The England You Always Hoped For

The England of your imagination exists in a place called Winchester. The couple in the photo are friends Gillies and Kym, who stayed at my Airbnb last fall. They have been showing us around. We took a guided tour of Winchester Cathedral. Our guide, Harry, told the history of the area from the Romans forward with a twinkle in his eye. The tour was one of the best hours we spent on this trip.We took a walk on a public path with our friends and learned that these are called kissing gates. There were quite a few so there was a lot of kissing. Famous trout fishery Itchen River flows through This area. We have seen quite a bit of the beautiful stream, but no trout. Izaak Walton wrote “The Compleat Angler” near here in 1653. This perfect cottage was across from the rural pub we found food and drink after our walk. There were many others along the way just as pretty. Our bill for breakfast yesterday came in this book. We went to church tonight at St Mary’s across the green from our AirBnb. A dozen people and a good message. One of the highlights for me.

We are most of our meals at the perfect pub-Carts & Horses.

Finally, our Airbnb hosts took us for a ride in their 1934 Riley to look fo trout. We found one in the Itchen at last – a 14″ brown trout. Before we left Winchester we saw the Round Table hanging on the wall of the Great Hall; Arthur’s? Maybe, maybe not, but from the 12th century.