Easter Holidays: Part 2

Have been away from Portsmouth for the past 3 days, attending a course in Southampton University. Anyway as promised this is part 2 of the Easter holidays jalan jalan trip. Actually we planned to stay over at Penzance in Cornwall and take in the breath taking sights there, but bring easter holidays, every hotel and B&B's were fully booked... and I literally mean EVERY... the other reason is that being the procastinators we were, we actually called 2 days before the holidays only hahaha. Anyway some other time... so Winchester here we come...

Red: Planned route with detours. Green: Taken route with bunch of lazy bums

Anyway we didn't expect to see much in Winchester, mainly coz the trip was pretty impromptu, but boy were we mesmerized by the buildings over there. Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures as the camera didn't work well in low lighthings (anyone wanna sponsor a Nikon D80?... =P). Basically Winchester is the capital of the district we are in which is called Hampshire. It was the capital of England during the 10th and 11th century. Coming out from the parking lots, we were greeted by the English version of the "pasar malam"... ;). A number of tents arranged in a row selling everything from food stuff, clothes, farm produces (few pig legs were dangling around) to furniture and flowers.

The "English" Pasar Malam

The flower Stall

Girly flowers

A public park in Winchester

Walking towards Winchester Castle we walk through a street called Ancient High Street, the street was preserved to this date from the 15th century and is now a potpourri of classic and modern buildings, with buskers and performers lining up the streets for a lively atmosphere.

Ancient High Street

Busker: Nice Guitar and an even better guitarist

The Winchester Castle was built in 1067, but what's left is just the Great Hall and some ruins around it. The Great Hall houses the mythical King Arthur's Round Table which was built by one the English kings in 1275 something like tat.

Winchester Castle: The Great Hall

The Round Table

Silhoutte of a huge bronze statue of a King against stained glass with England's coat of arms

Next stop was the Winchester cathedral. This was where certain portions from the Da Vinci Code movie was shot (shown as The Vatican in the movie)... ironical isn't it? It is the 2nd longest cathedral in whole of Europe. Construction of the cathedral started in 1079. The cathedral is simply massive. Once we entered, we just sat at the back and took in the whole atmosphere. It was simply majestic. One thing that came of a surprise that there are a number of prominent people that is buried WITHIN the cathedral, a number of bishops and also Jane Austen.More information and history can be obtained at the official website http://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/. I'll just leave you guys with some pics.

Front Portion of the Winchester Cathedral

Side view of the Cathedral


Hall being prepared for Easter Service

Mid section of the cathedral, whole room is surrounded by wooden carvings.

Stone carvings adorn major sections in the cathedral

The corridor along the cathedral

All rights, that's all for now. Haven't been going around this weekend, juz spending a lazy weekend. Hopefully can head to Cambridge next week if all the plans work out well. Till then.... cheers....