HOLIDAY: Lincoln

Our second (and final) visit to the Doubletree Hilton in Lincoln. On arrival a large tank outside the Holiday Inn next door was being filled(?) which was making an awful racket which we could hear from our first room. We were moved to the other side of the corridor and a floor up, which was much better, but when it came time to go to sleep we realised how noisy the air duct fan into the room was.

I don't see why it was any different to last time, but I certainly don't remember that noise last time... unfortunately it's one of those things where it's not that noticeable until it comes time to go to sleep and you turn the TV off etc and then it seems very disturbing.

Still, Lincoln itself is nice enough and it does have a couple of great things going for it. One is the Electric Bar which adjoins the hotel and offers 'stunning views of the city', but more to the point makes some fantastic cocktails, and the 'Strawberry-Passion' is probably the best non-alcoholic cocktail I've ever had.

The mixologists are hilariously extravagant with their pouring and shakering... but at least they know what they're doing. Which is more than can be said for the staff in the Electric Restaurant. Actually the food in there was very nice, but our drinks didn't turn up for ages and then when we asked about them they brought Rose's wine but not my Coke (but then they didn't charge us for it either). Also we asked for no tomatoes but one of the meals still came with the tomatoes on.

Warm sourdough with butter and sea salt was a great starter, although that on top of a HUGE chicken kiev and fries meant that we couldn't even entertain the idea of a pudding.

Lincoln's other main attraction is undoubtedly Bunty's tearoom, which once again served up a thoroughly delicious bacon sandwich with coleslaw and ready salted crisps. I did make an error of judgement choosing the cookie dough cake which was rather too sickly, I really wish I'd gone for the Battenberg instead. Rose had a 'triple orange' cake which was much lighter and more palatable in quantity (and Bunty's do not skimp on the portion sizes!). 

The castle was somewhat less impressive, and rather reminded me of that dismal Castle in Cardiff. A wall walk doth not a castle maketh, and the desperately dull prison cells did nothing to lift the experience. There was a 'Magna Carta' crypt, which was basically a very dark room with three pieces of paper in glass cabinets. Thrilling stuff, I'm sure you'd agree.

After that and Bunty's, we stopped off at the St Barnabas charity shop, which is the poshest charity shop I've ever been in. Rose found a back up for her favourite polka dot dress (in her size, what were the chances) from Top Shop in there, which seemed too good to pass up for a measly £6.

With some time to kill before check-in we made a pit stop at Prezzo's on the wharf front for a drink. I marvelled at the accuracy of the bottle shelving behind the bar and then we sat in the window watching the drunks fall over (at 3 in the afternoon).

We left the hotel at about 1am, and drove past a solitary drunk woman laughing at herself with no shoes on by the wharf.. and arrived home just before 3am. 

The next day we secured a refund when it emerged that the air duct fan was faulty in our room and it should have shut off when we turned the lights out.