Arrived in Lincoln

We arrived in Lincoln in time to check into the Castle Hotel and walk around the upper part of the city - where the cathedral and the castle are located. It is also the part of the city where the Roman forum was located. In fact, part of the north wall of the forum is just behind our hotel. A cautionary note - I picked the hotel because of the location, including the beautiful views. I requested a "standard" double, without thinking that perhaps I should check about the view. So, we are up 4 flights of stairs (again, no lift, but Himself is very sweet about carrying my superheavysuitcase up and down the stairs), which is okay, BUT there is no view, unless you count looking through 2 skylights up at the clouds a view. Which I don't. In the future, I won't go cheap and save $15 (yes $15 not even L15) - I'll pay a bit more and get some view at least! The hotel is is a great location - I love this old part of the city - and it is so close to the cathedral and the castle. Some people I know could probably throw baseballs and hit them both!!
We walked down The Steep Hill (actually the name of a street) to the museum (called The Collection here), which was a little disappointing for my friend, but the shop was really nice! However, I didn't buy anything at the time because I thought I'd be coming back in the morning. Then we meandered back up The Steep Hill and discovered a cute little restaurant called Brown's, that actually had several reasonable-looking vegetarian items on the menu. After a preliminary look at Lincoln Cathedral - absolutely breathtaking - we repaired to our hotel for a cuppa (tea for me, coffee for my friend), and eventually ventured out again in the dusk to Brown's for supper. My choice for supper was a chicken and leek pie with a puff pastry crust - the crust was more than 3 inches high and melted away to almost nothing at all (yes, I know, that's because it was entirely butter with a little flour). It was delicious. Regretably and probably predictably, my friend's choice, a vegetable Wellington (assorted vegetables pureed with chestnuts and baked in a lattice-work of dough) was less than distinctive. Of course, what did I expect? The side dish of fresh vegetables (a mildly vinegered red cabbage, steamed parsnips, and carrots) was delicious, as were the roasted potatoes served with the main course. At least MINE were delicious. My friend's were less delicious, although they looked just like mine. I didn't taste the ones on my friend's plate.