Lincoln, England

 

Lincoln Cathedral (rear)

Lincoln Cathedral

We were looking forward to getting to see Lincoln Cathedral, but we arrived in Lincoln too late for visiting hours. We did enjoy a walk around this immense structure and examined all of the amazing architecture as you can see in the photos. A few cool things that we saw in the area were the ruins of the Roman East Gate to the city, the amazing flying buttresses of the Chapter House and Cathedral, and also the fact that you could walk through a gate of a city wall to go from the Cathedral to Lincoln Castle. Since it was evening and nothing was open for tourists, we decided to find a local pub and have a bite to eat. We were fortunate to find a little pub on the walk between the Cathedral and Castle. Coincidently, on this July 4^th we were half-way across the world at a pub called the Magna Carta!

Roman Gate Ruins

  

After going inside we learned that they had stopped serving food for the day. We decided to order something to drink and we sat outside to enjoy the sights and sounds of the city. While sitting outside we met a very nice couple—one was a chef at the pub and the other was a college student. They were a great source of information about the city and the Cathedral. After our visit with the couple, we’d definitely like to get back to Lincoln during daytime hours! 

Erika on a pedestrian walk in Lincoln

Caerphilly, UK

Caerphilly Castle

The Leaning Tower

After rising for the day and having breakfast we headed north toward Caerphilly. We'd never head of Caerphilly before our stay in Cardiff, but we saw a pamphlet advertising the amazing Caerphilly Castle. This castle is known for two features--it's immense fortification and it's leaning tower. 

Carephilly's fortification

When we arrived and parked we learned just how immense this structure really was. We walked for blocks around the outside of the moat to finally arrive at the main gate and cross the drawbridge. Once inside we experienced the fortification. There were 4 gates that intruders would have to get through in order to reach the safe area in the center. This also included needing to cross 2 moats--the outer one seen in the photo above and an inner moat  shown in a photo below. The other interesting feature of this castle was the leaning tower as seen in the photos. It has been leaning in this way for hundreds of years and it very sturdy so it'll be around for a lot longer. 

We enjoyed our time at Caerphilly Castle as it was an opportunity to explore a castle ruin--it was not restored and active like others we'd been to.

3-wheeled car on the Motorway

As we left Caerphilly to head back to England we passed a 3-wheeled car on the Motorway. We'd never seen one before so Erika snapped a picture.