When is a hotel not a hotel?

When it is the Bishops Palace.  As the end of the week was nearing, I decided that hubby could do with a change of scenery.  He has been lolling about on the bed, or the sofa for 3 weeks now, and he still doesn't have much strength to do much else, but I thought a different bed might perk him up a bit! And so I found what looked to be an ideal place for a Friday night away - in nearby Lincoln.  

I finished work and we hot footed it down the A1 and A57 and in just less than an hour we arrived at our destination.  I was a little alarmed when the receptionist said that we were not in the main building, but had a room in the" new" bit.  I envisaged some modern block around the corner, but.....

 .. turns out that they had converted a church in the grounds to bedrooms about 2 months ago.  Wow!!

 As we walked to our room, I couldn't help notice our next door neighbour.  Lincoln Cathedral.  Very impressive.

 Our room was sumptuous and just right for a load of lolling about!  The little round window opened to reveal...

 .... a fabulous view over the city.

 We ventured out around the corner to eat.

We ate in the White Hart.  And whilst our food was very tasty and exceptionally high quality, we both thought that the portions were a bit small.

 If you watched the episode of Downton Abbey where Bates was released from prison, you might recognise the next 2 photos, as this is where they filmed it.  They used the castle in Lincoln as the prison.

 And here is the view of the market square from the castle - you can just see the Cathedral disappearing into the mist.

 We didn't stay out after our meal, we went straight back to our room - which was in the old church of St Michael on the Mount.  We did have to walk through the old graveyard to get to it - and it was getting very eerie!

 I thought I would show you what it looked like the next morning. It is a pretty awesome place to stay and I would highly recommend it.

 The hotel is lovely - it is a bit tricky to find as it doesn't even have a sign on it.  It has wonderful gardens and views right over the city as it sits at the top of "Steep Hill" (bit of a clue there!!).

I'll show you more of Lincoln later.