Blogs from Winchester, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 3

Preparation for the civil service finished for us at about 1.00 am on the Friday, having finished work that day. Tim, however, was still doing things for us until 2.30 am. We owe so much to Tim for his help in planning and logistics and without him we would have never been ready for the day. The weather for the wedding was beautiful, summer had arrived. The service was lovely and Amel was really emotional. Although we did not have big expectations for this day it turned out just beautiful and it was lovely to share it with our friends. Thank you all for your support. A big thanks to Ann (my secretary, or should I say Development Administrator!) for housing and feeding me in the days I was homeless. Likewise to Tim who kept Amel ... read more

The clue is in the title... My mate Max bought a pub earlier in the year... So I paid him a visit. It's a lovely little pub near next to the Royal Hampshire Hospital. They had 5 beers on and they were all yummy. I had to keep trying them, pint after pint... Then i was hungry so on the advice of Ziggy I bought me a burger. It was the most awesome burger in the whole world, ever... Max is a good chef. I will be returning with Ellie to feed here awesome burgers and cider. So if yer in the region of Winchester or unfortunate enough to end up in the Royal Hampshire Hospital, visit the St James Tavern! Rob xxx ... read more

After only 24 hours recovering from my excursion to Homebase - not worth the trip unless it's a 10% day, by the way - we decided to go under our own steam to Twyford last night. We had read several rave reviews about both the journey and the village itself. We were looking forward to crossing the the famous water meadows, gazing across to St Catherine's Hill and the awesome sweep of the Twyford Down M3 cutting, before entering the quaint little settlement of Twyford, with its celebrated Post Office by the traffic lights. The journey was a real let-down - it was dark and we saw virtually nothing. The traffic lights were impressive, but we could not linger as they were at green as we approached. We found the restaurant quite easily and were made ... read more

This morning we walked to the bus station, near the Guildhall (City Hall) and the High Street. The Tourist Centre had given us a prepared sheet of instructions for going to Jane Austen’s house in the village of Chawton. As the bus had relatively few people, we were able to sit up on the second deck right at the front for an unobscured view. We had hardly left the City centre when a “character” (old drunk, he called himself later) used our accents as a pretext for starting to chat. He was quite funny and was admiring of us to travel “without our husbands”. When conversation flagged, he interrupted a young man across the aisle who was working on a laptop listening to music. This young man really was interesting: a music student who wrote “mashups” ... read more

Excellent breakfast in the breakfast room which is a glass extension on the house. The son of the house served us a full English breakfast after our cereal and banana and orange juice – lovely orange egg, large slice of bacon (not side bacon, full bacon), two sausages, cherry tomatoes and a mushroom cap, with toast and marmalade and good coffee. Fuel for the whole day! We set off for town feeling almost knowledgeable about the route. Our aim was the tourist centre for the 11:00 City walking tour. After saying to ourselves we should go directly there, we got waylaid by taking photos of the West Gate. Plus, we went to the Cathedral Square and had to ask directions from the shop. So we were just in time to buy tickets. Our guide, Barbara, had ... read more