Lincoln trip and Eating out with food intolerances @ Thailand No1

I know it's only the beginning of March.... (but I know how some folks like to plan ahead)  so today I thought I would tell you about a trip that daughter number two, Gem and I took  at the beginning of December last year. We went to Lincoln (England) for a girls weekend break and to have a mooch around the Christmas markets! I know you probably don't want to think about Christmas right now and I promise it's not going to be all about that....  this post also includes an "eating out with food intolerance" restaurant review that we ate out at as well!  You never know, Lincoln may be somewhere that you want to put on your bucket list of  places to visit in the future.... or the market may be on your list of things to do?

 It was our first time ever staying with AirBnB, and I must say that I was impressed with the variety of places they have for view on their website. We ended up choosing a converted chapel in the small village of Wellingore about 15 minutes outside of Lincoln city. It was lovely and quiet and somewhere to escape to at the end of our busy days. It was filled with lots of original art work (made by the owners) and was light, spacious and everything a converted chapel should be! 

 One of our mornings (to escape some of the crowds and ease ourselves in to the throng of people) we decided to have a leisurely wander around the Museum of Lincolnshire life.
(Its collection reflect and celebrates the rich and varied social history and culture of Lincolnshire and its people dating from 1750 to the present day. There are a number of exhibits illustrating commercial, domestic, agricultural, industrial and community life). Daughter number 2 loves learning about history and enjoys retro stuff...so it was a good call!

We then braved the crowds to look around the busy stalls. Not my most favourite bit as I dislike battling against throngs of people, but it was fun to soak in the atmosphere as we walked around. (As an aside... Friday was  much quieter than Saturday).
The central part of the Christmas Market is in the medieval square (between the Norman castle and lovely Gothic cathedral) and there were over 250 stalls nestled in the square and surrounding areas.

At the end of looking around the variety of stalls, we strolled along the cobbles in the cultural quarter of the city and looked in all the quirky shops and boutiques and stumbled upon a little church where a small choir was singing and a wreath competition from all the local shops was exhibited... we were enticed inside by the sound of music and the thought of a sit down!
This was my favourite wreath from the ice cream parlour below...Its rather novel and I thought I might make one of these next year!?

 We were glad that we had decided to wait until later to look around the markets, as it got dark by about 3 o'clock and so all the Christmas tree lights from the stalls were on and the cathedral was lit up making everything seem more festive and inviting.  We managed to time our walk by the cathedral with the evening carol concert and sit in the amazing building listening to Evensong by candle light.

One of the evenings (after a busy day) we made our way to Thailand No1 (a recommendation from the information found at The Chapel).

Usually in these circumstances we have to trawl a few restaurants to find one that may be able to cater to our food intolerance's. Fortunately that wasn't the case and I was more than ecstatic to find that Thailand No1 was on top of its game and the menu was a delight to behold! I can actually go as far as to say that I think thus far in my eating out with food intolerance history... it is the best menu I've come across. It explained all the different allergens with a different number and each dish then had the numbers of things it contained next to them on the menu. All we had to do was look for a dish that didn't contain a 2 and a 7 and we were sorted! You can read more about the allergen details at their website here.

Below are a few examples of some of the dishes we ate that were on offer on the menu....

The restaurant not only had a great location to all the attractions and the menu refreshingly un-stressful, but the food was delicious too. All food intolerance's are catered to and if not on the menu can be accommodated by the chef. All  the food was freshly cooked and staff were extremely helpful and very efficient..... and to top it all off, the prices were reasonable too. All in all a great find!

It's always lovely to escape and do something fun with Daughter number two and It was great that Gemma could also join us for part of it.  We were able to catch up, spend some time together and get some much needed respite away from Heni and from the same four walls of home. I can never underestimate how important respite and time out actually is for bringing a renewed sense of balance and energy!

In the past we have been away to Austria and Germany for the spectacular markets they have over there.... but we were unable to take time out to do that this year due to Daughter number 2's exams.... Staying in England and exploring some of what it has to offer was the next best thing. Lets face it half the fun is just getting up out the house and going SOMEWHERE! 

Do you fancy planning a Christmas market trip somewhere later this year?  If so you may want to check out some of the English fairs here and the best 2016 European markets here 

We loved the markets in Munich, Vienna and Salzburg in previous years....

It's always good to dream and plan, so go ahead and get organising..... you have a head start now to get something sorted....hope you have fun! 

Jx

Oh and if you decide on visiting Lincoln... go check out Thailand no.1

P.S. I have no affiliation with any of these links ... just personal recommendations!