07/07/05: Winchester

Winchester was where I had originally planned on spending the weekend. I was a little wary about how long it would take me to get back to my place but still wanted to go by Winchester. Luckily, the lady who owned the B&B was also a sweetie, and offered to drive me into the town itself! So for that (and for the fact that she was a very gracious host and the place is very nice and clean and lovely and all that), I’m going to recommend her B&B here in my blog. I stayed at the Willowbend Country Views B&B. And it was good.

The day was rainy, dark and grey which wouldn’t have made touring the town that enjoyable anyway. I realized that I only had so much time, but knew I wanted to at least see the cathedral before I left. While Salisbury boasts the cathedral with the tallest spire, Winchester boasts the longest cathedral in the whole UK. The entry fee also buys you a guided tour, and unlike Salisbury, photos were allowed in Winchester Cathedral. There’s such history in that building because it’s been altered from the 7th Century all the way through to the 16th Century, went through being a Catholic place to an Anglican place to a Catholic place again and I think now it’s an Anglican place again. I think it’s easier just to call it Christian.

Winchester is also used as a forum for functions like art exhibitions, one of which was being held on that weekend I was there. Now that was weird. You’re there in this old building, which is supposed to have some kind of sacred fell to it, some parts of which were beyond ancient, there’s candles and everywhere, statues and icons of saints and bishops gone by, headstones and gravestones and tombs and stained glass windows and so on all around; and then all of a sudden there’s this massive 8ft high pile of melted plastic milk crates sitting by a bishop’s chantry chapel; and a plastic medical cast of a foetal skeleton atop the largest expanse of original medieval tiles in England. Because there’s an art exhibition going on in the cathedral.

What made the end of the tour really nice was the fact that one of the tour groups that went through the cathedral before us was actually a proper choir. And they got up and sang and it was a most amazing sound echoing throughout the cathedral. I could have sat there and listened to them for a lot longer than I did. It sounded magical. Even with ‘modern’ art in the form of a string of purple Toilet-Duck bottles hanging off what’s probably some 13th century hand carved marble pillar dangling in front of me.

Walked to the station in the rain, caught two trains and a couple of busses and walked home in the rain. Got home cold, wet, hungry, tired and slightly travel-sick, but a good time was had so it was all worth it.