Every couple of months we like to leave London for the day and take the train to somewhere we've never been before. It's usually somewhere we can escape the constant hustle and bustle of London, or somewhere we've seen photos of and like the look of. Our last few trips have been to Bath, The Cotswolds and Brighton and Lewes.
Winchester has been on the list for a while now. Each Christmas they put on a big Christmas market, apparently one of the best in England. We've never managed to get there for the markets, especially because train tickets from London are usually in the region of £75 return for both of us, but recently South West trains had a big sale and we managed to get return tickets for only £20 all up.
We definitely couldn't pass up this opportunity, so last Sunday we headed to London Waterloo and got an early train, making it to Winchester by mid morning.
The South West of
England has been in the news a lot recently due to the terrible flooding
that they have had in the last few months. Entire villages have been
flooded, and residents have lost their homes.
Luckily the torrential rain we had been having for several weeks has come to an end, and the sunny days have dried up a lot of the floods.
There is still evidence of flooding everywhere we looked however, the river running through Winchester was overflowing, and the Old Mill was closed due to a flooded basement.
We went for a walk alongside the river, not really wearing sensible footwear, just moccasins and boat shoes. The path however was mostly dry and we could mostly avoid the wet and boggy patches along the route.
We walked alongside the river, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine, passing lots of couple and families doing the same.
Afterwards we headed back into Winchester town, and visited its most famous attraction, the Cathedral.
The Winchester Cathedral is one of the largest Cathedrals in England, it was built in 1079 and is also famous for having St Swithun as its Patron Saint. The legend of St Swithun is that he asked for his bones to be buried outside 'where the feet of ordinary men could pass over him.’
When his bones were moved from their resting place in the Old Minster next to the current Cathedral on the 15th July 971, there was a huge storm with the rain lasting for 40 days and 40 nights.
Now each year on the 15th July, if it is raining that day, the belief is that it will continue to rain for 40 more days. Obviously there are no facts to back this legend!
The Winchester Cathedral is one of the largest Cathedrals in England, it was built in 1079 and is also famous for having St Swithun as its Patron Saint. The legend of St Swithun is that he asked for his bones to be buried outside 'where the feet of ordinary men could pass over him.’
When his bones were moved from their resting place in the Old Minster next to the current Cathedral on the 15th July 971, there was a huge storm with the rain lasting for 40 days and 40 nights.
Now each year on the 15th July, if it is raining that day, the belief is that it will continue to rain for 40 more days. Obviously there are no facts to back this legend!
The Cathedral has the longest Nave in England and the architecture inside the Cathedral is amazing, with stained glass windows and huge arches.
After leaving the Cathedral we headed to St Giles Hill, a large hill overlooking Winchester which gives a fantastic panoramic view out over the town.
We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the park at the top of hill and just relaxing in the sunshine.
Eventually we made our way back down the hill and slowly wandered back through the town towards the train station and back to city life.
lovely villages in England so pretty and picturesque
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