Continued from part 3…
Our penultimate day in Winchester started in a local cafe called Josie’s for some breakfast. I had a full-American, Helen had chicken benedict with crushed avocado. A great find, delicious food, would definitely recommend.
From here, we walked back down the hill to visit Winchester Cathedral properly. Even though we’ve been sleeping fifty yards from it for the past week, we hadn’t actually been inside yet, and we were in for a treat!
I’d tried to book a tower tour last week, but unfortunately they were all sold out due to school holidays, so I had to slum-it down on the ground floor with everyone else! I was particularly interested in the architecture of this cathedral as it’s one of the largest medieval cathedrals in Europe, and the longest medieval cathedral that’s still intact. And it shows! You can barely see from one end to the other.
One thing I never knew before about cathedrals were the chests that sat above the choir are actually mortuary chests, and in the case of Winchester, they all held the remains of various bishops since the cathedral had been built.
There were dozens of plaques dedicated to various historical figures that were buried in the cathedral, Jane Austen for example. And the stained glass was very beautiful throughout.
Upstairs, we browsed the Kings and Scribes exhibition and visited the Morley library, a grand collection of 17th century books bequeathed by George Morley, a former bishop. The bookshelves are the original 17th century bookshelves from Morley’s home, but he’d always intended to bequeath them to the cathedral, so he’d previously built his home library in the shape of the room he’d reserved for them in the cathedral.
The 17th century globes were also interesting, not having a complete view of the world yet and with various inaccuracies, such as California being an island, or only having the Western part of Australia with no New Zealand. Helen and I had a long conversation with the purveyor in here, after which she allowed me to take a photo, even though photos aren’t usually allowed in here.
After a couple of hours exploring the cathedral and grounds, Helen and I got a slice of cake, then I went to check out Wolvesey Castle around the corner while Helen had a bath.
The castle was built as a residence for the bishops of Winchester in the 12th century, who at the time were some of the most powerful people in England. Wolvesey was second to London as a royal center, and was a very important location. The power of Winchester and Wolvesey faded throughout the 17th century though, and was partially demolished in the late 18th century as bishops started to move away or favor the more modern residence built nearby.
I had a huge amount of trouble creating a photosphere here, but finally managed to in the end with a lot of effort. To any onlookers, I was a strange man standing in the middle of a castle spinning around for about twenty minutes!
Wolvesey Castle also had one of the earliest medieval implementations of a piped water supply. Not quite flushable toilets, but a big innovation for the time!
After the castle, I had another walk around the city. There are lots of little parks and streams flowing everywhere, meaning lots of nice picturesque walks.
Eventually I returned to Helen and we relaxed for a couple of hours before heading out for our dinner. We went for Thai food again at Palm Pan Asia since it was so good on Monday, but I remembered to take pictures of the food this time!
We got along very well with the owners on Monday, that even though they didn’t have any of the duck bonbons in stock, they promised to make me some if we came back today. Probably the best starter I’ve ever had! Totally worth it!
The food was delicious again, but we didn’t have puddings this time, so didn’t leave quite as full as we did on Monday. After dinner, we had a night cap in the Bishop on the Bridge again, then went back to the hotel for our final night’s sleep before returning home in the morning.
On Friday morning, we woke up, had breakfast at the hotel, and set off. We took a detour on the way home to stop in at Chippenham to meet some of my friends (Will and Megan), for a slice of cake at a little cafe called Grounded. It was nice to see them and catch up before getting back on the motorway and heading home.
The drive back home was a nightmare and took nearly an extra two hours unfortunately, but we had a podcast about Fred and Rose West to entertain us and keep the mood light while we travelled. Arriving home at around 6pm, we got a takeaway and did some housework, having missed our slot to pick up the cats. We’ll get them tomorrow morning!
Winchester cathedral looks magnificent and interesting info about the chests and library.
Glad you had decent weather for a walk around the city.
Nice looking food – not too many noodles I notice.
Not sure about “ podcast about Fred and Rose West to entertain us and keep the mood light” however Winchester, the cathedral and Wolvesey looked well worth a visit. I like the way you do a photosphere – very impressive. Sounds like Mum is coming round to a Thai meal. I’ll carry on working on her.