Lincoln, Lincolnshire

After visiting the Lincoln Christmas market several times on a North East Railtours / SRPS charter,  I always wanted to come back and see the place operating under normal conditions. The opportunity never arose as a lot of my spare weekends were spent in Bristol during the last few years. A band I followed for quite some time (Iona) were doing a limited UK tour and as the brains behind the outfit came from Lincoln, this was an obvious choice for one of the dates.

Lincoln is probably best known visually for the cathedral's distinctive west front. The above view was taken from the castle tower and i waited specifically to get the sun shining on it in such a way that it highlighted the building effectively.

Lincoln Cathedral

As night photography on floodlit buildings used to be my thing years ago, I wasn't going to miss this opportunity considering I was staying overnight. Observers of my pictures may notice that I try to incorporate arches and frames to the subject. The picture didn't break that rule and i tried to add an extra dimension of people enjoying the view.

After this late photo outing, it was time to return to the Eagles guest house which was a modern house and provided a great en suite room for the price. It can be found via their own website and trip advisor (the first time that I was asked to put a review on !...must be desperate).

I went for wander in town and came across this house on a bridge, not quite Florence or Venice, but it was called the Glory Hole.

Nearby was a spiral staircase which provided a bit more if not unusual photographic interest....

....as did the artwork called Empowerment. The hands don't touch, but I was fortunate to get a viewpoint where it looked as if they did. The sun proved more of a problem as the picture is not perfect, but it provides some mystery to the point of the artwork.

Lincoln Castle

... and the shopping arcade was not that exciting but there was plenty of potential for photograph opportunities, I opted for this particular view.

Lastly, the Iona concert was an interesting experience.  A show of hands after the first song demonstrated that most of the audience had not heard the band before and seemed to be pressganged by locals to attend for fear of cancellation perhaps. People near me were surprised at the distance  that I and others had travelled and thought that they were coming to an evening of Scottish music. Frank van Essen's dutch drums rectified that .....as a few had fingers in their ears or left early...... nice quiet place, Lincoln is usually !!