Just down the road from where we are staying is the Museum of Lincolnshire Life. In a sprawling building, a former barracks, are artefacts from recent and not quite so recent times. Rooms from a particular period (just at the edge of my memory) have been re-constructed. So have some industrial machines.
Perhaps the most famous exhibit is the WWI tank.
30 May 2024
 | St. Mary Magdalene on Bailgate has been closed on our last few visits. It was great to see it open and get a look inside. The history of the church is laid out along the walls. There is no stain glass window behind the communion table, presumably because there is a building behind. |  |
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After that, we visited the Lincoln Museum and the Usher Gallery. The displays cover a period from the start of archaeology to a few decades ago. I can usually stay in these places all day, but am mindful of those I am with who do not share my fascination with all things old.
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 | The Norton Disney Dodecahedron is one of the oddest and most fascination archaeological finds of recent years. It has featured on 'Digging for Britain'. No-one knows its purpose. |
| Before visiting the Usher Gallery, we had lunch at the Cheese Society. A very nice meal in a very unusual shop. Mail order cheese sounds like a great idea. |
Once in the Usher Gallery, I was surprised by how little there was. Galleries are often packed with paintings and other display, but here there is plenty of room, perhaps too much room. |
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29 May 2024 I had wanted to visit Bomber Command for a long time, since reading the book "Bomber Boys", which tells the story of Bomber Command by collecting the memories of the crews. These young men knew that their lives would almost certainly be lost, yet they continued to fly. Some of them even when their tour of duty was over. They were all volunteers. |
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 The memorial, shaped to look like wings, and as tall as the wingspan of a Lancaster. It is surrounded by the names of each of the men who lost their lives either on missions, in training, or in other accidents. The memorial stands to all air crew that were part of Bomber Command, where ever they came from. Many were from the Empire. |
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It was, for me, a difficult visit, and as I write this the D-Day remembrances are in full swing. Time for some quiet reflection and to give thanks for the willing sacrifices that were made for the future of their world, our present.
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28 May 2024
We are being 'tourists' as well as friends, so we will get to see some of the city that we usually would not. Today we visited the castle. There's a lot more info here, https://www.lincolncastle.com/. We had a very entertaining and informative guide, that we followed around in the drizzle. They have some very large dragons. I'm not too sure of the significance of them, but they are impressive.
More importantly, they hold one of copies of the most important documents in the world - the Magna Carta ("Great Charter of Freedoms"). Originally, it was simply a treaty between the king and the barons and was soon broken, but it encompassed an idea - the king is not all-powerful. From that idea, all our personal freedoms have evolved, most particularly that everyone (yes, really everyone) is subject to the rule of law.
The document is held in a special room. When we were last in Lincoln, it was held in the Cathedral, and access to it was closed. I'm very please to say I've seen it. I can't read it, of course, it's in Latin.
The castle, itself, is an amazing place, partly because of its size, but also because of some of the construction that has happened. It now holds the Lincoln Courts building inside its walls, and at one point also had a prison.
The Picture shows how the prisoners were allowed to attend church services. One per cubicle, and all you can see from there is the pulpit.
27 May 2024
We travelled to Lincoln to stay with friends for a few days during half-term. The journey was estimated at about 2.5 hours, but I was expecting it to be longer because we were travelling on Spring Bank Holiday Monday. We packed, and loaded the car with more than we could possibly need. I'd bought a pump and jack (because there isn't one in the car) and we'd borrowed a blow-up bed - just in case their sofa bed was uncomfortable.
We needn't have worried about the bed or the roads. The traffic was light, although we did have some fun with Google Maps. Travelling to avoid the M25, and hopefully pick up the M11 at the A414 junction, we were offered a 'short-cut'. It was a single track road, at times very twisty, with soft verges. We ended up behind someone who was clearly a nervous driver, travelling at only 25-30 MPH most of the time, and tooting the horn before going around blind bends. When we met on-coming traffic, the situation got worse. I moan a lot about the standard of driving - people being careless and arrogant, assuming the road is theirs and theirs alone. I can now also moan about people being ridiculously cautious, not knowing how wide or long their vehicle is. We did eventually get past her, after she tried to reverse out of one of her over enthusiastic manoeuvres on to the soft verge. I admit to being slightly worried that she was stuck, but there was now lots of traffic in doth directions, and nowhere for me to stop.
So we arrived at Birchanger services and it was heaving. The spaces are so narrow that Jo got out before I parked, and go in the driver's side to eat lunch. I was glad to leave, it felt really claustrophobic.
Finding a parking space outside our friend's house was not straight forward, as it often isn't, but we got close enough to the house to unload. They cooked a meal for us, and we chatted until fairly late, then they showed us how to 'construct' the bed. The first night's sleep anywhere new is difficult, here the bed wasn't than comfortable.
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| A Dalek and BBC Radio Lincolnshire |
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| 2 days in Lincoln |
| We travelled to Lincoln on Tuesday to see a friend who is recuperating from a serious operation. The journey was uneventful and the car survived. We stayed in a small guest house on the other side of the castle, and walked across the old city to our friend. Most of the time was spent with our friend - helping to get chores done, and generally brighten the place up a bit, but mainly just to be there as company. Today there will have been (while we were travelling back) another assessment to determine the need for support staff. It was obvious to us that daily support was needed, but Social Services will always try to minimize the amount of support given. Still we did get out and do some shopping, as it was our job to provide the evening meal. |
On Thursday morning we went to visit a friend in Lincoln. One of the nice things about being free of paid work is that you can just go. Well that's what I thought. When Jo and I sat down to try to work out when we could just go, it was much more difficult than you could possibly have thought. Our week is busy - in the evenings especially so. In the end the only way we could go was to make our excuses and miss home group. This was less than ideal, in fact it was quite annoying, but we wanted to see our friend before she goes into hospital, so we must make sacrifices. So we travelled to Lincoln, after Liz drove to work on Thursday morning. Its about three hours away. The roads were clear and we arrived within the time specified on the Google route planner. Our friend took us around some of the city.
On Friday morning we visited "The Lawn". They have a greenhouse holding plants from one of Cook's voyages. Here I tried to photograph the fish. The digital camera has a delay, and fish have a tendency to move around - something to do with staying alive, I think. this was the best shot of about 6 or 7, so I moved on to the plants - at least they don't move! Here's an Urn Plant - from South America.
