Bags had to be out in the hallway by 7am, and breakfast was then too. It was nice to have both continental and hot breakfast buffets, and good ones too. Then, onto the bus for a long 2 hour journey to Lincoln. We have a rotation system with bus seats, and today we were in a front row. On the way, Michelle gave an interesting presentation about the UK and Great Britain.
We arrived in Lincoln, another lovely town, with a castle and an amazing gothic cathedral on a hill, overlooking the town. We had three hours to tour the castle, wandering up on the walls, and seeing an interesting presentation about the Magna Carta. Normally an original copy is kept there, in a special building designed to protect it. Unfortunately, the conditions were apparently a little more damp than expected and so the Magna Carta had been put back into protective storage. I walked around some of the walls, and enjoyed the views - David walked right around, but I was a bit anxious about the steps and uneven stones. As it turned out, I could have managed, but was wary of the warnings in the information handed out to visitors.
We had lunch there (baked potato with salad and coleslaw for me), then wandered out to grab some more photos. It was a lovely sunny day, and around 20C. I suspect I got glutened because I had a decent dose of heartburn during the afternoon.
Then, another long drive to York, another picturesque town, and bigger than we imagined. I must say, I think the scenery along the main highways is really lovely - lots of farmland, pastures (everything is very green), and small groups of houses. We went straight to our hotel, the Hilton (sounds posh, eh), and headed straight out at 3pm for a guided walking tour with Michelle.
York has a history back to Roman times, and later it was an important Viking settlement. Indeed, there is a Viking museum (Jorvik) that was unfortunately closed because of a bad flood in the town.
We had passed remnants of the walls as we drove into town. The hotel was opposite Clifford's Tower which is all that remains of York's castle. This tower has a rather a nasty history, including in 1190 when some Jews committed suicide by burning themselves in it (rather than taking whatever punishment the mob of townspeople had in mind for them).
Elsewhere in the town we were shown the home of Margaret Clitherow (now a saint) who had been punished for harbouring Catholics, and who had been crushed to death between a rock and her own door (weighted down). Nasty...
It is easy to get lost in York, with the narrow, winding cobbled streets, and the small alleyways between buildings and shortcuts between streets. One of the streets we walked through was the famous Shambles (once a street of butchers), with buildings almost touching - hooks for hanging the meat can still be seen under the eaves. We also saw Grape Lane (actually where the prostitutes had worked).
Our walk culminated at York Minster, England's biggest gothic church. We did not go in as we've seen rather a lot of gothic churches in our time (but I now regret not seeing it). We stopped for a drink at another pub called the Blue Boar, and then headed back to the hotel to prepare for dinner.
I had a laugh heading back to our room via the lift. A hotel guest spotted my name tag and said her name was also Carol. Then she added, I know where you're from, "Oh really?" I laughed. She said "You're from New Zealand - I can tell by your posh type of Australian accent." LOL?
We sat with two couples from Melbourne and enjoyed a lot of laughs over a lovely dinner. I was well-looked after for GF: An entree of Parma ham, beetroot, goat's cheese and pine nut salad. And the main was pork loin steak, creamed savoy cabbage with smoked bacon, sage mash and juniper berry jus. GF bread to start, and icecream and fruit salad to finish.
We arrived in Lincoln, another lovely town, with a castle and an amazing gothic cathedral on a hill, overlooking the town. We had three hours to tour the castle, wandering up on the walls, and seeing an interesting presentation about the Magna Carta. Normally an original copy is kept there, in a special building designed to protect it. Unfortunately, the conditions were apparently a little more damp than expected and so the Magna Carta had been put back into protective storage. I walked around some of the walls, and enjoyed the views - David walked right around, but I was a bit anxious about the steps and uneven stones. As it turned out, I could have managed, but was wary of the warnings in the information handed out to visitors.
We had lunch there (baked potato with salad and coleslaw for me), then wandered out to grab some more photos. It was a lovely sunny day, and around 20C. I suspect I got glutened because I had a decent dose of heartburn during the afternoon.
Then, another long drive to York, another picturesque town, and bigger than we imagined. I must say, I think the scenery along the main highways is really lovely - lots of farmland, pastures (everything is very green), and small groups of houses. We went straight to our hotel, the Hilton (sounds posh, eh), and headed straight out at 3pm for a guided walking tour with Michelle.
York has a history back to Roman times, and later it was an important Viking settlement. Indeed, there is a Viking museum (Jorvik) that was unfortunately closed because of a bad flood in the town.
We had passed remnants of the walls as we drove into town. The hotel was opposite Clifford's Tower which is all that remains of York's castle. This tower has a rather a nasty history, including in 1190 when some Jews committed suicide by burning themselves in it (rather than taking whatever punishment the mob of townspeople had in mind for them).
Elsewhere in the town we were shown the home of Margaret Clitherow (now a saint) who had been punished for harbouring Catholics, and who had been crushed to death between a rock and her own door (weighted down). Nasty...
It is easy to get lost in York, with the narrow, winding cobbled streets, and the small alleyways between buildings and shortcuts between streets. One of the streets we walked through was the famous Shambles (once a street of butchers), with buildings almost touching - hooks for hanging the meat can still be seen under the eaves. We also saw Grape Lane (actually where the prostitutes had worked).
Our walk culminated at York Minster, England's biggest gothic church. We did not go in as we've seen rather a lot of gothic churches in our time (but I now regret not seeing it). We stopped for a drink at another pub called the Blue Boar, and then headed back to the hotel to prepare for dinner.
I had a laugh heading back to our room via the lift. A hotel guest spotted my name tag and said her name was also Carol. Then she added, I know where you're from, "Oh really?" I laughed. She said "You're from New Zealand - I can tell by your posh type of Australian accent." LOL?
We sat with two couples from Melbourne and enjoyed a lot of laughs over a lovely dinner. I was well-looked after for GF: An entree of Parma ham, beetroot, goat's cheese and pine nut salad. And the main was pork loin steak, creamed savoy cabbage with smoked bacon, sage mash and juniper berry jus. GF bread to start, and icecream and fruit salad to finish.
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