In Lincoln

August 11, 2024

Rachael’s walk

Rachael and I are really looking forward to our excursions today. We’ve been in challenging terrain almost since the day we arrived in Plymouth eleven weeks ago, and suddenly we’re looking at fairly flat surroundings all the way from here to our apartment.

Our room has something like a kitchenette - a fridge and a hotplate anyway, enough for us to eat in and enjoy scrambled egg breakfasts for the next two mornings. We get an early start of it because it’s supposed to be warm today, and by around nine Rachael’s out the door on the walk she’s come up for herself - a loop east along the river Witham that’s practically an out and back, walking on the Viking Way for much of it.

When she’s back twelve miles later she’s hot and tired and makes a beeline to where she can get an ice cream bar and a cold drink. The hike was fine but there was no jaw-dropping dramatic scenery like she’s seen on an almost daily basis for two months. For all the environmental challenges we faced in Yorkshire, Wales and Dartmoor, there’s no denying how spectacular it’s all been.

A beautiful house on the way out of town. There were several other houses like this.

On the Viking Way. They thanked her for taking their picture as they biked past.

Here’s the part of the day Rachael spoke most enthusiastically about: blackberries!

And here was her biggest complaint: nettles!

A swan! How can anyone be disappointed by a hike that’s got a swan sighting in it?

A river barge. This photo might be why I woke up the next morning with a dream that we caught a barge to Horncastle.

Finally, a larger body of water with a lot more birds. Rachael always seems to attract more wildlife than I do.

Heading away from the river to a small village.

The Five Mile Bridge crossing the River Witham.

The River Witham from the Five Mile Bridge.

Oh, good grief. I’m going to need to start dragging Rachael along on my birding outings.

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Not long after Rachael departed I left the hotel for my own ride, picking up my unlocked bike from the alley downstairs where it and Rachael’s spent the night safely inside the locked entrance gate. You’ll recall that we’ve made the bright choice of lodging ourselves partway up Steep Hill Road, which was a pusher getting up here yesterday. It’s the same getting down the first, steepest block because the sidewalks are wide and smooth enough to carefully bike slowly down if they weren’t peppered with walkers you’d have to weave around. And the street isn’t really safe to ride on a 20% descent either on our bikes because it along with most of the other older streets on Castle Hill looks like this:

Theoretically bikeable safely enough, but it’s just as easy to walk the first block until the grade backs off.

There’s only a block of this though until I descend to much more reasonable Michaelgate and angle off, hop on the bike, and carefully start coasting down the cobblestones. And actually that’s not quite accurate. I don’t really hop on the bike anymore, like I’d have done just a few years ago. Most of the time now I carefully ease myself on by stepping through the low-cut frame, bracing myself while astride the bike, and lifting myself up onto the saddle. That’s another behavioral change the bad left knee has brought me to. I’m just not quite stable enough standing on it to comfortably lift my back leg over the frame and myself onto the saddle like I’ve always done. It works well enough this way, but it’s an annoyance when I’m in a situation where I have to dismount and remount frequently, like within cities.

But enough whining about poor me. I’m just grateful for all that does still work well and I’m looking forward to today’s ride, a loop to the southwest to some wetlands that have the promise of some birding.

Things don’t go as planned though. I coast downhill for the next block until the road flattens out and then I start pedaling. I stop immediately though, because the chain’s thrown off the chainrings again. So strange. That’s three times since we left the train yesterday. I reseat it, wipe the grease off my hands on a shrub as best as I can, and start pedaling again. About two rotations of the cranks later though it’s been thrown off again. Damn.

So I lean down for a closer look and see that the derailleur looks unnaturally bent in toward the spokes. It reminds me of the way it looked two years ago when I broke it on the way to Uzes. Thinking back, it must be something that happened on the train - maybe on the first one when that guy strapped his bike to ours, or in the mad crush on the second one. Trains!

I feel sick to my stomach, and start wondering how soon I’ll be able to get it repaired or replaced. I check the map to see if there’s a bike repair shop anywhere nearby, and there is - amazingly enough the best reviewed bike shop in the city, F&J Cycles, is only two blocks from here. Unfortunately it’s Sunday though and they’re closed until tomorrow morning, so there’s nothing to be done now but push back up the hill and wait for Rachael to return so we can consider our options. In the meantime, I mostly just mope around feeling sorry for myself until she returns.

So she comes back, I share the unpleasant news, and after that sinks in we agree that it’s nothing that can’t wait until we walk up to the top of the hill to Gino’s for lunch. It will give us something to discuss while we wait for our mains to arrive.

I love the brick and stonework on this building up near the top of Steep Hill. It’s not unlike many of the older structures up on the hill, reflecting the evolution and modifications over Lincoln’s deep history - it’s one of the U.K.’s oldest cities.

So, about our situation. If something like this had to happen, we’re very fortunate in where we’re located. We’re in a significant city, we’re on a train line, we’re within walking distance to a bike shop. Unfortunately our next stay Horncastle that we’re due at tomorrow is not on a train line; and our three night booking there is uncancellable. It’s especially unfortunate timing, because ironically we could have canceled as late as midnight last night. It’s a shame I didn’t realize that I had a problem yesterday when we could have bought ourselves some flexibility.

There are too many unknowns to do anything more than talk over contingencies. Best case, the bike store will look at my bike in the morning, how the time and the parts in stock to get me rolling again. Even that unlikely best case has a downside though, because we aren’t likely to be on the road before afternoon; and tomorrow looks like the hottest day of the summer with a high near 90. We had been hoping to get an early start and arrive in Horncastle by about noon, but that’s out now.

Worst case? It takes us several days to get the bike repaired. We hang around Lincoln in the meantime, probably at Premier Inn because we aren’t excited about the place we’re staying because there’s no AC, and we write off the cost of all or part of the booking in Horncastle. There’s no way of knowing our fate until the morning though, so we enjoy our meal and try to focus on what’s good in the world.

Afterwards, Rachael walks down Steep Hill one last time while I stay up on top to poke around some more. I’d have done this earlier in the day but I thought I’d enjoy it more at the end of the day when the crowds have dissipated and the sun is lower in the sky. It was right thinking, nd I enjoy a very pleasant second look.

I have a thoroughly enjoyable stroll through the Cathedral quarter and am surprised to find how much I like this city. I hope we won’t to have to stay over another day or two of course, but if it comes to that it won’t be hard to fill the time. It feels like we’ve just scratched the surface.

The view back along Bailgate (renamed at the end of Steep Street) through the Newport Arch.

On Bight Street, circling around the north side of the cathedral.

Still on Bight Street, following this unbroken stone wall on the right. I wonder what its history is. It’s been too much in the shadows for any sort of a shot, but here at least it’s illuminated a bit by light bouncing off the windows opposite,

There are so many old stone gates surrounding the hill! This one’s the Priory Arch, a XIX century reconstruction of the original using most of the original stones.

The Chorister’s House and Chancery, Minstergate.

XIII century Pottergate Arch, once the main entryway to the cathedral district.

At the end of my loop I wrap around the back side of the cathedral, appreciating its much different but still majestic look. This side hasn’t been restored yet and still wears the patina it’s acquired over the ages.

Actually, I hope they leave this part unrestored for a while yet.

The central tower stands today at 271 feet (83 meters). In the past though it was surmounted by a spire that soared to 525 feet, making it the tallest building in the world - higher than the Great Pyramid of Giza, which held the record for 4,000 years.

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Rich FrasierUgh. Mechanical issues! Assuming it got bent on the train, can you try to inspect it to see whether you can bend it back closer to where it belongs? Wish I was there to lend a hand!
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3 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Rich FrasierWish you were too! You’re so close, why not pop on over?
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3 months ago

Graham FinchI wonder how you got on at F&J Cycles... I've had mixed experiences there.
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3 months ago

Suzanne GibsonOh boy, I hope they could fix it. One cliff-hanger after another!
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3 months ago