We started our morning with a proper English Breakfast. It was a great way to start the day. I still prefer American bacon to English bacon but I am sure this is a debate that could go on for hours depending on what country you are from!

We had a few spare hours in the morning and headed into Winchester. Winchester was once known as the capital city of England and is also one of the oldest cities in England. It has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Rome even conquered and ruled the land between 43-84AD.
As we entered the City Centre, there was a huge statue of Alfred the Great. King Alfred is best known for updating the city plans in order to build and provide better defenses against the Vikings. He also improved the kingdom’s legal system, military structure and his people’s quality of life.

We walked into the gardens and were met by the City of Winchester Coat of Arms.

Part of the city walls were still standing in several places. It’s fun to think of all the people who have walked through these passage ways over the centuries.

We could see the Winchester Cathedral in the background as we walked though the gardens and it was absolutely stunning.

It was built in 1079 and is the longest Gothic cathedral in Europe. It’s hard to grasp the challenges they would have had building it.

The church is also the burial place of several bishops with detailed tombs as well as Jane Austen.

There were tons of detailed stained glass scenes that were remarkable.

That said

, when you looked out the stained glass window on the west side of the church, it was very colorful however the detailed scenes were nowhere to be seen. Apparently, the window was deliberately smashed during the English Civil War that took place in 1642. The glass was gathered up and assembled randomly with little attempt to reconstruct the original pictures. It was still amazing to look at.

We met up with Howard’s sister and boyfriend after leaving the cathedral and walked down the High Street.

I am a sucker for a town clock and Winchester’s did not disappoint.

We continued to the West Gate.

And then came to the Great Hall.

The Great Hall is what is left of Winchester Castle. Apparently it houses the legendary “King Arthur’s Round Table”. Ironically I have heard that several towns claim to have the table in their city limits. I doubt that anyone really knows which table is the real one….

After our brief tour of Winchester we had to get back to our hotel to get ready for the wedding of our nephew Matthew and his beautiful bride Charlotte. The wedding was gorgeous, the ceremony was perfect and the reception was a lot of fun! Congratulations to the bride and groom!

Howard’s mom even hand painted all of the name placards and we did manage to get a shot of the Gill men!