And so to Lincoln

We are now moored just off the Brayford Pool in Lincoln, having come in to the city about lunch time.  Here is an update with some pictures of our progress.

Last Sunday, after saying goodbye to our visitors, we cycled into Tattershall and visited the castle.  It was built in the 1400s of brick which was an unusual building material for a multi-storey building at the time. They were having a special medieval re-enactment day, hence the tents.

From the top of Tattershall Castle we could see Boston Stump to the east and, as shown in this picture, Lincoln Cathedral to the west.

This photo is taken from Leo moored by Tattershall Bridge at 10 o'clock at night.  Plenty of daylight now!

On Monday we cruised upriver to Woodhall Spa and cycled into the town.  Some passers by a few days ago had recommended a visit to the Petwood Hotel  which was taken over in the 1940s for use as the Officers' Mess of the Dambusters Squadron 617.  This is the Dambusters room at the hotel and has lots of displays including, over the bar, a pine branch which came through the cockpit of a Lancaster on the raid when it clipped some trees.  The hotel is well worth a visit and the lady at reception seemed accustomed to people asking to visit the room.

In the garden of the hotel is an early prototype of the famous bouncing bomb.

The gardens of the hotel are delightful. The rhododendrons were in flower and looked glorious.

Here is a view of the hotel building (dating from the early 1900s) from the garden.

Cruising along the River Witham there are a number of sculptures beside the cycle route that runs along the disused railway alongside the river.  This is the lady sculpted out of wood.

We moored last night at Fiskerton Fen, a nature reserve, where a mooring pontoon has been provided.  Leo is the boat further away in this photo.

We walked through the reserve to a bird hide and stayed for a while watching the bird life.  This reed bunting kept perching in a willow tree and singing.

We have had some heavy showers lately and we were expecting this one to give us a good soaking.  Fortunately we were back on Leo by the time the rain came.

Today (Wednesday 29th) we cruised into Lincoln.  The cathedral is a landmark for miles across the flat landscape.  Here we could see it clearly from 10 km away.  Though the surrounding land is very flat, Lincoln Cathedral and Castle were built at the top of a very steep hill.

Here is another of the waterside sculptures representing ears of barley.  There are also two iron cows.

There is quite a lot of weed in the River Witham at the moment so it was good to see this weedcutter boat trying to clear some of it.

Having passed flocks of adolescent and unpaired swans further downstream as we approached the city we saw a number of swan families.

Coming into the city we came up Stamp End Lock and then followed the narrow channel through the shopping area.  This is the 'Glory Hole' where the channel goes under the High Street and under some old buildings.  This view is from the east.

And this is the west side of the Glory Hole. The bigger cruisers cannot get through here.

Beyond the Glory Hole the water opens out into the Brayford Pool which is also where the River Witham joins the Foss Dyke.  There are plenty of boats moored here.  After seeing very few boats on the move since Boston there is a lot more activity in Lincoln with trip boats and visitors.

Having moored just beyond the Brayford Pool we had lunch and then walked into the city. This is the aptly named 'Steep Street'. We walked up here to the Cathedral and Castle which are right at the top.

And here, to finish this update, is the inside of the Cathedral. The outside is being worked on at present and so is less photogenic.

In the next couple of days we will be continuing north on the Foss Dyke to Torksey where we meet the tidal River Trent.  We've started looking up the tide times and will speak to the lock keeper tomorrow. The plan is to go downstream to West Stockwith to cruise the Chesterfield Canal.