"Winchester Cathedral, your bringing me down. . . ." 5 - 11 January 2016

It was another cold, rainy, windy, no sun kind of week.  It did get even colder and Saturday, when we came out of the temple at 4:45 p.m., it was pitch black and rain was coming down.  We ran through the normal tasks of cleaning, laundry, shopping, and errands.  We squeezed in a couple of movies, the chiropractor, haircuts, and attending a session when we were off shift.

I guess all is not dreary here, as this beautiful amaryllis was in bloom in the chiropractor's office.

We received an email from Dan and Cheryl with photos of a family gathering in honor of Sonia's and Aunt Millie's birthdays.  It looks like they had a good time in celebration.

Aunt Millie, Sonia, Bill, & Greg

Aunt Naomi, Uncle Harold, & Sharla

 Phyllis & Bill

 Danny & Cheryl

Tracy & Greg

We also received an email from Jeff.  It was good to hear from him and learn about all he is doing.  The newest thing in his life is the birth of his son, Jeffery, born 23 Oct 2015 in New Orleans.

 Angela and baby Jeff.

Kylie, Michael, and Jeff.

Steve and Leah Vowels invited us to Sunday dinner.  We went to their home following church and enjoyed a great time with their family and the meal was delicious.  Leah made a cottage pie with peas and corn.  Dessert was an apple crumble.  We brought a pan of brownies.  We played games with the children, visited with everyone, checked out their DVD collection, and watched the hail come down on the trampoline outside.  The boys wanted to go out in it but of course they didn't.  The temperature was in the 30's.

JJ, Mark, Stevie, Lizzy, Penny, Baby Becky, Adam, Papa Steve, and Anthony.  We felt right at home with a bunch of children to play with.

We decided to go to Winchester Cathedral on Monday.  We both remember the hit song, Winchester Cathedral from our younger days and the cathedral is the burial place of Jane Austin.  The song was written and sung by the New Vaudville Band in 1966, and was #1 on the Billboard Top 100 chart in the U.S. and Cananda, but sat only at #4 in the UK.

Our trip there was interesting as we were held up in traffic on the M25, causing us to arrive a half hour later than anticipated.  We got into Winchester and had a hard time finding a parking spot.  All the streets were very narrow with cars parked all along side making it difficult to navigate the lane.  We came upon a two level car park and was unsuccessful in finding a vacant spot after driving around and up and down for half and hour.  We came out and went onto a road that took us out of town and into a small village.  By this time we had been in the car for 2 1/2 hours and were all in need of a toilet break.  We found a store with free parking and took advantage and found relief.

We still did not know where to find parking so Dad took a chance and asked a man drinking his coffee.  He said he was not from around here and that our best bet was to drive back into the town centre and go to the car park we had just come from.  So, off we went.

We were back in the car park scouting every spot we could see.  A young mother was getting her push chair out and  Dad stopped, rolled down his window, and asked if she was leaving.  She said she was not and then he inquired how she found the spot.  She said she had been driving the park for half an hour waiting for someone to go to lunch and she got lucky.

We continued around and I spotted a car getting ready to leave two rows over.  We stopped to take a closer look and Brenda and I jumped out and went and stood in the space until Dad could get over to it.  Finally, three hours after leaving home we were parked and walking to the cathedral!

Winchester Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral.   It is one of the largest cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and greatest overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe. In 635 a small church was built on this site and worship services have been held here continually to the present time.  The current building was begun in 1079 to replace the smaller one known as Old Minster.  It is one of the largest medieval cathedrals in England.  It is the burial place of the famous author, Jane Austen.

 The Browns and the Crowthers standing in the Nave with Traveling Lizard.

 Above is Jane Austen's grave.  Below is a Memorial Brass to Jane Austin.  "The grave of Jane Austen, who died in 1817, is in the floor of the North Aisle, with its inscription which gives no indication that she was one of the greatest English writers."  Above the Memorial Brass (you cannot see it in the photo) is a stained glass window erected in 1900 by public subscription in her honor.

 Isn't this a cool door?  It leads to the treasury which is up a couple flights of stairs and looks out into the North Aisle.

 One of the many chapels.

 Another chapel

From this view you can see the two types of architecture.  At the top is the rounded arch from the original construction and below is the pointed arch that was used later.

The South Aisle.

 The baptismal font.  The story on this side shows a father kneeling before the Priest requesting support for his three daughters so they will have dowries and thus able to marry.  A young man is standing at the end waiting to see if they will have dowries for him to choose a wife.

 The choir benches are right below these beautiful organ pipes.  We attended Evensong and were able to sit right next to the men's choir and enjoyed the beauty of their pure tones and blending of voices that resonated throughout the cathedral.  Well done.

The beginning of the choir bench under the organ pipes.

Steps leading to the oldest part of the cathedral.

 Two Nativity sets were intriguing.  The one below is made of paper mache.  It has been used in the cathedral for about 30 years.

 Down this hall passed the flags and to the right is the door to the Crypt.

 Dad is coming up from the Crypt, but look what we saw down there.

The Crypt floods quite often and therefore has never been used for burials.  Look though at the reflection of the ceiling in the water.  And, since it always floods a statue was erected in it.  It was beautiful down there and it made me think immediately of a movie - Phantom of The Opera.  There is a map on the fence showing the layout of it.  I wanted to go exploring and check it out.

At the end of this hall is the oldest part of the cathedral and the floor is sunken in in places and the right wall leans out.  Braces have been put in the ceiling to keep it from leaning any farther.

This stained glass window was broken out when King Henry VIII did away with the Catholic Church.  Many of the people living there were saddened to see the damage done to their cathedral and picked up as much of the glass as they could and later it was used to restore the window, but not as it had originally been, thus the uneven patterns and colors.

We enjoyed our tour of the cathedral and walked back into town in search of a place to eat.  It began raining so we were more anxious to find a place.  It took a little time before we came upon Ruby Red's.  We enjoyed fries, sweet potato fries, hamburgers, chicken burgers, burritos, and hot chocolate.  It was a neat little place to eat and the food was excellent.  We took our time eating and then lingered enjoying the warmth of the place, being dry, and being able to sit down.

We headed home about 6:30 p.m. and arrived safely just after 8 p.m.  It had been a day of exploring and learning with good company.