After breakfast which was much quieter than the previous day, we walked through the Cathedral close towards Cheney Close so that we could show mum the church over the bridge. On our way we saw the Christmas market being set up in the Cathedral close but as we turned the corner we were dismayed to see that Cheyney Court was partially obscured by scaffolding. When we passed through the Priory Gate we were even more dismayed to find that The Church of St Swithun upon Kingsgate was covered by scaffolding and boarding because it was being re-roofed. I was hoping to show mum the church because she would have loved it, however it wasn’t meant to be. We continued on our way past the rare Victorian post box, which is just around the corner from the church, towards Peninsular Barracks.
After a steep walk we arrived at Peninsular Barracks to find noisy building works which detracted from the peaceful square. Our hopes up a cup of tea in the Cafe Peninsular were also dashed, we found that it was shut on Mondays! I had secretly been looking forward to lunch there too 
We made our way to the Royal Green Jackets museum next door to the cafe which was our reason for visiting Peninsular Barracks in the first place. Mr C and I wanted to see the Waterloo Diorama that we had missed by just one day on our previous visit to Winchester. The Napoleonic display was well worth the wait with the diorama being the jewel in the crown. The son et lumiere display gave a great insight into the battle and how it played out. We found that other displays in the museum had changed too, adding interest from our previous visit.
We then made our way to the nearest teashop for a cup of tea before visiting the Great Hall. When we had finished the tour of the Great Hall it was time for lunch so we made our way to the Cathedral Rectory where I enjoyed a delicious mini quiche. Afterwards we enjoyed browsing around a second hand bookshop, a cookshop and indulging in some ‘Christmas’ purchases from the Cathedral shop. We then had some more refreshments in the Cathedral Rectory before returning to the hotel to chill out before dinner. Our timing was perfect, the heavens opened just after we arrived back at the hotel.
We dined in Rick Stein’s restaurant, which was easily the meal of the weekend. The food, service and ambience were excellent, a perfect dining experience.
After dinner we relocated to a bar that was ‘interesting’. The football was on and there were televisions squeezed into the most unexpected places so that there was no escape from the visual display. A couple arrived shortly after we did, they were quite vocal and mum remarked that it was like watching Coronation Street. We stayed for a short while before moving on to a more genteel location.
When we returned to the hotel mum went to bed but we weren’t quite ready for sleep so we decided to have a drink in the bar area. There were people in there but the lights had been turned off…
We were about to give up on the idea and return to our room when we saw the night porter and asked him if the bar was open. He said “yes I will serve you”. He accompanied us into the bar area and turned the lights back on before he served us. Eventually the bartender turned up and asked Mr C to sign the bill (which had already signed) because he was closing the till, by now it was 11pm. He was advised that this had already been done and he replied ‘no you haven’t’. We both chimed up at the same time ‘yes we have’. He looked at us and said ‘oh! did you do it with the night porter”? We said “yes”. He then marched off in the direction of the night porter and didn’t even come back to apologise.
Well, you got that sorted then.
Yes, but it shouldn’t have needed to be sorted. Other people came into the bar after us and got served.
I think the barman was pulling a fast one and trying to have an early night!
Oh I remember this Round Table!
Impressive isn’t it