Winchester

Winchester is a city in Hampshire, in southern England, one hour by train from Waterloo rail station of London. It is one of the most historic cities of England as it used to be tha capital of Wessex and England for some time before London.

It is very famous mainly for two things. For its Cathedral, which is the longest Medieval Cathedral in Europe and for the King Arthur's Round Table in the Great Hall! More posts to follow about these!

Let's see some photos of the centre of the city.

The Westgate is one of the first things you see coming from the rail station.

The High Street, which after a while becomes a pedestrian road.

The statue of King Alfred the Great, who reigned the Anglo-Saxonic kingdom of Wessex in 9th century. He is the only English King with the epithet "the Great".

The river Itchen.

More posts to follow about Winchester's Round Table and Winchester Cathedral.

Some useful links for the visitor:

Visitwinchester.co.uk - The official tourist information website of Winchester.

Map of Winchester - From the tourist information website.

Winchester-cathedral.org.uk - Winchester Cathedral's website with tourist information.

Hantsnet.gov.uk - Hampshire County Council's webpage for the Great Hall.

Southwestrains.co.uk - South West Trains webpage, with information about trains and ticket prices to Winchester.

Cambridge

The town of Cambridge is 80 km north-east of London, in the county of Cambridgeshire, and the trip by train from King's Cross station lasts roughly for 1 hour. Trains are quite often, 2-3 per hour and the ticket is not much, a return ticket booked the same day will cost you around ₤18-19.

Cambridge is world-wide known for its University. Built in 1209, it now has 31 colleges and it is consistently ranked in the world's top 5 universities.

Punting in the river Cam is a very famous activity in Cambridge. You can hire a boat with a punter, or you can punt yourself, if you dare! The river gets quite busy so be aware of... collisions and keep your hands inside!

Bicycles are widely used by students and residents. The photo is taken in the rail station cycle parking.

In the centre of the town you find the Great St Mary church...

... and the market place just in front of it.

King's College is one of the most famous colleges of Cambridge University.

King's College Chapel is also one of town's landmarks. You can visit both King's College and its Chapel, but it's better visiting the colleges website (see below) because during some periods (eg. exam period) it's closed to tourists. The admission ticket costs around ₤5.

Clare College is just next to King's...

... and I strongly recommend visiting its gardens, for a ticket of just ₤2!

The round church of Holy Sepulchre.

The Eagle Pub is also well known. It sports a so-called RAF bar, whose ceiling is full of graffiti dated back to World War II, from soldiers of RAF and USA Air Force. It is also said that it's the pub where Francis Crick and James Watson announced the discovery of the secret of life, ie the structure of DNA!

Useful links

visitcambridge.org - The official tourism website for Cambridge, UK, for information and maps.
Cambridge in Wikipedia.
cam.ac.uk - The website of University of Cambridge.
kings.cam.ac.uk - King's College website with opening times and tourist information.
Free audio walking tours of Cambridge.
A city centre map, from the official tourism website [pdf].

Canterbury and Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury is one of the most famous tourist destinations in England.

It is a city in eastern Kent, in the South East England. It's a rather small city, populated by 40-45 thousand people, and it's well known for its Cathedral. Canterbury is the seat of the Archbishop of the English Church (titled as the Archbishop of Canterbury) and it has been the destination of pilgrims for centuries.

The relationship of the town with Christianity goes very deep in time. Its first Archbishop was St Augustine of Canterbury, who was sent from Rome in 6th century to lay the foundations of the English Church. The Abbey of Augustine as well the Cathedral and the St Martin's Church - England's oldest parish church in continuous use - are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

An important year for the Canterbury Cathedral and the English Christian Church in general is 1170. The Archbishop at that time, Thomas Becket, was murdered in the Cathedral just before the evensong by knights of King Henry II. Thomas Becket has been in the past a King's Chancellor but when he became an Archbishop the conflicts with the King began. After his murder, Thomas Becket was seen as a martyr by the Christians all over Europe and was canonized by Pope just three years later.

And now it's time for some photos.

Entering the town center from the west side, we see the Westgate Tower.

The high street, full of shops, cafes, restaurants, stalls with ice creams and sausages, musicians etc.

First view of the Cathedral. You can see the tall bell tower from miles away.

Heading towards the Cathedral we reach the Christchurch Gate.

And then you just admire the enormity and the architecture of the Cathedral.

Taking photographs inside the Cathedral is allowed, except for inside the Crypt.

The Nave.

The sculptured and painted Medieval pulpit.

The Martyrdom, the exact point where Thomas Becket was murdered.

The Bell tower viewed from inside.

The bronze eagle-shaped lectern and behind the Alter and St. Augustine's throne.

The Cathedral has lots of impressive stained glass windows, some of them of historical value. Below you can see one of them. In the last row, the one in the middle, shows Adam (Adam Delving) is dated back in 1176 AD and is one of the oldest stained glasses in Great Britain. Click to see in more detail.

In the west side there are two stained glass windows with quite different style. It reminded me some... cartoons.

And in detail...

The Cathedral tends to host cultural events like concerts. Here a youth Orchestra is rehearsing... It should be amazing performing in a place like that...

You can see more of my photos from the trip to Canterbury in flickr.

Information: Canterbury Cathedral, wikipedia.