ITCHEN ABBAS — I spent today on walk-about in Winchester. I entered the first car park I saw and thought “this looks full”—turned out there was a car boot sale in progress—but I managed to find a space. After having a brief look at what was on offer I started the quarter-mile walk into the town centre. I passed by the public library (sorry, Winchester Discovery Centre) just as it was opening at 10:00 am. and popped inside to see if I could use the free internet on offer to send a few belated e-mails. I found I could connect but my e-mail client didn’t want to work. The e-mails would have to wait.

So I spent some time wandering the streets of Winchester looking for the cathedral. I finally found the cathedral (I didn’t have a map with me) but it wasn’t open to the public until 12:30 pm. due to it being Sunday, of course.
That being the case, I thought I’d take a look at the museum I had noticed while looking for the cathedral but that didn’t open until noon. The shops didn’t open until 11:00 am.

At 12:30 pm. I went back to the cathedral and had a look through. It wasn’t as colourful as Exeter Cathedral (largely due to the banners) but it was still impressive in its own right. One of the highlights for me were the medieval floor tiles still in place and still in use.

The other must-see in Winchester for me was the round-table of King Arthur. I knew it was in Winchester’s Great Hall but I had no idea where that was. So it was off to the tourist information office to get a map. That done it was off to see the Great Hall. I got side-tracked along the way by a street performer from Australia and Tina, his radio-controlled stunt car. I must have watched his show for half an hour or so. It was quite funny.

The Great Hall—the only remaining part of Winchester Castle that Oliver Cromwell left standing—was relatively devoid of people compared to the rest of Winchester. The round table was amazing—one ton and four hundred-weight of painted oak hanging on the wall. Actually it looked to be resting on a couple of wooden beams protruding from the wall, but I’m sure there must have been some other sort of attachment to prevent it toppling forward.

I went back and had a look through the local museum. It was very well done with the three floors telling the story of Winchester focusing on the Roman, Medieval, and Victorian periods respectively. Lots of interactive and tactile exhibits.

I patronised McDonald’s for a cold drink and discovered they offered free wireless internet—so I gave it a try. I think I managed to get an e-mail sent.

One Response to “September 27th, 2009”