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We made our way out today and went for a stroll around Sherwood forest and played Robin Hood. This means I ran around and climbed a few trees. One woman passing by walking her dog commented, “that’s a bit risky isn’t it.” In an actually pretty rude and judgmental way. Do English people never climb trees? Not even kids? It was an odd moment. Anyway, I was having fun.
It amazed me that people have this amazing location to walk their dogs in. We chatted to one lovely older woman who said she came here everyday, lucky cow. :P This place is so beautiful, and we were greeted by squirrels.
From there we went to Lincoln to look at the Lincoln Arch and Cathedral. As we were driving around Lincoln trying to locate the Lincoln Arch we drove past one turn on my suggestion that we should turn left to try and find it. As we did this I commented, “Oh, look to your right at that arch that you can drive under, cool”
Ahhhh, maybe that arch is the Lincoln Arch, the only Roman built arch you can drive under in the world. Duh! So a loop back around and we found it and had a good look and explore. It is still so mind blowing that here in the middle of a normal functioning town full of people running their businesses and buying their groceries is an arch built by the ancient Romans.
From there we went a little way to the Lincoln Cathedral, holy amazement! It is a little bit big, like freaking huge. We came here for really one reason (which I will get to) but I have to admit the cathedral was well worth it. This is the fourth church I have ever been in in my entire life. (One in India, and two for funerals).
The reason we came was to see the Lincoln Imp. There is a 14th Century legend about two Imps sent to Lincoln Cathedral by Satan to cause mischief. Apparently they tripped the Bishop over and smashed some chairs and tables. An angel appeared and told them to stop. One did and cowered behind pillars but the other continued and threw stones. So the angel turned him to stone. There he sits in the Cathedral, part of the stone carvings. This was important to us because my grandmother often talked about this story and one of the pieces of jewelry I inherited from her when she died was a pin with the Lincoln Imp on it. Getting turned to stone? A bit rough for tripping someone over I think.
We also got to see half of the Magna Carta (the other half of which was at Parliament house in Canberra). I was pretty excited about this. :D
From Lincoln we went to York. Now I know I have already talked about how beautiful the mix between modern and medieval is, how mind blowing it is that people live around this history and how amazing the sheer length of this history is. Well York substantially raised my standards on all these fronts. The city is huge and shares a mixture of Roman, Viking, Medieval, and every British era since. It is incredible that for over 2,000 uninterrupted years this city has been inhabited by humans. At least, who knows what archaeological discoveries could be found beneath of prehistoric people.
We got on a hop on-hop off bus. One of those open top red jobs that drive around with an audio tour. This was quite fascinating and the best way to see a whole city. We have used then in New York, which is interesting because New York is actually very like York with its varied and colorful – albeit shorter – history. I could have spent a lot longer in York, as in a few weeks. But alas this is a taste testing trip, the goal is to see as many things as we can in a very limited amount of time with the intention of coming back to these places one day in the future for the extensive, in-depth viewing.
From there we made our way to the Dales of Yorkshire. Now I need to address a few oddities of our Sat Nav, Elizabeth Wooton-Bassett, as she has been named. Now Elizabeth seems to be quite insistent that we see a few of her favorite sights in tiny little towns. She also seems quite adverse to town bypasses. She seems to take us on the most round about ways that can not possibly be the proper way to our destination. Now this is a bit annoying, but admittedly we have seen some interesting things in our incomprehensible squiggle driving at Elizabeth’s request.
There are a lot of wind power generators that we have passed, they are magnificent. I have always loved them because they are honestly beautiful and also are such a symbol of modern environmental responsibility. I love it.
Driving through the Dales was brilliant. The scenery was some of the best I had seen ever. Glowing green fields divided into rectangular paddocks by stone walls. They criss cross the countryside – which is steep hills on both sides – and it is dotted with white sheep. The stone walls were phenomenal, just imagining how long it would have taken to build so many dry wall fences. And also the sheer amount of stone that it would take. I think it must have been a multi purpose venture, one to fence the sheep and two to clear the fields of half exposed stone to make the land suitable for grazing.
We had an interesting time stopping and attempting to take a timer delay photo of us together on the side of the road. Between the camera going flat, the unstable surfaces to rest the camera on, the wind that kept blowing said camera over and the stinging nettle I sat on, interesting, yes.
The B&B was lovely and we headed across to the next town for a pub dinner where finally I got to drink a pint with some local lads. Finally. Just had a nice chat about cultural differences, accents and such. They were headed to another town to a club and offered for me to tag along, but alas they didn’t have enough room in their car. Would have loved that, but it was not to be.
Sleep will also be good, another big day tomorrow.
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