Lincoln Green

We have fallen in love again. This time with the city of Lincoln.

G is on her way to uni there in a few weeks time, so we thought we'd pop up and do a reccy of the place. First stop was McDonalds. It's ages since I had allowed myself to have a cheeseburger. I was always munching them in the 70s, and they still taste the same.

Quick look at her halls, which seem to be only a year or two old, very clean and un-grafttied - big tick. The campus is only five minutes stroll away, as are a heap of shops including a couple of supermarkets. We then parked in the City Hall car park and walked down to the marina, or Brayford Pool. It's a huge area of water and was probably at one time very busy with commercial watercraft full of wares.

On the eastern side are restaurants, bars, hotels and and large Odeon multiplex, and opposite is the campus. I had such difficulty choosing which photo to blip today - it was almost the modernist white concrete Architecture Faculty building, with it's sleek lines, or the old warehouse converted into University library on the edge of a canal. There were many more candidates too.

We looked at LPAC, the campus theatre which I am sure G will spend much of time in. I see Stephen Berkoff will be on there soon, so at roughly £5 a ticket to see what is basically a West End show, catching two a week should be doable!

From there, we walked along the canal path to the High Bridge, which like Pultney Bridge in Bath, actually has a building on it - looked perhaps 16th Century to me. From there, a climb up the hill past all the wonderful shops G will frequent and spend spend spend! Up to the street with the apt name of 'Steep Hill'.

I know it's Lincolnshire and not Yorkshire, but they still call a spade a spade. The hill is steep. Very steep. There is even a bookshop halfway up called Reader's Rest, so you can pop in, catch your breath and buy a book. That's where this blip is taken from.

At the top, you get your reward. Not just a hilltop, but to the left a castle! And not just a castle, but to the right a blooming great Cathedral, in my eyes, equal to Canterbury, Winchester and Salisbury, with three huge towers, a very fine and loud organ and a mesmeric atmosphere.

In three years time, all being well, it will be in this cathedral that G will pick up her degree. They were readying it for a ceremony later in the week.

Everyone we spoke to was so friendly - such a change from London and Essex. I think we want to move there already! Although it was roughly a 400 mile round journey (another one, having just done the same distance to Birmingham on Friday!), it was so worth the while.

Of course, I've got to do it all again in a few weeks time. Hopefully we can come back in December for the Christmas Market they hold at the top of the hill based on the German-type festive fair - it may even be snowing?