Walking to Lincoln - 16th March ‘20

A gorgeous sunny day today - starting soon after 10am and only going down at sunset.

We had a lovely morning. Breakfast, putting up Bella and then sitting in the sun reading and watching  the ducks!

Bella was a great success this time. Normally it takes me a couple of hours from start to finish - today was about an hour. The main reasons being 1) it wasn’t freezing cold, 2) there wasn’t a 70 mph wind gusting, 3) the hard standing was pebbles on top of soil not the normal hard standing. And, I even managed the record time on my own - Kim was cleaning the van ready for Thom and Rach.

After the chores were done we had a smashing hour reading (and snacking!) in the sunshine at the side of the lake. In the mad world of record rainfall, floods, storms and Coronavirus it was like a little oasis of paradise.

We took the car to somewhere called 5 Mile Bridge - about 1 mile down the road at Fiskerton - on the River Witham. From here there was a lovely 5 mile walk (hence the name of the bridge!) into Lincoln along an old railway track.

The scenery was a bit boring - very flat - but the council had put things up along the track to inform and interest! It was also nice to see the huge imposing Lincoln Cathedral getting closer and closer as we approached the City.

See the Cathedral at 10 o’clock from Kim’s head!

We left the car at about 3.15 and arrived at Lincoln City Centre approaching 6pm - as everything was shutting!! We had a couple of stops for intake of food and snacks along the way with the last one being g particularly glamorous- under a railway bridge in an industrial estate!

After arriving in the centre we then walked another 1.5 miles to Morrisons - to make it easier for Thom to find us! We had some chips and coffee before the restaurant shut at 7. Thom and Rach arrived and picked us up at about 7.40.

We went back to Brunnehilda, picking up our car on the way. Talked Thom and Rach through caravan stuff and then left them to it. We are going back on Thursday morning to pick up Brunnehilda.

The journey home was slightly depressing hearing about all the new Coronavirus measures - our Spanish trip is now cancelled and it looks like Brunnehilda will be grounded for a few weeks / months!!

Seven Acre Campsite, Fiskerton:
Pros:
1) Nice position by the lake - good view
2) Great facilities - for such a small site
3) Easy hard standing surface for Bella erection
4) Very laid back and pleasant owners
5) Friendly caravan neighbours
Cons:
1) No walks from the site
2) Busy road - and quite noisy
3) Expensive for a small CL site

A Lincoln Afternoon - 14th March ‘20

The weather man predicted rain first thing and then dry after 11 - he was right. We spent a leisurely morning on site leaving just after noon with a belly full of cheese and mushroom omelette (well I did anyway!)

After struggling around Lincoln’s one way system, we found our way to the car park we always used to use when visiting Thom (oldest son) at Uni. It was down by Brayford Harbour giving us easy access to the city centre by walking along by the canal.

We walked around for a bit before tackling the infamous Steep Hill up to the Cathedral / Castle. To build up our energy levels we shared a new veggie Rebel Burger at a Burger King - very good!

We wandered around both ancient monuments. It was nice to see everything again after 12 years. We were regular visitors when Thom was up here but hadn’t been back since his graduation in 2008 (?). Most things hadn’t changed - surprise surprise, we seemed to remember a lot of the eating and drinking establishments!  That said, after we had walked ourselves silly we ended up at an old favourite - Wagamama! Ironically it wasn’t there when Thom was?!

Interesting historical fact ... Lincoln Castle houses one of only 4 remaining copies of the Magna Carta - where are the other 3 (bragging rights for naming 2 of the 3).

Back to Brunnehilda via Boots to try and buy a thermometer. But along with pasta, paracetamol and toilet rolls that seems to be something that is in short supply in the post apocalyptic world we now inhabit. BTW, the thermometer was not for us but we thought it would be good to have one handy for all the family - although I don’t know who would want to use after it had been shoved up my bum?!

We settled down to watch a DVD we bought last night - Book Club. Not one that is going to get in my top 10 films watched this year - or even this month and it’s only the 14th! Kim’s legendary one word film review was “girly”. We agreed that the soundtrack was darn good though.

Canasta night tonight ... bloody close game but I’m pleased to say the right result was recorded in the end.

Interesting Fact Answer: Salisbury Cathedral, The British Library & Temple Church.

Trip to Lincoln - 13th March ‘20

Today was our first post-Coronavirus trip.

The amazing announcements from around the world yesterday has made our trip this weekend a little  surreal! It’s looking like our trip to Spain in 2 weeks may well be off so we need to make the most of our long weekend in Lincoln.

And, as if to confirm the old adage that every cloud has a silver lining ... we may be looking at a catastrophic pandemic but at least it meant that our Lincoln site had had 2 last minute cancellations (folks self isolating apparently?) and left us the only campers - result!

We didn’t leave Whilton until 3pm. Kim had worked in the morning and I had walked the dogs with Laura and tried on Brunnehilda’s new jacket ...

She looked very smart (Brunnehilda not Laura) and this will hopefully stop the worst of the mud and grime when travelling. I also changed Brunnehilda’s number plate - we got a new car earlier in the week - to make her legal.

The journey was good apart from the last 10 miles. There was a huge queue crawling around the road worked Lincoln by pass and then we drove right by the site! This necessitated an additional 10 mile round trip to find somewhere to turn around!

Then more trauma when we got back to the site. There was a security gate stopping us getting in. This meant Brunnehilda was left blocking the road while we waited a good 5 mins before we could raise the owners and open the gate. The Tesco delivery driver, who couldn’t get by, was not a happy chap - unless he was using his horn to wish us all the best?

The owners are very nice and totally relaxed. The facilities, for a small 5 van site, seem excellent. We had the pick of where to pitch so I motor moved her front-in to allow a view of the pond (and the ducks) from Brunnehilda’s kitchen.

By the time we got set up it was pitch black! We headed off to a Tesco Extra in Lincoln to stock up. We are both very tired so, after an episode of The Waltons while eating our Tesco ready meal, we were both ready for bed - #rockandrolllifestyle

I drifted off thinking what a very splendid place Brunnehilda would be to self isolate for a couple of weeks. Also ... FYI.. 4G is rubbish here!