And so here I sit blogging at 6:45, which feels like 5:45 (since I'm writing this in Brussels) trying to play catch up for my blog. Have I learned my lesson? Absolutely.
So a week ago, the Husband was gone, but I didn’t let that stop my weekend adventure. I journeyed back to Winchester. We had been there on a Wednesday evening for the Winchester Festival to hear a talk on MI6, but didn’t get to see much of the town because everything was closed by the time we got out. We could the town had such a rich history and so we put it on our list of placed to come back to.
Every second and last Sunday, Winchester holds the largest farmer’s market in the country and I’m thrilled I was able to go during the last Sunday of July. My train ride went smoothly and when I got off, I just followed the crowds. It wasn’t too bad of a walk. Helen had told me “you have to have a buffalo burger when you go.” My initial response was buffalo burger at a UK farmer’s market? Aren’t farmer’s markets supposed to have local (and usually organic) food? How is there LOCAL BUFFALO in England?” My second thought was “how am I going to find it at the largest farmer’s market in the UK?” But there it was, the first stall I saw and yes, local buffalo. It was heaven.
I wasn't able to get much produce because I planned to spend the entire day walking around and I didn't want it to rot but you could tell who had the best stuff, since some had much longer lines than others.
I also picked up some chili jam, mead and cheese and cress scone for a quick snack.
When I started heading toward the visitor center to take a tour, I heard some familiar noise. It was BLUES music. It reminded me just how much I missed the South. I had about ten minutes to kill so I just sat there. Even the locals were crowded around. I guess they don’t get too much rhythm and blues music in Winchester. The band’s name was Red Jackson and they were classic.
Then I was off to start my tour. It was a little walking tour that lasted about an hour. What made it special was that this was my first tour given by a blue badge guide. The blue badge basically denotes a certified tour guide (I wish we had had one during our Windsor, Bath, Stonehenge excursion). Our tour guide, Liz had all kinds of use full and interesting information.
As I mentioned in a my last Winchester post, Winchester used to be the capital of England and therefore, it is older and has a lot more history than London. This building for example, used to be the old Guildhall. It’s over 1,000 years old and used to be just one story. You can see the original bottom windows. When they added the second floor, the newer, modern windows came with it. And then finally, when the third floor was added, they painted on the windows.
These gardens are not only beautiful, but they are old as well. In fact, the grass hadn’t been replaced in over 400 years. That was up until alt year, when they discovered a plant infection, but Liz assured us that after the renovation, it was just as beautiful.
The River Itchen runs through the city. It is just above freezing and very dangerous. It is too shallow to swim in and too fast to stand in. So, not only is it blocked off, but there are life buoys all along the walking path.
Like the city of Bath, the Romans settled the town, diverted the river and built a wall around the city to fight off any intruders.
I had to post the obligatory “this is where Jane Austen spent the last remaining years of her life” photo.
Winchester also boasts that it has the largest gothic Cathedral. At the time that it was built, the king wanted everything bigger and better, but it proved difficult. Since the river had been diverted by the Romans, the rest of the land was left very marshy. Like the rest of the city, the Cathedral began to sink into the ground. Buttresses were added later but not secured properly and pulled away, leaving what is now free standing buttresses. Think Houston has foundation problems?
Our tour ended at Winchester Cathedral but I had some other business to attend to. This weekend also happened to be the Food and Produce Show. I don’t actually know what the point was as I was not very impressed. There were a few vendors, some selling samples, others giving them away. I hope it wasn’t the best of the best in the area because I sampled some curry where the chicken was dry and the rice was crunchy. I also picked up a cupcake and ended up throwing half of it away as it tasted like a sweet cornbread muffin with grainy buttercream on top. It wasn’t even worth having a picture of.
As I walked back to the train station, the streets were far more active than the last time I was there. I got the chance to climb the tower to get a great view of the city and then went to see the Great Hall where King Arthur famously met his knights at the round table. Today, the table is hanging on a wall in this HUGE empty hall.
By the end of my journey, I was exhausted. I headed home and went straight to sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment