Things to Do in Lincoln

About Lincoln

The smell hits first, yeast and hops drifting from the Steep Hill breweries where they've been making beer since 1185, mixing with limestone dust that settles over everything in Lincoln. The cathedral rises above like a stone ship, three towers visible from twenty miles across the flat Fens, built from honey-colored rock that gives the entire city its warm glow. Down medieval lanes of the Bailgate, where original Roman walls peek through 12th-century foundations, you'll find coffee roasted by a former punk drummer who refuses milk, and a bookshop in a Tudor house so crooked the floors slope at angles that make sober people stumble. The contrast is addictive, the same street where knights jousted now hosts vintage markets where teenagers sell Doc Martens next to farmers hawking Lincolnshire sausages. The Usher Gallery shows contemporary art in a building that used to be a Georgian townhouse, while uphill, the medieval Jews House serves tapas in rooms where 13th-century merchants counted coins. Summer means the Lincolnshire sausage festival takes over Castle Square, with locally-made pork and sage rolls selling for £3.50 ($4.50) from stalls that have been there since the 1400s. The trade-off? Those cobblestones are ankle-breakers when wet, and parking in the historic quarter costs £12 ($15.50) for three hours, park at the West Common instead for free and walk the Roman road in. But standing on the castle walls at sunset, with the entire city laid out below like a medieval map and cathedral bells marking the hour exactly as they have for 900 years, you'll understand why this is where England forgot to modernize, and became more interesting because of it.