Cathedral City by Carriage

While visiting my future husband’s family, who is scattered all across England, we came to Lincoln so I could meet his grandparents. We quickly said our hellos and had lunch and then excused ourselves to explore their city. Lincoln is known as a Cathedral City, for obvious reasons. Lincoln Cathedral is a beautiful, and steeped in history. Almost a thousand years old it is an incredible sight to see; visitors can enter the main hall for free, but must pay to go further. After admiring the details and reading the placards placed around the cathedral giving off the rich history of the building of Lincoln Cathedral, the height records of the spires, and many famous royals guests over the centuries, we stepped outside to admire the cathedral from all sides. It was outside that we saw the man offering horse drawn carriage rides around the little historical district of Lincoln. For five pounds a person, roughly $8, we were told we would be given a full hour long tour of all the interesting historical points of the city. We had to do it. The tour guide, a grey haired man in his fifties who had been giving tours for the last twenty years, was friendly and very informative. The pony, named Chester, led us around the Cathedral and then to the West side of the Lincoln Castle. This castle had been built in the 11th century by William the Conqueror. There is only one other castle like this one in England. Over the years it was used as a prison and a court of law. This is where they used to conduct the public hangings. The guide, we never did get his name, told us all about the history of hangings, the last person to be hanged, and the bar opened by the man who conducted the last hanging aptly named ‘The Last Drop.’ Our tour ended after Chester took us up Drury Lane and dropped us off outside the cathedral where we had been picked up. Despite some of the morbid facts we learned on the tour it was obvious that this city really was like a fairytale town.