Breakfast was self-service and, as we had come to expect, there were only a few others in the breakfast room.
We drove to Salisbury to visit the Cathedral and tick off a third Cathedral of our trip in my Cathedral passport. It has been a long time since our previous visit and I had forgotten how lovely some of the Cathedral’s features are.
We had lunch in the Cathedral café where I chose mushrooms on ciabatta which was very tasty. I purchased a couple of guidebooks and a pin badge before leaving. We were hoping to visit Arundells, the former home of Edward Heath but we arrived to find that it was guided tours only on a Tuesday. Our HH membership does not cover guided tours which meant we would have to pay £15 each. We decided to leave Arundells for another day when we could explore the house at our own pace.
We returned to Winchester and had afternoon refreshments in that Cathedral’s café. It seems we like our Cathedral Café refreshment breaks. Suitably refreshed we set off on a walk to find a quiet pathway and secret garden that we had enjoyed our previous visits. We found the pathway but the entrance to the secret garden eluded us.
Our route took us past the Bishops Palace and Cheyney Court and through the archway to the delightful church of St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate which is always a joy to see inside. The route also took us along the River Itchen which was flowing fast after the recent rain. We also walked past remains of Nunnaminster & St Mary’s Abbey which I had completely forgotten about.
We returned to our hotel to find that the booked room service had not taken place (again). Our early morning cuppa had resulted in one of the teabags bursting leaving the contents of the bag in the bottom of the cup. We could easily have sorted this out for ourselves but to make a point Mr C went to reception and requested new cups along with missing tea, milk, sugar and biscuits!
Later we dined in The Royal Gurkha where I chose chicken shashlik, the best I have ever tasted. Mr C chose a spicy lamb dish which was hotter than he is used to; it brought tears to his eyes.
After dining we called in at the nearby Wetherspoons, which we knew would serve good wine and beer and would be open until (at least) 11pm. We had no intention of being sent to our room early like naughty little children for the second night running. We were able to chill out in a lovely vibrant atmosphere watching the world go by.
