Lincoln - Wakefield England

Lincoln

After the YHA London and Eastbourne bunk beds, our bed at the Lincoln Holiday Inn was sheer luxury.  A great room overlooking the car-park and not the river, but we weren’t complaining.  A sunny afternoon, so we headed off to explore this beautiful and historic town.

Lincoln Cathedral

The next morning it was further exploring of the little shops that lead to the magnificent 13^th century Lincoln Cathedral and back into the shopping mall area where a jazz/blues band was belting out toe tapping tunes to an appreciative audience.  In the evening we had a great dinner in an Italian restaurant.

Jazz Band in Lincoln's main street

Old town - Lincoln

The next morning after a hearty English breakfast, it was back on the road to Yorkshire.

Wakefield

We arrived in Wakefield around 4.00 pm with only one wrong turn.  Making a wrong turn on the English motorways can be death by a thousand cuts and send you heading toward Bulgaria.  However, Marilyn’s map reading skills again saved the day.

Wakefield, like many Yorkshire towns, has a mining and milling history, but is now an attractive service town.

Our host for our five day stay was Tom Reynolds, who I taught with at a university in China.  Tom, as always, was a great host and cooked us some wonderful English meals including roast beef and fish pie - decilious.  We also caught up with Georgie, one of the students from our Nanchang University, who is now working for Deloitte in Leeds.

During our stay in Wakefield, Tom took us to the Hepworth Gallery, which had opened a couple of weeks before our arrival.  This magnificent gallery highlights the work of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, both local artists/sculptors of international renown.  We also visited the Yorkshire sculpture park.  This is a magnificent property of informal gardens and sheep pasture, about 20 minutes outside of Wakefield.

Sculpture Park

Sheep grazing in the Sculpture Park

Phil and Thomas

Of particular note was our visit to Haworth, the Bronte sisters village.  After a pleasant afternoon exploring this historic area, we received a very nasty surprise, our car had been clamped, a common occurrence in the UK.  Not a nice experience, nearly led to a diplomatic incident and murder in our minds, and 90 pounds to have our car released.  However, a story for another day.

We also caught up with Toms son, John and his wife, Sally together with his daughter, Claire, her husband Andrew and their daughter, Hetty.  Here we had a great dinner at their 300 year old converted mill house, just outside of Leeds.

Sadly we bid farewell to Tom and Georgie, his hospitality and cooking.  It was on the road again and the long drive south to Harwich and the ferry to Denmark.