Winchester Cathedral

tl;dr

We ate breakfast just off Portobello Road. Then we went to Winchester. We visited the Old Hall where a round table is that Henry VIII had re-painted. We went down to the old town area and got some pasties for lunch. We walked to Winchester cathedral. Wandered around some and attended a portion of a eye-blearingly boring  tour. We ditched that, and left to have some cake and coffee and go to the shop. From the shop we split up so Janet could shop. I was going to go back to Winchester, but was past the last entry, so I went to find ruined castle. After some side quests I failed getting there in time and returned to where Libby and Janet were. We then ate dinner, went home, and now I'm here typing this blog post. 

More deets below

Today we took a side trip to Winchester south of London.

Before the trip to Winchester we got breakfast at a place just off Portobello Road called Pepperon. It was opposite Akoya and a door to two down from the corner. Libby and I (Tommy) shared a "Full English" breakfast: two fried eggs, blood sausage, two sausages, baked beans, a hash brown cake (think a tiny McDonalds hash brown), fried tomato, mushrooms and toast, and Janet had pancakes, scrambled eggs, a couple of sausages and slice of pineapple. 

Libby decided against having the black pudding and beans, so really we only shared everything else. The blood sausage (for those interested) tasted similar to their sausage, but had more of a biscuity texture. There's not "blood" flavor at all. No iron flavor or weird after taste. You'll have to ask Libby why she doesn't like it. The baked beans have a ketchup-y flavor to them which makes them not quite as good (IMO) as our brown sugar/molasses flavored version. Their sausages are different from ours. I like them better if I'm being honest. I think the texture is a result of the meat having been ground up more finely than ours. The flavor is pretty different too, but I can't describe well how. 

There was a super cute dog too. It was sitting on the floor under the table we were guided to, and it emerged gentle yet clearly disturbed. It wondered over to the middle of the doorway and laid down. Later, one of the gals that worked there went over and started petting it and its tail started wagging back and forth. 

We headed home, armored up, and ventured out to the city on our way to Victoria Station where we would catch a train to Winchester. I didn't give us enough time to get there to catch the train we wanted, but thankfully one of the gate guards let us through after we explained what happened. We hopped on the train, took it to Clapham Junction and changed to the train that would ultimately take us to Winchester. 

About an hour later we arrived and headed to the Old Hall of Winchester Castle. The castle is mostly in ruins, and the biggest draw is the huge round table dated to having been built in 1275. Henry VIII had the knights of the round table's names pained around the table. 

After the castle ruins we made our way to the core of the old city and grabbed som pastys for lunch. They were delicious of course.

Finally, the real reason we came to Winchester, we made it to the cathedral. It's a beautiful cathedral and there was hardly anybody there which was a welcome break from London.

One of the other reasons I (Libby) like visiting Winchester is because Jane Austen is interred there. This year is her 250th birthday so she's being celebrated in places she lived. So Bath had a lot of Jane Austen mentions as well as Winchester.

Tomorrow is going to the National Gallery and mom and I are doing an afternoon tea bus tour!