Copyright (C) 2018 by Michael Rickard II

I

Lincoln, a beautiful cathedral city.

I'd arrived in Lincoln a day early to get ready for Bishop Grosseteste University’s Monster Conference, and while I wasn’t scheduled to present until Sunday, I wanted to appear for the opening ceremony and check things out. Foreshadowing Sunday, I’d find there are many ways to Bishop Grosseteste University, not all of them short.

The bottom of a long, long hill.

Lincoln is a cathedral city located in northern United Kingdom. While it initially appeared to be a small town, I later discovered it’s actually bigger. The city’s earliest settlement is believed to date back to the first century B.C. and has seen many changes ranging from Roman occupation, Viking raids, the construction of the world’s largest building (Lincoln Cathedral in 1300), the Industrial Revolution, the construction of the first tanks, and Lincoln’s continued growth in universities and engineering. I would later learn that Lincoln has one of the world’s oldest Bibles as well as one of four surviving copies of the Magna Carta.

Along the way, I also learned Lincoln has the steepest hill in all of the UK, a hill I found myself traversing when I went to Lincoln. My Air BnB host gave me directions to Bishop Grosseteste University, directions I misunderstood. Before long, I was heading down a hill and kept going until I reached the bottom. I was hungry and asked a passerby for directions to the nearest restaurant.

You can never go wrong with an English breakfast

I soon found an out of the way café called Elena’s Kitchen. The place was tiny but homey and they featured a surprisingly big breakfast menu for a small shop. I ordered a full English breakfast, knowing I probably wouldn’t eat for some time. The breakfast was delicious. I asked my waitress how far Bishop Grosseteste was and was informed it was only about a mile walk—not bad for uphill. I immediately called a cab service I’d used before (Hansom Cab) and knew they were economical, but you usually had a bit of a wait. With forty minutes to kill, I ordered a piece of chocolate cake and a tall glass of milk. I chatted with some of the people in the café then waited outside for my ride.

A wonderful discovery in Lincoln

I made it to Bishop Grosseteste University with plenty of time to spare and picked up my registration kit. I chatted up with the owner of a local bookstore who was selling some Mary Shelly books and Gothic novels. I picked up Mary’s mom’s book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and A Vindication of the Rights of Men. From what I knew Mary Shelly was radical for her day, and her mother Mary Wollstonecraft was no different.

The conference got off to a good start and this time I made sure I had good directions to get back to my Air BnB. I wasn’t going to get lost again—or so I thought. While I’d make it back okay this time, my return trip for the day of my presentation wouldn’t go as well.

Works Referenced

“About Lincoln: A Historic City with A Vibrant and Contemporary Edge.” Visit Lincoln. About

Lincoln. 2018. https://www.visitlincoln.com/about-lincoln. Accessed 1 Sept. 2018.

Wikipedia contributors. "Lincoln, England." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The

Free Encyclopedia, 25 Aug. 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln,_England. Accessed 1 Sep. 2018.