We arrived at breakfast to find our proprietor, Paul, cooking and serving breakfast assisted by a lovely young lady who hadn’t long been working at Cathedral View.

By the time we had finished our breakfast and checked out it was still only 9.30am, which was too early to visit the Parish Church of St Mary Magdelene or the Saturday market. So, we left Lincoln and travelled the short distance to the outskirts, where the International Bomber Command Centre is located.

As we arrived it started to drizzle with rain so we opted to visit the exhibition. The exhibition is engaging and thought provoking. It acknowledges the efforts of Bomber Command during WWII and also covers the stories of those who suffered as a result of the bombing campaigns.

By the time we had made our way round the exhibition the sun had come out so we were able to take our time walking to the spire memorial and the walls of names of those who died with Bomber Command during WWII. The panels are designed so that memorial poppies can be added next to the names.

We took advantage of the café for lunch before setting off homeward. We called in at Essingham farm shop to pick up something for our evening meal and other essential (food) supplies to see us through the weekend.

Back home we unpacked and caught up on the latest episode of Doctor Who before dining on the patio. It was a little chilly outside so after dining we retreated to the warmth inside.

Vijali Hamilton

Dating back to 1160AD, Lincoln’s High Bridge is the oldest bridge in the United Kingdom to still have buildings on it.

The stone High Bridge was built around 1160, possibly replacing a wooden bridge. The first building to be built on the bridge, that is now part of Lincoln High Street, was a chapel, dedicated to Thomas Becket – a common occurance on Medieval English bridges.

This chapel was removed in the 18th century and an obelisk containing a conduit erected in its place – part of the city’s water system. The obelisk was removed in 1939 (due to concerns with its weight on the bridge) and recreated at St Marks Shopping Centre in 1996.

All that is left from the bridge’s original purposes is a short row of black and white timbered shops, dating back to around 1550.  The shops currently house Stokes High Bridge Cafe and Stokes to Go.

When we called on mum to take her to breakfast it was obvious that she had become more unwell overnight. She could hardly stand up so we helped her to the breakfast room where she enjoyed her breakfast. We were also pleased to find that the other member of our party had recovered overnight.

After breakfast we made the sad decision to take mum home because she had the early symptoms of another UTI infection.

We were disappointed not to be able to take part in the Easter Morning service in Lincoln Cathedral which was meant to be one of the treats for mum’s birthday.

Back home, we dialled 111 who assessed that mum should attend a critical care appointment in the local hospital within two hours and that they had called ahead to tell the hospital to expect her arrival. However, we found that our local hospital insists that everyone should go through the hospital’s own triage nurses. The triage system labelled her as coming in with vertigo and downgraded her to non-urgent despite us telling them that we suspected she had a UTI and the consequences that we know lead from that.

Mum had a few preliminary tests to rule out a few things and then we sat and waited watching many people come and go. Nine hours later, only mum and another lady, who had been admitted for an orthopaedic problem, remained from the original intakes.

Nine hours was too much for a 91-year-old lady so she decided she wanted to go home but first needed a nurse to remove a canula from her arm. The nurse went to check what was going on and advised that mum was next in the queue and gave an approximate time unless it was bumped by ambulance admissions.

The doctor who saw her was amazing. He talked to mum, assessed and listened to her concerns and accepted that she hadn’t come in with vertigo. From the tests he concluded that she had a UTI infection and, due to frailty, admitted her into hospital for what was left of the night.

This was a relief for me because I knew what would come next…

Breakfast, cooked to order was excellent. Unfortunately, two of our party were under the weather for different reasons but despite this we visited Lincoln Cathedral. It was mum’s birthday and a treat for her but her legs were a little wobbly so she only made it part way around the cathedral, having to sit down whilst the rest of us completed the tour of the Cathedral.

We had elevenses in the Cathedral Café which turned out to be rather cold due to drafts. It didn’t help that the staff kept leaving the outside door open when they served customers in the outside eating area. No matter how many times I shut the outside door, it was open again a couple of minutes later…

After our morning refreshments we walked the short distance into town where mum picked up some items from the chemist. The ladies had a mooch around EWM clothes shop where mum found a lovely gilet which she just had to buy, a birthday gift to herself. We then had a wander around the cathedral square and mum managed to walk to the castle grounds where I showed her the dragons!

At lunch time the party split into two, Mr C, mum and I had lunch in a lovely café Grayz that Mr C and I had enjoyed on a previous visit. It didn’t disappoint.

Mum, on her wobbly legs, enjoyed browsing around antique and bric-a-brac stores and craft stalls. She had become tired so we took her back to her room to relax, then we walked down steep hill.

At the bottom of steep hill, we remembered why we prefer the upper part of the town. The upper town is calm in contrast to the busy and boisterous nature of the lower town.

Rather than walk up the steepest part of ‘Steep Hill’ we took a detour through Temple Gardens with its slow winding pathway upwards.

Mum’s birthday dinner was in The Old Bakery, which is operated as a training ground for students from Lincoln College. We had a lovely evening and the food was delicious.

Mr C drove back to Cathedral View guesthouse where all but Mr C and I retired for the evening. The two of us visited the Wig & Mitre for a nightcap. It was a bit boisterous in the bar area but calm & chilled in front of the fireplace where we chose to sit. Just what the doctor ordered.

Miraculously, we left home and picked mum up on time. Twenty five minutes later, after topping up with petrol and returning home to fetch Easter gifts that we had forgotten to pack, we eventually left our locality.

We had a good journey apart from our decision to stop in Newark for lunch. The traffic there was horrendous, adding half an hour to our journey. Eventually, Mr C dropped mum and I off outside a café he had seen whilst he found somewhere to park the car. We entered the café and joined the queue. The three ladies in front of us turned around and left saying ‘he obviously doesn’t want us’. We were now at the head of the queue, the proprietor asked if it was a table for two to which I replied ‘a table for three’. His answer was “NO!”, followed by a pregnant pause before adding ‘only tables for two’. We beat a hasty retreat and went into the café next door.

Mr C was bemused when I phoned him to tell him where we were, he was already looking for us in the first café having found a parking space near to where he had dropped us off. Lunch in the second café was lovely; I opted for a cheese and chive scone. The rest of our journey to Lincoln ran smoothly and we realised that the café on the outskirts of Lincoln that we normally use was nearer than we had thought. It would have saved a lot of hassle all round if we had realised this and gone there.

We checked into Cathedral View guest house and got mum settled in her room before going to find our room which was just what we hoped for. Mr C’s parents had arrived just ahead of us so we had a chat with them before collecting our bags from the car.

We decided not to unpack straight away, heading into the Castle Square and the castle grounds beyond, where we found Dragons!

We bumped into Mr C’s parents who were out exploring, and had a cuppa in a delightful tearoom where there was a sharing of coffee and walnut cake (not me). It was now time to head back to our room, unpack and chill out. This didn’t go quite according to plan… We called in to tell mum what time we were going to pick her up for dinner but, as we tried to enter the outside door, the key broke in two. Luckily, we were able to retrieve the portion that was in the lock. It was then that Mr C realised he had tried to use the wrong key.

Back in our room Mr C rang the B&B owner to confess the breakage and it was agreed that the problem could be sorted out in the morning over breakfast. The key that was broken was the one to our wing of the house and Mr C’s parents had a key to get in there.

We had an aperitif in the Wig & Mitre before dining in Brown’s Pie Shop. The food was delicious and we had banter and laughter with the waiter. Due to the misadventure with our key we had to retire to our room earlier than usual where our nightcap was just a cup of tea.