Last days in England
Tuesday night we stayed in a hotel across the street from the castle which made the morning walk easier.
What made it harder is my hip decided to cause problems.
I’ve had arthritis since I was a teenager. I won’t say how long ago it started, but Jimmy Carter was president.
It normally spends most of its time in my fingers and I can deal with it there.
But, after all the driving on Tuesday, Wednesday morning my hip did not like moving.
So our first stop was the newsstand actually farther away than the castle to pick up some ibuprofen.
We did walk the walls of Lincoln Castle: https://www.lincolncastle.com
It was a big confusing at first as when we walked in there was a line of folks forming at one of the building inside. I started that way and then noticed the guards, metal detector and barristers.
That building in the castle is still an active courthouse after all these years, and NOT the museum.
So, we trundled over to the other building, paid our tickets and went inside.
They have a Magna Carta. This makes three of the surviving four I’ve seen. I guess there is one at the British Library in London I’ve missed, but got the others. (The Library lent one out a few years ago for the 800th anniversary, which I saw, plus I’ve seen the very nice one in Salisbury a couple of times now.)
Despite my hip hurting we walked the whole circuit of the walls around the castle. There was a school group of fairly young kids, so we went the opposite way, despite it not being the recommended one.
I did cheat and take the lift up to the walls, but walked the rest of the way. And, by the end the ibuprofen had kicked in and I walked back down the stairs.
I had a nice scone at the cafe at the bottom.
Next we went over to the Cathedral: https://lincolncathedral.com
It is a very impressive building and we wandered around that for a while. The volunteers all wear big sashes that makes them look like (to me at least) like they’re about to take part in the “best volunteer pageant”.
My wife had specifically asked to see the High Bridge, so down the hill to the river we went: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Bridge,_Lincoln
We had originally planned to stop there before the other two, but as my hip hurt, we waited and took the car down the hill so I didn’t need to climb back up.
There is a cafe on the bridge so we had lunch there and watched all the folks flow past the shopping street as a guitar player played and we ate.
It was very nice.
Then, back to London and the airport.
Traffic wasn’t too bad until we hit the loop road around the city, and then was practically stopped.
They charge a stupidly high price (4 pounds a liter) to refill your car at the rental office, so we needed to find petrol before the airport.
We ended up going through this very complex series of roundabouts and small roads to do it. But, it was almost a pound a liter less than the rest areas on the motorway.
The hotel is right at the airport terminal and also a challenge. Our GPS guided us to the airport, but put us on a road that you HAD to go into the parking lot to get back out and that cost 6 pounds. So much for those gas savings.
The hotel drop off cost 9 pounds to go into!
I was quite mad about that, but when I checked in they gave me a voucher to get back out without paying.
I dropped off my wife and all the luggage at the hotel where she got some help wrestling it up to the room while I went to return the car.
The car return area is quite far from the hotel, and the hotel exit puts you on a road going the wrong way. The place I turned around gathered a lot of interest in my short visit, so I think it was restricted. If only they paid as much attention to accidentally making folks pay 6 pounds to cut through the parking lot…
I eventually found it, returned the car and took the shuttled back to the terminal.
My wife and I went for dinner at the hotel, but she wasn’t feeling well, so went back to the room without finishing. I did eat my meal and joined her.
We then played “pack the suitcase” where you try and keep them under the weight limit and in the number of bags you get.
We did keep it under the weight, but may pay for an extra bag just to keep from lugging it through the terminal.
I could pre-check in, but my wife couldn’t as it said her passport number didn’t match the record. That’s a bit concerning, but I hope to sort it out at the check in desk after breakfast.
The, back across the Atlantic, home through the Boston traffic and we’ll sleep tonight in our own bed.