Sunday, March 29, 2015 - A day of rest

I woke up this morning at the stuffy head phase of the cold I was getting over the past couple of days. Luckily, today is a day of rest and recuperation from last night's festivities. No one got up very early today. Dave and I finally dragged ourselves out of bed by 11.

Chris fixed eggs for brunch and we lingered long over the table fixing the politics of the world and other important topics. We finished cleaning up from last night and slowly made ourselves presentable for the day which was grey, blustery and rainy.

Hospital of St Cross

Hospital of St Cross

The Hospital of St. Cross and Almshouse of Noble Poverty is a monastery founded in 1132 and still is a living community of 25 brothers, mostly retired.

Winchester: Ron & Chris at the Hospital of Saint Cross & Almshouse of Noble Poverty

They walked along the bank of the River Itchen.

River Itchen

Which led them to the grounds of the Bishop's Palace and a still existent part of the medieval city wall.

Medieval city wall of Winchester

A stop at P & G Wells to check out the old store which, besides selling old books, also provides the textbooks for Winchester College.

Winchester: P & G Wells, bookseller & stationer

Further along, they looked at houses whose back walls incorporated the old city walls.

Winchester houses whose back walls are the old city wall

They spent some time exploring King's Gate which has the church of St. Swithins above.

Kingsgate, Winchester

St. Swithin's has been an active church for 750 years.

A plaque in St. Swithin's that caught Dave's fancy.

You can see Priory Gate through the window of St. Swithin's.

Priory Gate, Winchester

King's Gate was an entrance to the city when it was walled. Then going through Priory Gate leads you into the cathedral grounds.

Inside Priory Gate: front of houses we saw earlier whose back wall is the city wall.

Winchester: side yard of the cathedral.  There's a wonderful Christmas market here in the winter.