In 1879, Sir James Swan displayed the first light bulb and later. the first illuminated public space. 

Inside the library a few finds, and one of them is two wall clocks.  I was a clockmaker's apprentice in high school.  Juan calls me the human clock.  I can pretty much tell him the time pretty accurately without checking. 

1880s Fusee 8-day clock.

Another "quirky" sight is the Vampire Rabbit.  The statue was placed atop a doorway on a building in 1901, behind the cathedral.  Legend says it watches over the cemetery to scare off grave robbers, years before.  In the early years, three teens were found dead in the early morning hours with bloody and scared white faces.  Another event found a known robber dead in the doorway, with the rabbit looking down.

St. Nicolas Cathedral was built in 1091.  

This tablet commemorates the free lectures in the 1840s.  Space was provided by the church for people to gather and discuss many subjects besides religion. 

Grave markers of those buried under the church floor.  

After renovation efforts, the riverwalk has become a place for tourists and locals.  Many new businesses have opened up offices.  This is the Glasshouse International Centre For Music.

We walked down by the river the next day.  Since the 1500s, the river has been used to transport goods.   By the 1800s, like in most parts of the world, new things were being invented.  In Newcastle, it was steam locomotives, shipbuilding, and weapons.  However, like Detroit, the decline came, and most factories, warehouses, and shipping came to an end.

Another great bottle of wine that we picked up on sale for less than £4.

I have yet to try haggis, but I'm willing.  I need to find a breakfast plate or a type of roll that has haggis.  They sell it in the markets, but I don't want to buy too much of something we might not like.  If I remember correctly, haggis is made of a mixture of blood, liver, and barley.  We grew up with blood sausage that was homemade in our neighborhood.  In Mexico, we have morcilla, a dried version of sausage.

The Grainger Market is Newcastle's city market.  Like most we've visited on this trip, there are small shops that sell clothing, food stalls, and, more than others, fresh produce, meats, and cheese.  We bought a huge slice of Camembert that was delicious.   It went well with wine on two occasions.  It would be easy to say that 80% of the stalls or shops were dedicated to food items; Thai, buns, sausage rolls, smashed burgers (always makes us grin), and pastries.

The entrance to Chinatown.  We really enjoy Chinese food, and when we saw this, we thought we had hit a goldmine.  As we walked through, most of the restaurants were permanently closed.  People we asked said that the economy was heavily affected by COVID, and they never reopened.

There is always more to bore you with, but we have fun doing all of these things.  We've learned so much about the U.K. and its people.  It explains much about our friends who are from England and Scotland, and why they are so friendly.

Edinburgh, Scotland A Magical Place - Even In The Snow!

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Edinburgh is a very expensive city.   We were very undecided on where to stay, and we looked for places outside the city.  No go on that.  We chose a hotel, and as all things go, once you arrive, you can find even more, less expensive options.  You win some, and you lose some.  We had a nice hotel near the airport with great transportation.  Free parking is almost non-existent.  Street parking runs from £7 to £15  (9.50 to 20.00 USD). 

The hotel has to pay for parking, which they pass on to the guest.  However, upon registration, they have a tablet where you can enter your license plate number, and that will be good for the three-day stay we had.  The hotel was very luxurious and comfortable.  It made us rethink our future strategy for travel.  In fact, we are currently in Newcastle and heading to York tomorrow.  We will be in a hotel there as well.  

The hotel is 10 minutes from the park and ride for the tram to downtown.  The tram only runs on one line.  You can transfer to buses along the route.  I would bet to say, although I haven't checked, the city is built around the tram.  You pay with contactless (debit/credit).  If you tap on and then off again at each station, you will have the daily rate of £5.50 for the day.  If you don't tap off, you lose the deal.  Park and ride is free parking, but the bus, tram, train, and parking in the U.K. is a huge moneymaker.

In the city center, there is a below-ground mall.  I took this picture for a niece who has a similar coffee and ice cream shop in Monterrey.  She now does events as well and is always looking for new ideas.

You probably know the tourist in this picture, enjoying his retirement and the views.

On our first day, we were off to the center of town.  What a beautiful city, and one of the cleanest we have seen.  The dirtiest and most littered is Newcastle.  Liverpool was second in that category.  There is a park that runs through the center of the city.  It was 4 °C that morning and cloudy.  

They call these winding staircases a "close".

It soon turned very windy to the point that the rain had started but you couldn't use an umbrella.  People were running to take cover.  We ducked into a Burger King for a coffee to review our plan.  We moved to the front window to people-watch, and to our surprise, there was a snow flurry.

The wind had slowed down, so we headed to an indoor spot.  The National Gallery was a good place.  It was warm and dry.  We spent a good two hours there with some great art and history.  I'll only post one or two, but some interesting stories.

A monument dedicated to the writer and poet Sir Walter Scott

  Balmoral Hotel 1902

The nine-hundred-year-old cathedral of St. Giles is known as the mother church of Presbyterianism.   St. Giles or Aegidius was born in Greece and moved to France.  He is the patron saint of the disabled and lepers.   Outside on the ground is a heart-shaped figure in the walkway that marks the place of what was once a prison.  Scots will spit on it for good luck.

Thousands of tourists are taking photos, videos, and selfies.

The next day off, we went to the city center.  This time to see the castle.  It is so Disney-like, and it sits high on the hill. 

Being Easter Sunday, there were quite a lot of tourists.  They were heading for the castle, but we wanted to save it for day two.   Something I would have never expected to learn is that the castle is built on top of a 350-million-year-old extinct volcano.  1100 years old it has served as a fortress, residence, military base, and a prison.   The castle has been the place of over 26 major battles and was the point of independence from England.

After, we returned to the hotel.    Tesco is everywhere, and they come in all shapes and sizes, from superstores with a cafeteria to express stores (convenience).  Next door to the hotel is a superstore as well as a restaurant. We were tired and had put on about 15,000 steps, so we ordered some fish and chips to go from Crab & Lobster.  It's the only one in the U.K., but they are going to build another.   This is the best fish and chips ever.  In fact, the night before leaving Edinburgh, we went there for dinner.  

Some advantages of the hotel: they deliver ice to your room, fresh towels and linens, they clean the room, and you don't have to prepare meals.  We had our "Mate" with us to keep our ice, vodka, cheeses, and milk cold.  Our rule is, "never do without".

As we left Edinburgh and headed to Newcastle upon Tyne, we took a coastal route, and sure enough, there was another castle!!!!