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Published: February 9th 2006
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Train to Winchester
Great to see Robyn again
A quaint little town.
I’ve been so lazy these past few days. Perhaps it is because I go to bed after midnight these days and then roll out of bed around 8:30/9:00. Today was no exception! But I did know I had to be out of the door sooner rather than later because I wanted to catch a morning train to Winchester. I was on the net last night and there really isn’t all that much to do there. I think that was one of the reasons for my lack of motivation to rush out and get an earlier train.
I did know that it’s about 1 hour to Winchester by train and I definitely had to be there before 2:30PM. I must have left the house about 10:15 or so and walked the 1 kilometre or so to the Earl’s Court Tube Station. It seemed a lot closer than I thought it was gonna be and got there in less than 10 minutes time. Transferred to the Jubilee Line and made it to the Train station at Waterloo just in time to miss the 11:04 train to Southhampton (stopping in Winchester). Oh well! But no worries, another train will come shortly and sure enough 20 minutes later I was on the train which wasn’t busy at all. It was a pretty uneventful journey. Nothing too exciting to see out the window so I preoccupied my time looking through a couple of trashy magazines and free magazines as well.
Our train was slightly delayed and we got into the Winchester Station sometime before 1PM but I don’t really recall what the time was. I really didn’t have a clue where the train station is situated in comparison to the town centre so the first thing I did was consult a map and then started wandering in the direction that seemed to be the right way - away from the station. Lol Well, in 30 seconds I came to a corner and there was a post with multiple signs and stuff on it and yes, I was headed the correct way. Hmm, let’s go to the City Centre and then find the information centre. In no time flat I was in the centre of town which is pretty much a pedestrianized area of town with lots of shops and stuff. In fact it sort of reminded me of the bus tours I’ve been on the last couple of weeks. Stop in a little English town. You’re given an hour or so to explore and pick up lunch, snacks and souvenirs. Except in this case I didn’t really have a time to be back at the bus (just needed to find the King Alfred Statue by 2:30!) and was on my own…hey I lost the rest of my bus group. Haha
I had a bit of time to kill. I thought the first plan would be to find the tourist centre and see what there is to see in Winchester and maybe get a map so that I’d be able to find the King Alfred Statue. Along the way I stopped off at a few places like the bookstore where I picked up a mini travel guide for Munich. Thee drugstore to pick up triple mint Colgate for less than a pound (bargainous!), not one but two toothbrushes for the very bargainous price of 28p, and a stop in Marks and Spencers to see if I could find the oh so yummy potato snacks (I can taste them just thinking about them!). Well this time I scored and got myself a bag for 65p. It was worth every pence in my opinion. I think I may have missed them on other searches since over the years the packaging as changed and is smaller than I remember - but they still taste delish!
Okay, onto another topic because I think I’m getting a little obsessed over these potato rings! Lol I spotted the King Alfred Statue before the tourist information centre (which I never did find) and then spotted a post office. Most excellent since I’ have a couple of things to get posted. I was then going to head to the Winchester museum to see what they had on offer but stopped to watch a fire lit baton being juggled by a street busker. It was quite mesmerizing. So by the time his act was over it didn’t leave much time for the museum so I decided to just browse through a few stores before meeting up with Robyn.
I got to the statue about 10 minutes early so I decided to use the facilities. Yuck-o! Now those were pretty bad toilets with faucets that barely work. I waited less than 5 minutes when Robyn rounded the bush and there were hugs, smiles and a bit of laughter at our reunion. In all of the excitement I didn’t realize I had dropped my fleece sweater until we had walked away so a short walk back and my fleece was still lying on the ground where I had dropped it. Thank goodness it was there because 1) I was worried I had dropped it on the icky bathroom floor and 2) my fleece is the only warm sweater I have on me at the moment!
Soon enough we were on our way again and eventually made our way to a pub to grab a drink and a late lunch/early dinner. Mmm, steak and ale pie with mashed potatoes and peas. Yum. Needless to say Robyn and I talked a lot and it was so nice to catch up with one another in person as opposed to via email. We also walked around Winchester for a bit and even walked up this tower (watch your head!) before buying some ice cream and then quicker than you can say delicious it was time to say goodbye. Robyn was nice enough to drive me to the train station. Hmm, why are our goodbyes always at the train station?!?
The journey back to London was pretty uneventful but I must say the train was pretty full. The journey seemed shorter but that could be because there weren’t any delays. Lol My next mission was to get myself to the Rotherhithe to pick-up my bag that is locked up in storage in the locker at the YHA. Trains were running smoothly and I made it back to Richard’s place just after 8PM. I tell ya, my pack seemed like a dead weight especially walking the kilometer from the Earl’s Court Station.
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