Winchester Cathedral
On a nice sunny Saturday, we all headed off for a day out in Winchester and Stonehenge. Winchester Cathedral is about an hour's drive away and visiting one of the largest cathedrals in England was a must on the list.
We arrived into Winchester during the morning and once parked up, we headed over to the cathedral. It's a very impressive building with its huge rising columns and gothic ornateness. While we ambled around, we saw the impressive wood carvings and amazing altar. Like most cathedrals, we tried to explore the history and discovered that St. Swithun (famous for the 40-day's rain on 15 July proverb) was bishop of Winchester in the ninth century. And that Jane Austin is buried there. And that the crypt regularly floods so is designed to cope with this. And that William Walker was a famous late 19th century who helped shore up the foundations - he now has a small statuette in the cathedral.
We arrived into Winchester during the morning and once parked up, we headed over to the cathedral. It's a very impressive building with its huge rising columns and gothic ornateness. While we ambled around, we saw the impressive wood carvings and amazing altar. Like most cathedrals, we tried to explore the history and discovered that St. Swithun (famous for the 40-day's rain on 15 July proverb) was bishop of Winchester in the ninth century. And that Jane Austin is buried there. And that the crypt regularly floods so is designed to cope with this. And that William Walker was a famous late 19th century who helped shore up the foundations - he now has a small statuette in the cathedral.
King Arthur's Round Table
The Round Table is King Arthur's famous table where the knights congregated. The table on display hanging in Winchester Castle contains the names of all the knights and legend has it, that this is the real thing! However it was probably created for the Round Table Tournament during Tudor times when Spain's Charles V visited Henry VIII in 1522. If you look closely, there's a Tudor rose in the middle.
But it doesn't really matter as it's a lovely building and room and it's a very impressive table!
But it doesn't really matter as it's a lovely building and room and it's a very impressive table!
Stonehenge
Once we finished a late lunch in Winchester, we headed across to Stonehenge. It's one of the most famous sites in the world and it's an impressive site as it comes into view from the road. It's composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones and sits at the centre of the densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds. Archaeologists had believed that the iconic stone monument was erected around 2500 BC.
It's quite a site seeing Stonehenge in that it's so ancient and trying to understand the history ... even though some people think it's just a pile of stones! It's still impressive.
It's quite a site seeing Stonehenge in that it's so ancient and trying to understand the history ... even though some people think it's just a pile of stones! It's still impressive.