the futility of capitalism: a visit to winchester, england

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent last Saturday in Winchester, a small cathedral town of about 40,000 people. I had previously been told it was a nice place to visit, so I figured heading south would be a safe bet, since the weather further north has been pretty bad for the last couple of weeks, with parts of northern England and Scotland getting as many as 16" of snow.

Winchester is very small and really doesn't have a ton to see, particularly in the winter, when the British like to close smaller museums and attractions. Still, what Winchester lacks in attractions, it makes up for with its character. It seems like it would be a very pleasant place to live.

Walking into town from the train station:

Westgate, one of the original gates in the medieval city wall:

I found an area with a couple of military museums and a nice courtyard, but after wandering through an introduction to the military museums, I decided not to bother with them since that sort of thing doesn't interest me all that much. The courtyard, with its brick buildings on all sides, tall trees and nicely manicured bushes, was very pleasant, however.

My next stop was the Great Hall, the only remaining portion of a once magnificent castle that used to be in Winchester, but which Oliver Cromwell ordered destroyed during the English Civil War. Winchester actually used to be the capital of England, and one of the medieval kings had the Great Hall added to the castle in the 1200s.

The Great Hall is at the end of this path:

The Great Hall's major draw is a replica of King Arthur's Round Table, which hangs on a wall inside and is colorfully painted with Arthur's name and the names of his knights:

Interesting to see, but not the kind of thing you'd want to go back to see over and over again.

The opposite end of the hall:

When I walked outside, I went down into the castle remains, but there wasn't really much to see:

Next, I walked down Winchester high street to mingle in the crowds. The high street was alive with people shopping for Christmas presents (shopping malls are relatively rare here, so everyone hits the high street for their shopping), buskers, and bands and dancing groups performing for various charities. See my previous entry for photos of the high street, if you missed that.

My next stop was Winchester Cathedral, which is one of the few cathedrals in all of England. It was smaller than York Minster or Westminster Abbey, but still pretty magnificent. Its grounds were rather creepy, with crypts and tombstones scattered around. Coupled with the gothic architecture and the cold, overcast weather, it might possibly have been the creepiest thing I've ever seen that wasn't purposely designed to be creepy.

The grounds opposite the cathedral were fairly pleasant, however, and I'm sure Winchester is beautiful in the spring.

Upon entering the cathedral, I was greeted by the sounds of a choir singing baroque-sounding songs. I took a video of it, but am having trouble uploading it and will have to try it again later.

More of the cathedral:

All cathedrals here have famous people buried in them: kings, clergy, famous statesmen, lords and ladies, etc. Winchester Cathedral's most famous "inhabitant" is probably Jane Austen, who died in Winchester and whose father was a member of the local clergy:

I'm pretty tired of hearing about Jane Austen books and movies and would thus like to be able to say that I danced on her grave, but I actually just stood on it whilst trying to get a decent photo of the inscription.

When I was done inside, I wandered around the Christmas shops that were set up inside the church's courtyard. There were dozens of these little shops:

Said market happens every year and is apparently a very big draw. This was the most crowded part of Winchester that I saw. I stopped here for lunch, which consisted of a small tray of seasoned, fried potato wedges with my choice of sauces (I opted for caramelized onions, blue cheese dressing and sour cream and chive dressing). Or, as a person standing next to me said, "overpriced chips". They were still pretty good, however, and they hit the spot in the cold weather.

I next decided to search for Wolvesey Castle, the only remaining castle in town, but it was closed to tourists until the spring. Bummer. Still, the walk around the around was nice.