This day was the 798th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta at Runnymede and by a happy coincidence we would get to view one of the original copies in Lincoln! And a chilly day it was. Breakfast at The Castle Hotel was very good, and we then vacated our room and checked out, but they let us leave our car in the park for a couple more hours.  The hotel was just across the street from Lincoln Castle so it was very convenient.  We had a bit of a wander round until opening time, then went in.  Of course, we made a bee-line for the Great Charter, one of just a few remaining copies made at the time.  

It was in a pretty good kind of display set-up, which gave a good idea of the kinds of freedoms that stemmed from the document, and perhaps ironically it was in the old prison building in the castle. You basically wound through this corridor arrangement with lots of articles with pictures on the walls.  We’ve seen a copy before, the one at Salisbury Cathedral back in ‘99.  After a bit of a squiz we went back out into the castle proper and climbed up to the top of the walls. The very strong wind made it really nippy up there!  We wandered along for a bit and looked at the view over the town before coming back down.  We had a bit more of a look in the town, checking out a couple of shops and some of the old buildings. We also dropped back into the cathedral and bought another cushion cover, this one of ‘Mon Seul Desir’, which we arranged to have posted. We considered walking down the rather steep hill on Steep Hill, a street there, towards the new town, but thought better of it considering most of the charm was up in the old town where we were.  So we made our way back to the BM and headed towards Tattershall Castle, a very interesting early example of a brick built castle, from around 1440.

Even though there was plenty of stone available around Tattershall, good old Ralph, 3rd Lord Cromwell, Treasurer of England, decided to go with bricks. We really liked it.  It had some interesting rooms, not that there was any furnishing in it, but just the mantle pieces and the sense of what it must have been like were interesting.  We made our way from floor to floor upwards, eventually coming out onto the roof where you could look over the battlements.  The moat and grounds were also nice, and we had a coffee and some cake in the church cafe nearby afterwards. Then we hopped back in the car and set the satnav for Cambridge.  

Arriving around 4ish, we found there were no parks left so we put the car in the big public car park down the street.  After unpacking a few things and hanging round a bit in our room in the very cool Gonville Hotel, we set off for a good look around Cambridge town, somewhere we hadn’t been since 1998.  Being there on a Saturday night was good because there were a lot of activities that were going on with the students, and people heading out to events etc. Plus it was the end of exams. We went down all the main university streets, and on one we saw this hilarious busker who had rigged up a fake council bin that he was busking from INSIDE of. Pictured.  That deserved a contribution. There was also this wild clock in a shop window, with a giant insecty thing on it that swung as its pendulum. We saw the sights we remembered from last time too, including the statue of Henry VIII up in an alcove on the wall of Kings College. Unfortunately we just missed last entry for a look inside the Chapel. We also went into a very swish mall that I don’t think was there last time.  

Eventually we found a suitable place for dinner, an Indian place, ‘The Curry King’ I’m afraid, and went in. It wasn’t fast curry as the name suggests. There was quite a commotion because there was some kind of end-of-exams function being held in the room above the restaurant, and some of the students seemed to be holding a rugger match up there.  We thought they were going to come crashing through the ceiling!  One of them eventually came down on their way out and apologised for the noise and thanked us all for indulging them.  It was a very nice dinner.  We only forgot to video two of our dinners, and they were both the Indian ones, funnily enough.  Finally we wound up and set off back towards the hotel, across the big field that separated it from the university precinct.  We read for a while and then crashed out.  Excellent day.

Lincoln Castle    Tattershall Castle   Cambridge