Winchester

About an hours drive from us is the lovely town of Winchester. So one day we thought we should get out and about and so we decided to head to Winchester to have a look see.


We arrived and managed to find a car park, first stop was the information center, which also sold some yummy tea and cake, so we had morning tea to keep us going until lunch. We had a little walk around and found ourselves at a National Trust owned property which was a working flour mill, right in the town centre. Now I have heard of mills and seen a fair few old mill houses while in England, so it was quite a treat to be able to see a working mill. However on the day that we visited the mill wasn't working as the sluice gate was being repaired. The bonus, we got in for child's price, the downside, the mill wasn't working so I still haven't seen a working mill! However, Peter and I did take the time to actually work out how it all works and we did also see a lovely hydraulic jump (I think I was more excited about this then Peter!) It was such a lovely little mill and the staff were so friendly and nice. I even found a book on National Trust Housekeeping that I secretly (well not so secretly now) want to buy, how slightly sad :-)

After that it was up the hill for the view over Winchester complete with dope smoking vandals who had just spray painted the information board, ahh England...

Then it was down the hill and off for a lovely walk by the river to St Cross Hospital and Village. This place was built to house some of the starving people and there was also a food hall that fed some of the starving. A very quiet and tranquil place really. Then with sore feet it was back into Winchester and with some fuel in the form of ice cream we had a look round the castle and then the cathedral. The cathedral was lovely and I think for me the interesting bits were the fact that for some of the year the crypt is flooded and that a corner of the cathedral sunk a bit and they had to send divers into the crypt to fix it. The stained glass windows were cool too. I really must remember to take tours more often as you learn so much more then just wondering about! Finally at about 4pm it was lunch time and then off home.

Lots of photos are here