In which we Appreciate Lincoln

Jane's Journal Page Notes:

None today. I wrote small. ;-)

Journal entry:
The plan for today was to rise and shine early. Huh. Well, we did get up fairly early, but because we have a large, noisy, boisterous group here, we weren’t exactly zooming. Plus, Beast had to go pick up Elizabeth, who is traveling with us for a couple of days. She had to be brought back to Jean & Reg's house so her parents could say goodbye. They are off to Germany the day after tomorrow. Confused yet?

In the melee, Elizabeth left her jacket at Rosellen's, so Marie will go get it and mail it to Elizabeth when everyone is back in their own houses next month. Aha, NOW the confusion has hit full-force! Welcome to my family.

It is a nice drive up to Lincoln. We relied primarily on Daphne, with me following along on the maps I had. Lincoln isn’t a very big city, so once you are in the city, you are very nearly on top of all the "sights." Our hotel, Hillcrest, is on a quiet street midway down the hill from the cathedral and castle, with the tiniest little front parking lot ever. There is just enough room to drive down off the street directly towards the front door and turn abruptly, almost making a U-turn, into a parking spot. Of course, Beast wanted to back in.

It’s a secure building, so we buzzed to get in, and a young woman with very little English took us downstairs to the registration desk. Yes, really, downstairs. This is not a Holiday Inn. The desk is set up in the hallway just outside the bar/restaurant on the garden level in the rear of the house. First odd, but cool, thing.

The second odd, but ultimately nice, thing is that the owner was standing there as we finished up and she gave us the 45-second verbal tour of Lincoln: what’s good, what’s not, how to get there, and when the restaurant in the hotel served dinner. No lie: 45 seconds. She’s very brisk, and in a good way, too. My suspicion is that she's Buddhist, based on the presence of a Gideon Bible AND two books on Buddhism in the hotel room.

We collected our luggage and trooped back upstairs to our rooms. Well, actually, just to our room, since they were still cleaning Elizabeth's room. Hers is on the main floor, about 20 yards from the front door in a small and very cute room. Not 'cute' in real estate terminology, but more like a luxury train car 'cute.' Our room is upstairs one flight--but OH what a flight! Wide enough for at least four people on each tread, stained glass on the landing, and probably 20-foot ceilings! We are around the corner from the stairs in a triple room that is nearly American in size. Almost Holiday Inn! heh Except, really nice.

Since Elizabeth's room wasn’t ready, she put her suitcase in our room and off we went immediately to find the cathedral. And lunch. We used my trusty list of Lincoln Eats (compiled painstakingly last winter and spring from 6-8 different travel guides) and went to Brown’s Pie Shop, just down Steep Hill from the cathedral gate. Steep Hill is the name of the street. It is. Steep, that is.

Wonderful meat pies, about 8” around and 4-6” deep. Oy. Yeah, I could live on them. And Elizabeth & I had sweet carrot soup, which was amazingly lovely. Not really sweet, but very very tasty. Yum. We were SO full. Best restaurant meal so far, I think.

After lunch, we did a longish self-tour of the cathedral. Sparky found the imp, after much searching; it’s awfully high up. Even I had to have it pointed out to me. The best parts of the building were the Chapter House and the altar. They also have a very cool, modern "stations of the cross" except not really...anyway, it’s all carved wood. Quite interesting. A bit hard to explain, and I'm not sure if it was an exhibit or a permanent display. I wish I'd paid closer attention or picked up a book on them, because they don't seem to be in the regular guide book.

The organ was playing here, too, and before we left the choir had begun to practice. I lit more candles.

There was also a group of folks setting up for a medieval mystery play just in front of the quire; one of them stopped and chatted with us, and invited us back for the dress rehearsal tonight. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and didn’t go.

We had a nice visit there, but the consequence is that we got to the castle with very little time to tour it. I also didn‘t really understand that the main castle building is actually still used, as a court. So we couldn‘t go in there, but we did get a chance to go in the building that was the prison and see one of the four extant copies of the Magna Carta. That was very impressive; they‘ve done a neat preparatory display. Thank goodness, as us Americans are a little vague on the concept, frankly. In the room where the document lives, there is a recording of someone reading it aloud. It is unidentifiable as Latin or English. Even the docent says she can't understand what part is being read, and she stands there all day!

We also walked through the rest of the prison, which was mildly spooky: we were the only people around. There was children’s art hanging on some of the walls, bright and colorful in a dreary hallway. In another section some black and white photos of a woman "prisoner." It was art, but creepy art. I can’t really explain it, except that she was the saddest looking person. The photographs are mixed in with some cursory "prison life" displays. It may be that the building is haunted. I'm about as likely to admit seeing ghosts as I would be likely to eat my shoes, but there you go: clammy skin time.

The creepiest part of the place is the prison chapel. It is a largish room with theater-style steps down to a well in the center. Above the well along the back wall is the pulpit, where the minister would stand about 25 feet up from the base of the well. The Victorian theory was that, even prisoners in solitary confinement--which meant solitary ALL THE TIME--had to attend chapel. Probably even more so, since obviously their immortal souls were at stake. But they were in sentenced to solitary, so some arrangement had to be made to keep them segregated from one another.

Each level of the ‘audience’ side of the room had a series of doors through which the prisoners walked, one by one. When one was at the end, the door he’d just walked through was shut, enclosing him in a narrow coffin-like 'room,' with a shelf on which he could probably rest his arms in a properly prayerful position. I’m assuming few prisoners were taller than I am (about 5’8”); they would have had their arms at shoulder height. The only view for them was of the minister in the pulpit. No prisoner would have been able to see anyone else. There is also a little misericord to sit on, but then you'd be below wall level; a little claustrophobic.

I'm sure they could hear one another, but bursting out with noise in church was ... ahem ... frowned upon, I'm sure. Chapel tended to run three to four hours. Then they’d be removed back to their cells. Still in solitary.

This little experiment lasted only a few years. Apparently, many of the prisoners went mad.

I’m not in the least freaked out by tight spaces normally. I love caves, and elevators don't bother me in the least. These 'cells' made my stomach hollow out. I couldn’t even close the doors properly without getting nauseous. Awful awful room. It certainly didn't leave me with much of a godly feeling in my stomach.
_____________

We walked the castle walls and towers until the grounds were closed to tourists. Then we walked up opposite Steep Hill--behind some barristers? Solicitors?--to a bank with an ATM (there is a corner with three different banks on it. Competition is thriving in the North!). On the way back down the hill, we stopped at an ice cream place. Everyone else had ice cream cones; I had tea and a scone. It was tea time after all! We ate in the shop, downstairs, in a little groined cellar area that was somehow very churchy and lovely. Much more godly feeling there!

These few moments of respite gave us energy enough to walk back down to our hotel, where Elizabeth took her suitcase into her room and we all had a half-hour rest period. Then we negotiated dinner: Should we spend £14 each on the restaurant meal at the hotel, or hike back up the hill to where all the other restaurants and pubs are. The area around the hotel is primarily residential; there is a large park behind us, of which we have a beautiful view from our window. Very quiet; no traffic. No places to grab food quickly either.

Our Scotch sides came out: we walked back up the hill to the other side of the cathedral and had a perfectly lovely pub meal in the garden at the Bull & Chain pub, among the trees and bushes (and swings and slides). No other little kids, a few other adults. Quiet, close enough to hear the chiming of the cathedral clock. Perfect.

Walked back to the hotel where we went downstairs to the garden area behind the house and had a drink and attempted to plan tomorrow. It really was a beautiful day today: sunny and warm, but not hot. The garden is above that park I mentioned above, in which Sparky discovered there is a giant lion statue. He immediately decided it was Aslan.

Once it got chilly out and we realized that we couldn't plan for tomorrow without some more information, we came back up to our room. I took a shower (typical British loo: small,. It is at least functional) and then gave myself a manicure and a pedicure and read, and wrote a lot of this, while Beast and Elizabeth got on the internet with Beast's laptop.

Elizabeth is coming with us to York tomorrow, where she’ll catch a train to Manchester. She’s staying at a hostel there tomorrow night and then flying home the next day.

After about two hours, they ended up--we hope--reserving a ticket for her, which we can pick up tomorrow at the train station in York. Very cool. The internet is amazing. British trains are amazing, too.

Elizabeth has come down with a cold; she spent the day saying she was sure it’s allergies, but it’s not. Her flight home won’t be fun, but at least right now, it’s just sniffles.

It’s late, I’m tired and we hope to leave early tomorrow. I hate to leave here. This is a great hotel, and Lincoln is definitely worth more time spent wandering around. It’s not very touristy, actually. Could it be all those hills... ;-)

In which we Picnic and Do Laundry

Jane’s Journal Page Notes:
Live For The Day...

Live for the day
That your work
Gathers strength enough,
To carry you through
Your darkest hour
Beyond the platitudes
Of your wildest dreams.

Journal entry:
Not a very exciting day today, as is usual after a Big Day. That sort-of letdown, "that’s all there is?" feeling, plus joy that it’s over at last. At least for me. :-)

We were up by 8:00 or so and packed. Yes, I finally had a real shower, only three days after arriving on this island! We checked out of the hotel and loaded our bags into the car. Then we walked over to the cottage where Jean & Reg were staying and found them cleaning like mad. They‘ve been in Wakefield for under a week, but it is amazing how much stuff had been spread out!

When we arrived, we were told to eat everything we could so it wouldn‘t have to be packed back home. So we tried, but failed to snarf the entire table. Cleaned up the kitchen, put away all the dishes and cookware, finished loading up their car--they have a minivan, oddly enough, because it‘s the only car Jean can bend herself into.

While cleaning up the house, I asked what a good "typically British" woman’s name was. I’m tired of calling our GPS by The Nice Lady in the Dashboard or boring old GPS. Jean jokingly suggested "Daphne" which struck me as funny, so Daphne it is.

We drove Rosellen (and I think Elizabeth) back to Leicester. It was about a two-hour trip, but it went quickly because we had good company. Daphne got us to the house with no problem (although she told us we were there--"You have arrived at your destination"--about half a block away...). And a nice house in a nice neighborhood it is. Much quieter street than their old house, with pretty front gardens along the street. The houses are two-storeys instead of three, so it doesn’t feel quite so closed in. And they have a small modern grocery store just a block away, which I think we’ll be using a lot!

House plan:

Entry with steps going up directly in front of the door. The stairs are open and there is a small window under them because again they have a passage from back garden to street, just like in their old house. I think all the houses here have them, though. The entry hall is just wide enough for the stairs and a passing area into the other rooms of the house. The living/dining room is to the right of the front door with a big window at the front. There is a fireplace that acts a bit as a sort of visual room divider; I think it’s an electric grate. LOTS OF BOOKSHELVES--the whole shared wall is bookshelves, in fact! Now that I think of it, there is another electric grate in the living room end of the room.

Beyond the dining room, through French doors, is the new kitchen. I think it used to be the den or office, but since they moved in in March, Jean & Reg have had people in to install the kitchen there instead of behind the entry hall. It’s not a bad size, but I’m spoiled with my gigantic kitchen; I could get at least two, maybe part of another, into mine. Very self-contained, even with the washer and a dryer (at last!!) in there. A glass door opens onto the back garden patio.

From that door, if you turn left and walk along the back of the house, you will reach another glass door (with a cat door in the bottom) which leads into what used to be the kitchen and is now a decent-sized office area. There is another door straight across from the back door that opens onto the passage. That’s where bicycles and garbage cans are kept. Off the office area there is a small corner for the cat box and recycling containers, and a little room containing a toilet.

Upstairs. Turn right and stop: to the left is the bathroom door, straight ahead is one bedroom door and to the right are two more bedroom doors. Narrow hall, mirroring the one below. The upper floor is not as deep as the main floor, so the back windows look over the room into the garden.

The bathroom is a bathroom; not much to say there. The first bedroom is Jesse's room, the "cat-free zone." He’s normally got a single bed in there, but it has a trundle, so right now it is FULL of bed (basically a Queen size--the two singles are next to each other). You can tell he’s at college; it's decorated only desultorily. This room also has a whole wall of closets including Jean's linens, because she has no warming cupboard in the bathroom! Shock!

The room next to Jesse's is Jean and Reg's. Then at the front of the house is a room with a bunk bed in it, just over the front door. It is TINY! The size of that front entry hall, no lie. Jesse. and Sparky are sleeping in there. Marie & Jan are sleeping on one of the sofas in the living room; it folds out into a bed.

They have a cat, have I mentioned this? She's a very nice cat, named Shrodinger, Shrody for short. If you don't get it, it's a physics joke. Ha ha. I don't get it.

So we unloaded our suitcases from the car, unpacked a bit, started laundry, and unpacked groceries. By the time we had all that done it was lunchtime, so we took everything to the back garden where there is are tables, and had a picnic. Blankets on the lawn. It was fabulous.

While the laundry continued, we drove Rosellen and Elizabeth to Rosellen's house across town. That’s where Elizabeth is sleeping tonight. The house is definitely student housing, but not hopelessly awful. Well, except for a pretty horrible bathroom, primarily because of the color. Oy. All Rosellen's housemates are off on vac, so the two of them have the place to themselves; Elizabeth is sleeping in one of the other bedrooms whose normal inhabitant is home visiting her family in Mexico. We left them preparing to meet some of Rosellen's other friends for a picnic in a park later on. Don’t waste the beautiful sunny days: two picnics per day is fine!

Beast and I headed back to Jean and Reg's where we watched the British Open and kind of lazed around while the laundry finished. It‘s a very slow machine, but at least we could dry stuff indoors. Marie did hang some of the heavier stuff outside, but I didn‘t want to my underwear hanging outside!

Made it to bed sort of early bed for a change. We had to vacate so Marie & Jan could go to bed, and I had to get out of the living room because I stupidly sat on Shrody‘s favorite chair and then rubbed my eyes. I can’t be around her at all. I expect a very itchy night!

Nice to not have mad panic all around, and to have some normalcy. Although anytime you have this many people in my family in a smallish confined space, it's a little noisy.