Europe 2009 – Sutton Day #2

Migrated post from Blogger.com. Refer to Europe 2009 Blog Migration.

Friday 04/09 – daytrip to Lincoln (Lincolnshire)

Today we headed out mid-morning to Lincoln. The two main attractions here were:

1. the Lincoln Cathedral
2. the Lincoln Castle

This castle is one of the oldest in England – built in the 1000s.

Although we joined a tour group of the castle, we had to follow more slowly from the back as we had to lift the baby pram up the numerous flights of stairs. The entire tour was really informative and educational – we learnt about the West Gate entry, the Castle Walls, the hangings that took place on the top of Cobb Tower.

Lincoln Castle has a number of unique features:

1. The entire structure was reduced by one storey/level to prevent the castle fortifications growing too strong for rebellion.
2. This castle originally had prisioners hanged internally, and then from the top of the Cobb Tower for public viewing. The original method for hanging was later replaced with the more efficient trap-door method – first used at Lincoln Castle. The original method (long rope) normally meant that death by strangulation took 20-30 min whereas the trap-door method meant instant death.
3. The prison separated male and female prisoners; and had a chapel – the only structure still in place today – where individual prisoners were locked into individual cells within the Chapel. Seeing this gave a whole new meaning to the term “captive audience”.

Dinner was again at home – delicious dishes prepared by my cousin. Staying with a young family where the kid is baby/toddler was an education in itself – it gave me first-hand experience with all the chores and less glamorous aspects to raising a child. Whilst I have seen a lot of kids of all ages at church on a Sunday, living 24×7 with one is an experience in itself. Getting ready to go out can be time consuming but it is also good to see how having a kid doe not have to get in the way of having a life and going out.

Whilst this day trip to Lincoln was an eye-opener for me in terms of the pace of moving around and doing the actual tours/sightseeing, my visit was very much about spending time with family so I was quite happy to move at the slower pace and to spend the time helping to lug the pram up the walls. My little nephew was none the wiser for the experience of Lincoln even though it was his second visit there – it was still good to travel as a family.