We woke up to a cool sunny morning which was a big relief after the heat yesterday. We got ourselves organised and drove north along the Roman road the Fosse Way to Lincoln. 

We stopped off for coffee at a farm shop on the way and bought some local Scotch eggs and English pork pie for future cold dinners – all health food of course!

We parked beside Lincoln Castle and walked through checking out some dragons ready for the kids summer holidays.

The castle has had many iterations after it was initially built by William the Conqueror – on top of the Roman fortress – some bits look older than others.

Lincoln has a long history from Iron Age to Romans , then Vikings, William the Conqueror and then suffering lots of civil war battles.

When the Romans built their fort on top of the hill it was called Lindum. There was also a village down the bottom called Colonia where soldiers retired to which was probably a Romano-British settlement.

We then checked out the enormous cathedral. It used to be the tallest building in the world in the 1500s until it lost a spire in a storm.

We went inside for a quick look but didn’t want to do a full tour.

We found a dedication to Joseph Banks the botanist who travelled with Captain Cook to Australia and started Kew Gardens.  He was born in this area. He didn’t want a funeral or marked grave so this is the only memorial to him in the UK. It was set up by the British Australian Society of Lincolnshire. 

The outside of the cathedral is very impressive too with all the carvings. 

We checked out a nearby 12th century bishops palace.

We then went down the street called the Steep Hill – and it is not called that for nothing – it is precipitous!

Luckily we were going down but lots of people were puffing their way up in the now 30 degree heat. It is a very long and very steep hill!

We popped into a few interesting shops. The buildings were still very medieval. 

We then got down to the city centre which was a bit more modern. It is right on the river.

We went into our first Marks and Spencer – a bit underwhelming actually.

We did find the High Bridge there, the old building over the river. 

We then walked down the river to see the start of the Fosse Dyke – the 18km canal dug out by the Romans in the year 120 to meet the river Trent. 

A new large port with warehouses was built here in 1672 which is now full of restaurants. 

We were really hot now so we went into Wetherspoons for a cool down and lunch. It was well air conditioned and we enjoyed the drinks very much – they were super cold! I went for a cool halloumi salad – but I think the salad may have been microwaved with the zucchini and capsicum. 

We now were cool enough and had renewed energy to get back up the hill to the carpark. It was at least a shorter hill directly there, via the very steep Motherby Hill. 

This is the view from the top.

After collecting Gus we then drove the short distance to small CL campsite South Cliff Farm.

It’s in the middle of fields so it’s very quiet. The wind really cooled things down. 

We watched 2 Wimbledon semi finals – Zverev beating the British Fery and Sinner beating Djokovic. 

We went for a walk after dinner and found we were right next to the deserted Lincoln Showground.

There was a huge population of hares and rabbits that were not particularly scared.

The area was set up for a running event the next day so it felt very weird. 

We went to bed in much cooler conditions so we slept solidly until the birds cacophony at dawn.