Lincoln

Somewhere in England in the East Midlands is the country of Lincolnshire, and nestled in amongst the farmlands is it's capitol city, Lincoln. It is quite possibly the cutest English town that I have ever seen.

View of the fields from the train.

Lincoln, while far off the beaten track, is well worth a visit. There has been a colony, town or city located there since 100BC. Because it has be around so long there are relics from every age: From the early axes and log boats found in Brayford pool and housed at the local museum...

Brayford pool

To the lasting remnants of a thriving 12th century Jewish community.

Jew's house is now a restaurant

To the gothic architecture of one of England's most notable Cathedrals.

The cathedral in the golden dusk

To the many tutor houses in the town centre.

The tudor visitor centre

To today where the only 18 year old Lincoln University is combing the old with the new and growing rapidly into a top class university.

University blend of old and new

Lincoln's University library

My husband and I found ourselves in Lincoln last Thursday after a harrowing journey involving an international taxi strike, delayed planes, and a complex train schedule. As usual while with my DH in England the weather was shockingly perfect. We spent what was left of the evening having a meal in a pub and simply walking around the town centre admiring the view. I was pleased to note that there is the same rose-gold slant to the evening light here as there is in France and Spain. While we were eating our dinner, on the back patio of the pub, five of the Red Arrows from the local RAF base did a fly over trailing red white and blue. I didn't have time to grab the camera so no photos, but I do know that they were probably practicing for flying over the Lincoln Festival on Saturday evening.

The next day dawned clear and warm I went off exploring on my own as DH had an appointment at the University. As this was the second time that my DH had been here I headed off to do some of the more touristy things on my own. It was a great feeling to wander about and know that if I was lost or need help I could just ask in my native tongue. 

Memorial in front of a small church

I went to the castle first. Lincoln Castle is up the aptly named Steep Hill road. The entrance fee was remarkably cheap, but the man whom sold me my tickets explained that I could only really go into the gardens and a small section of the wall. The castle is mostly closed for massive renovations and when it re-opens in April 2015 I hope that I get to see it. The plans for the renovations look super cool.

Castle tower from the outside 

The was the castle's last line of defense

Just across the square is the this gem of architecture. I walked completely around it before popping my head inside. Supposedly there are Roman mosaic ruins and a medieval library inside, unfortunately I did not have the time to see them. The Cathedral usually displays an original copy of the Manga Carta but it is on tour now and will come back for it's anniversary next year.

Even the outside had flying buttresses

Main call of the cathedral from the door

 One thing I really like about Lincoln is that they seem to really want to integrate historic structures into everyday modern life. Below is a medieval gate still in use for traffic, and there is also the only Roman gate still used for traffic in the world inside Lincoln as well.

To one side of the Cathedral is the ruins of the bishop's palace. Which was destroyed in an earthquake hundreds of years ago and never rebuilt. It is well worth the price of admission and to get the audio guide. Also I have seen online that they might do Shakespeare in the park here! That would be so fun.

So that is it, a short a sweet visit to Lincoln. I hope someday I might be lucky enough to call a place like this home. 

Plymouth Part 2b

Well, we got the somewhat disappointing news that my husband did not get the job he interviewed for at the University.

Despite this I will soldier on with the Plymouth posts, because it really is a beautiful town.

At this point I am still wandering the town during the interview. There is a section of town called the "barbican" which is full of old charming houses and miles of cobblestone.

The Barbican skirts the docks.

I went back to my hotel room at the appointed time to wait for my husband, and just before I went inside I took this picture. That is the hotel on the left, but up ahead is a church that was bombed during a war. They removed most of the ruble and left the rest of the church standing as a memorial  It is in the center of a roundabout. The shiny glass behind that is part of the mall and the University would be up and to the right.

Here is where we went to have a pint after the interview. It is facing the docks and it was nice to sit out in the sun.

That was the view (somewhat) directly across from where we were sitting. That restaurant, The Ship, was very good. Nice prices, staff location, clean, and the food was excellent.

See? Swaths of cobblestone.

Do you see the American flag? These, the gate and the stone below, are to mark the steps the pilgrams took to sail off in the Mayflower.

We then strolled along the coast line to the Hoe.

Plymouth puente part one

 For those of you wondering a "puente" is an extended weekend including a holiday. May 1st and 2nd where holidays here in Spain and most people would take the Friday off as well. We did, and then I did something I have not done in a long time, I left the country.

For reasons that I might reveal later if things go as planned my husband and I went to Plymouth, England.

Getting to Plymouth was no mean feat. I think it took us about 12 hours of travel to get there. There might have been a beter way, but we went: Madrid to London, took a train, then a metro to Paddington Station and once there boarded a 4+  hour train to Plymouth.

On the way there I tried to get a couple shots of the quaint passing country side. The row houses with their chimneys...

...and the passing fields. However most of the time we were going to fast for a semi-decent shot. You will have to take my word for it, that there were a lot of sheep, horses, cows and even some alpaca. 

The scenery would go from inner-city grime, to small villages with a prominent pub and a beautiful church, to hill after endless rolling green hill of English country side.

My students will very often tell me that when they went to the US "it looked just like the movies" with a huge grin on their faces. This trip brought to me just exactly what they ment. I grew up on BBC productions, and I suppose that I should admit it to myself, I am something of an anglophile. I wanted to tell everyone too that it looked just exactly like I hoped that it would, and for some reason it made it seem a little less real.

Finally when we started passing Bristol there would be an occasional glimpse of the ocean. Once we had views of never ending ocean, we were a stones throw away from Plymouth.

Most of this first day was just the journey of getting here. We got in after 6pm and did not take a lot of pictures. But I want to take some photos as proof. This is England, in May, and the sun is shining. My husband pretty much always has good weather when he travels to the UK. 

The below picture is part of a greenway that runs through the city, more on that tomorrow.

Our first view of Plymouth University under a blue sky.

We checked in, set down our bags and went in search of dinner down the little winding streets of this charming town.

More tomorrow.