Saturday 29th April, W9, D2

Curate's Egg day today, to be sure: definitely good in parts, but leaving a bad taste at the end. Starting with The Good. 

I Googled things to experience in Boston Lincs, avoiding all the great offers from Boston MA. I needed a breakfast and loo stop, and driving towards the city, I dropped into a Premier Inn, which I've found to be ideal in previous trips, and had coffee and croissant. An obvious landmark is St Botolph's Church, known locally, and affectionately, as The Lump, not least because it's visible on the horizon from practically every part of the strikingly flat Lincolnshire countryside. 

However, I also wanted at least a smidgeon of exercise and open air, so  I headed for the twitchers' paradise of Freiston Shore, where I had a gentle stroll down a long (flat) lane to a bird hide by a huge lagoon. I'd remembered to take my binoculars, so for a time I sat alone by the opened window and enjoyed watching waterfowl swimming, dipping, and flying. I know some were geese (as advertised) but as I've noted before in these posts I'm no ornithologist, so beyond that I can't go. A very relaxing interlude.

The next stop was the unexpected highlight of my day, at the WWII museum. The exhibits of home life during the war were very well curated, complete with Dame Vera Lynn background music.  But the piece de resistance was 30 minutes in a VR simulator 'flying' a Lancaster bomber over Boston, then up the coast to the Humber estuary, circling the Humber Bridge at 1000 feet, and landing the plane at an airstrip. A fabulously immersive experience. Highlight to be sure.

So finally it was time to see The Lump, the jewel in the ecclesiastical crown of Boston. St Bottolph gave the city its name (Bottolphstown becoming Boston) in the the 9th century, and his Saxon church extended over the next 1000 years (apart from the depradations of Henry VIII and Cromwell) to the magnificent building it is today. Its dimensions would rival most great cathedrals, and despite a tendency to sink into the soft Lincolnshire soil, the structure is pretty intact. There are some interesting historical snippets, like the Rev John Cotton, who as a Puritan whose beliefs were not in favour with the establishment, followed in the footsteps (or wake) of the Mayflower and helped found a  new Boston in New England. There are plenty interesting carvings, like the humorously carved misericordias in the Choir, and of course a Green Man hiding amongst the stonework. 

(And of course I lit my usual pair of candles for my absent ladies)

But after the Good, sadly i must relate the Bad/Ugly. At a roundabout on the A17 I misjudged the lane change and had a scrape with a Ford Fiesta, in which he lost his offside wing mirror and I have a shallow scuff on my nearside door. We stopped and exchanged details, as you do, and we'll await decisions about claims etc. Next week. A sour end to my Great Escape after nearly 3000 eventless miles. Sufficient unto the day...

But now I'm relaxing with Frankie and Dean after a delicious home-cooked curry with the grandkids, and tomorrow I'll be off with Frankie to support Louis at his away football game somewhere in Essex.

So all's well that ends well.

Night Night.