A quick weekend in Lincoln, England-The day [part1]
For some unknown reason I always liked to visit the churches to all the places I go. I have never been a religious type of person, despite the quite common and widely extended catholic background here in Spain. Cathedrals always had a special appeal to me, but like I said more under an aesthetic point of view not religious.
Lincoln Cathedral was first build in 1072 by William the conqueror. But It wasn’t as big as it is now, as it was rebuilt after en earthquake in 1185 by a French Bishop. Between the years 1307 and 1311 the central tower was raised to its present height of 83 m (271 feet).
So on Saturday morning I went to visit Lincoln Cathedral. My friend Dave wanted to rehearse new songs for the gig he had that night in The Jolly Brewer.
I always thought some musicians like to be alone when they want some inspiration, at least that would happen to me, so me and Becky decided to go to make some photos of the Cathedral.
I have been in Lincoln few times, and visited the Cathedral surroundings, but never been inside.
You have to walk up the hill through narrow streets. The place is very nice. It is like a trip back in time and I always liked old things.
You can find lots of stone made and old Tudor style houses on the way. Some were made three and four hundred years ago.
The entrance to the Cathedral is pretty impressive. The first thing you see is a huge corridor with very high walls and a big old organ at the bottom.
There were huge arches above us. The windows were beautiful with lots of colours, you could see like little stories or tales painted on them.
Lincoln Cathedral has a very strong gothic Anglican-Protestant style, which makes it slightly different from the ones we have here in Spain. There weren’t virgins anywhere inside to be seen.
The organ is beautiful. It was huge. Dave said he had a chance to play it someday.
I will try to not to miss that if ever happens.
Behind the organ there was like a big room surrounded by wooden seats for the bishops I guess. They probably sat there and discussed their things.
There was an altar with a huge golden eagle. Bit scaring, to be honest.
Bishop Speaker Altar
I gave a small donation for the maintenance of the cathedral. They give you a piece of paper with a prayer and you write down a wish. I wrote a note for the kids suffering wars in the Middle East countries, it was the first thing came to my mind.
‘Drop thy still dews of quietness
Till All our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress
And let our ordered lives confess
The Beauty of thy pace.
J.G.Whittier [1807-92]
That’s what It said on the prayer paper by the way.
I was told parts from the movie The da Vinci Code were filmed in the Cathedral.
There was some patio inside the cathedral, with few tomb stones.
One of the stone gargoyles within the Cathedral is the Lincoln Imp.
There are several variations of the legend surrounding the figure.
According to 14th-century legend, two mischievous creatures called Imps were sent by Satan to do evil work on Earth. After causing mayhem elsewhere in Northern England the two imps headed to Lincoln Cathedral where they smashed tables and chairs and tripped up the Bishop.
An angel appeared in the Angel Choir and ordered them to stop. One of the imps sat atop a stone pillar started throwing rocks at the angel whilst the other imp cowered under the broken tables and chairs. The angel turned the first imp to stone allowing the second imp escape. The imp turned to stone, The Lincoln Imp, can still be found, frozen in stone, sitting atop his stone column in the Angel Choir.
There was a pretty high tower on top, and I thought it would be the best place to get a good shot from the Cathedral.
There was a small bar inside the Castle so we agreed to sit in the terrace and have a cup of tea while watching some guys practicing with arches.
They wanted to do a picture inside the castle I guess. I thought they were lucky with the weather.
Thought was all pretty funny. I have never been in a wedding. Don’t blame me, my friends never got married.
There was a prison inside the castle, so we decided to have a look.
PrisonIt all looked too clean, tidy and well painted to me. Wonder if it was like that back then.
The prison cells had some video holographic recording images explaining the in mates rules and lifestyle.
Apparently they were 22 hours per day inside the cells, but prisoners were allowed to go to the prison chapel once a day. Fun
They covered their heads with masks so, apparently they could not recognize each other. They weren’t allowed to speak either.
Nice.
Prison Chapel
I didn’t see any torture chamber by the way.
About 4 o clock it was finally time to go, we had a gig to catch in the city centre and we didn’t want to miss it .
I had such a great time in the Cathedral and Lincoln Castle.
Thank you Becky!
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