A really amazing and interesting day today.... started off nice and slowly, and then wound up with lots of activity! Off to a very pretty town called Romsey, where I visited a reclamation yard CHOCK full of treasures... such beautiful things.... sigh.... bummer there is a baggage restriction on Air Canada (if they are flying that is....). Enjoyed looking around at all the cool things that have come from old houses, and dreaming of new uses for such things. A fave was the chimney pots... the old terra cotta toppers for chimneys here... would make amazing planters for outside... all with beautiful patina...!! So many neat sizes and shapes too.
From Romsey to Winchester, to enjoy a walk through the medieval town and visit the famous cathedral there. Really sweet town.... too picturesque really to capture on mere film, everything was so beautiful and had such history. Bought some pasties for lunch and had brought along the picnic backpack - used the ground sheet and enjoyed the meal, then had a nap in the sun.... VERY pleasant!! Watched the comings and goings from lawn in front of the cathedral with quite a few others who had the same idea in mind. Very pleasant in the sunshine :)
Did a walking tour of Winchester Cathedral..... soooo beautiful..... the Norman portion of the cathedral being built in the 1079's..... staggering to think about. The oldest wall paintings in England are found in Winchester Cathedral, and they were discovered after some plaster cracked, and these were found preserved underneath... painted in the 1100's....... unbelievable. This is the fourth cathedral I have visited, and I can say with certainty that all four are so different, even though they were built within 200 years of each other. You can see in Winchester the earliest part of the cathedral is a very simple design..... begun by the Normans, and the later design they had obviously changed engineers/architects... the design changes so much, becomes finer, and more polished. Really amazing the strides they made in learning and building.
After an amazing afternoon in Winchester, headed back to Hythe to get ready for the Saints football game in the evening. On the way back on the highway, I spotted a plume of dust (never a good thing on a paved highway) and had just come upon a motorcycle accident. I grabbed my gloves from my purse (yes, I always carry a pair of gloves somewhere) and stopped the car before I flew out the door..... guy had crashed his very nice big motorcycle into a guard rail as he was trying to avoid a car merging on top of him..... was the only medic on scene for a little bit, with an off duty policeman - we were very happy the other was there.... and soon of course fire and ambulance were on the scene, so I gave my report to the paramedics and then was free to leave the scene and turn "Trevor" over to their tender care. He was very lucky.... looked at first glance to be a fractured clavicle and scapula.... and hopefully nothing more. Totally amazing for a motorcycle crash at 100 km/hr.... we will take that miracle and say a quiet thanks!! Traffic was a mess for hours afterwards, but I did manage to stay ahead of all that and made it back to the football game on time!!
Donned my Saints scarf and went off to St. Mary's Stadium to watch the Saints play Oldham..... an entertaining game, and the fan atmosphere just an amazing experience!!! Loved the songs and the chants, and just the total energy.... so much fun!!! Was sad that no goals were scored, so a tie game, which didn't help the Saints for a playoff position..... but a ton of fun to watch!!
Back to base for a drink, and doing some research for a hotel in London tomorrow night. Off on the train in the morning, and just staying one night, and doing lots of exciting things! So will wind this up for the night, and put some pics on.... and update tomorrow from London!!
