Inter-City Between Lincoln and York ...

 A visit by train to the York Christmas Market

This was one of those trips that took shape as circumstances brought things together and presented an opportunity for a bit of an adventure! In the event it turned out to be more of an adventure than we anticipated - but all the more fun for that.

My wife had meetings in Lincoln on one evening and the morning of the day after the day after that, i.e. with one day in between. We decided to make it into a little break with me accompanying her in a hotel near the meetings and taking a day out together on the day between the meetings. It happened that the York Christmas Market, to which we had never been, was taking place and so I booked train tickets not just to Lincoln and back on the first and last day but from there to York and back on the middle day.

Lincoln

A good Lincolnshire lunch - at Lincoln Cathedral

The adventure began on a Tuesday morning at the beginning of December with a walk down to Stamford railway station from where we took the 09:56 train, on time, to Peterborough. There we changed trains, buying coffee from the Bike Barista on the way, taking the 10:28 East Midlands Railway train from Peterborough to Lincoln. Across to the bus station we just neatly caught a bus up to the cathedral and walked round to the White Hart Hotel, our home for the next two nights. We were too early to check in but were able to leave our luggage with the duty manager and went off to the cathedral café to have lunch which was to be our main meal that day. We can recommend this place: the service is good and the food excellent.

Once checked in to our "cosy" room (i.e. small, but that was fine and was what we booked), it was time for Alison to go off to her first meeting, which would include a light evening meal. I went to the hotel's bar for my own meal. Again, very good.

York

The Wednesday was all ours and was allocated for a day in York. We had Standard Class Off-peak Singles in each direction so we could choose any train after the morning peak and set off down to the station after our hotel breakfast for a local train to Newark Northgate where we would change for York. At Newark we had to cross via the footbridge for the brief wait for our connecting train - the train on which we were booked and had seats reserved for us was running late, though, but as we held open tickets we boarded the one that happened to pull in as we walked onto the platform. There were plenty of seats available in Standard Class and we sat and enjoyed the ride with some coffee from the buffet counter.

In York we walked into the city centre and in spite of the very cold weather enjoyed some time around the shops and the market that we had come to see. There was in particular one Christmas shop that was so popular that there was an organised queue to enter and customers were let in as space allowed. We joined the short queue and spent some time there looking at decorations etc.. We do not need a great deal more in that line - we are mostly selling and giving away things rather than acquiring them - but it is good to have a little update now and again. No, we did not buy this glass nativity - a bit big for us.

In the cold weather there was no shortage of ways to warm up - apart from going into shops, that is - and we called at a stall selling an excellent hot chocolate, alongside their usual mulled wine etc.. One of the excellent things about it was the Bailey's that was used in place of the usual cream ... and the optional cream topping (which we opted for) was at no extra cost. 

We walked back to the station when we were ready and took the next train home and this was where the adventure took an unexpected adventurous turn.  Our next train back to Newark Northgate was expected just a few minutes late, but there had been an incident on the line further south near Stevenage and trains from London were severely disrupted, meaning that there would be no connection to Lincoln until very much later. I consulted the timetables on my iPhone and decided that it would still be best to get the next train south from York but that it would be better to change at Doncaster, the next stop, where an unaffected train would get us back to Lincoln before anything from Newark. It would mean a wait of over an hour at Doncaster, but Doncaster station is in the town centre and we might be able to get dinner there rather than waiting until arriving in Lincoln, meaning that overall we would not be losing any time at all.

Meanwhile we still had a little while to wait until our departure from York, and I noticed that among the listed departures was a charter train on one of the far platforms and I thought it might be interesting to see what it might be. Either the coaches or the locomotive might just be worth seeing ... and it was. We had time to see GWR Castle Class steam locomotive 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe depart with The Christmas White Rose charter train before we returned to the southbound main platform for our LNER Azuma to Doncaster. 

Doncaster

The 16:34 train we were to catch was the one on which we had reserved seats, but because of the disruption passengers expecting to board another train would also be travelling on ours, so we made sure we were ready to board and take our seats - after a day on our feet we did not want to have to stand, and I did have my walking stick with me  which always helps in these circumstances. People recognise a walking stick but not everyone is familiar with the sunflower lanyard. Talking to other passengers on the way to Doncaster revealed that Doncaster would be a good place to change trains with an hour to spare because in the Frenchgate Shopping Centre adjacent to the railway station there was a pub that did meals, ideal for eating (and keeping warm) while awaiting our connecting train to Lincoln. (There is also a pub on the platform, where I have had a pint once before, but it does not offer food, unfortunately.) I'm afraid I cannot recommend the food at the pub in the Frenchgate Centre, although the beer was good, but it did fulfil the need at the time.

Lincoln

We returned to Doncaster station and found our train, the 18:47 to Peterborough via Lincoln. I had hoped to ride this route some time but not in these circumstances, particularly not in the dark which meant that we could have been on almost any route in the country and it would have looked much the same! We crossed the River Trent and called at Gainsborough Lea Road then headed south to Lincoln, stopping just once more at Saxilby. The train was a warm and comfortable East Midlands Railway local unit, the sort we are now seeing all over Lincolnshire and a huge improvement over the aged single-car units we used to have. At Lincoln we took the next bus up the hill and walked back to our hotel. The walk along Bailgate was a great end to the day's adventures with the Christmas decorations and general Advent busyness. This city has a great feel to it these days.

Well, we thought that was an end to the day's adventures, but more was to come in the middle of the night ...

Our room at the White Hart was great. The shower en-suite was good, too, but it let us down when the door jammed with my wife inside at some time in the early hours of the morning. Fortunately I was woken by her attempts to open the door, which was not locked but refused to respond to the turning of the door handle. After a trip to reception in my nightwear and two visits by the night porter the door finally opened as it should have done without any really effective input from either me or him - just as he was at the point of thinking he'd have to resort to breaking the door down. We did not close it fully after that! So there was a bit of a sleep shortage that night and we were duly compensated most satisfactorily when we checked out after breakfast the next day.

After the business meeting on the Thursday morning which was the initial reason for staying in Lincoln, we made our way down the hill with our luggage to the railway station and had our lunch at the Costa Coffee café at the station while we awaited our train, the 13:24 LNER departure for London which took us to Peterborough. We had initially thought we might leave later than this, so we did not have seats reserved on this departure, but there is never any difficulty finding seats at this time on trains from Lincoln. At Peterborough as usual we changed trains for Stamford and home. Another great trip. We could have done without the disruption on the railway but for us on this occasion it was OK: we coped well and still enjoyed the trip; for others with business to do or families to get home to it could have been dreadful. We could certainly have done without the disobedient shower room door ... but it gives us something to talk about! We shall not be put off using the same hotel on future trips.