Shops and Cathedrals

Here's a few quick pics from the day we headed down to the coast to visit the outlet shops at Portsmouth - Easter Monday it was in fact. Portsmouth is known (amongst other things) as the home of Nelson's ship, The HMS Victory, which led the Battle of Trafalgar and is still a commissioned naval ship that visitors can climb aboard. No time for that though, with outlet shops right next door. As it turned out, we found the shops to be a little to overcrowded and overpriced, so we didn't stay too long.

We decided to take the long way home via Chichester, which is an old town settled by the Romans originally. The shops in Chichester were much less crowded and better value as it turned out. What's more it was much nicer roaming the cobbled streets, at least after the hailstorm passed. The girls made a few choice purchases and even Keezee got in on the act buying a tea strainer - a much needed item in these parts.

Chichester has its own cathedral which is quite impressive. In one section the floor is glass and you can look down onto the 2000 y.o Roman mosaic pavement below, over which the 900 y.o cathedral was built - the planning laws were not as strict in those days. For the record, it is also the resting place of St Richard.




Portsmouth street art reflects the maritime heritage of the town - and don't the kids love it.



Outside Chichester Cathedral - Keezee calls this photo "The Two Saint Richards"



We're not sure if St Richard the former (Bishop of Chichester 1245-1256) also bought his tea strainers at Steamer Trading



Inside the cathedral - we're never sure if it's poor etiquette to take photos inside church, so we sneak one in just as we're on our way.

Winchester (the town, not the gun)

So here's few pics of the day we went to Winchester. It wasn't a great day weather-wise, but as we've found this is often the case around here, so it's no use staying in with so much to see....

Winchester's main claim to fame these days is its cathedral (burial place of Jane Austen amongst others), but at one time it was the capital of England and before that, Wessex.
For those who don't know Wessex was a kingdom of old that took up a fair whack of south western Britain; and like the England of today, its rugby team was boring to watch.

We wanted to have a peek at Winchester because it was voted best place to live in Britain in 2006, according to the annual showdown on the popular Channel 4 real estate show Location, Location, Location. This year Winchester slipped down the list (Edinburgh won) and it has fierce competition from many of the Surrey boroughs around our way, but sadly not from our local borough Woking - come on Woking lift your game!!



So here we are outside the town gates and some of the nearby historic houses.


The girls braving the elements outside the cathedral. Nice grass.


The cathedral is quite big and takes a while to walk around, especially with our two.


Some pics of the River Itchen which runs through the town. Its not hard to work out that flooding can be a problem around here.


The pub and beer garden near the bridge in the top-left looked very inviting, but unfortunately Keezee was designated driver.