Meeting the Locals

It's perhaps not surprising that our first impressions of our new home town didn't quite match our mental cork  board.
The roads leading into Winchester were surprisingly narrow.( Driving a car through many English towns or villages is a bit like a stone birth, including the cries of distress). We made it finally to the safety of a park and pay 'island' in the town centre and set off to find the famous Winchester Cathedral.
 I say find, but really it's hard to miss and dominates a good chunk of the skyline. Hard, but not impossible, as Alexander proved when I asked him what he thought of the cathedral. 'What cathedral?' he said, standing in it's vast shadow, eyeing a small group of young female tourists. So, hard to miss but not impossible.
We sat politely on the steps of a statue (having been yelled at for more innocent acts in foreign countries)  munching on pasties and cloudy apple juice. The cathedral sits in a lovely green space of trees and grass behind the high street. It's an impressive, large, muscled building with attractive finishes. I won't say that if it were a dog it would be a great Dane, as that would be sacrilegious. But it's certainly impressive and handsome and I look forward to seeing inside it, but that will have to wait for another day.
We dawdled down the high street, partly closed off to all but pedestrians which is nice. I am excited to see the butter Cross, a tall stone statue perhaps halfway down the street where I believe local produce was once sold . The street itself is much bigger than we were expecting with lots of chain stores, some familiar, most not, but still managing a lovely amount of independent stores, from gift ware to pasties and chocolate. In the centre of the stone-paved street is a few stalls with baked goods or cheese- large mouth-watering wheels of the stuff. I know each month there is a large farmers market that I can't wait to visit with my quaint little basket and pretend I am Jane Austen, out taking a spot of air from my writing. Perhaps I will inspire a term for female foreign anglophilic wanker. We can only wait and hope.
The street is two story on either side with buildings from every era, the young and old holding each other up,  but I find the half-timbered buildings catch my eye and give an overall medieval feel to the street. From the helpful travel information place we get a listing of real estates and most are located on two streets. This is an English habit I really like. They put little groups of like-minded shops together, so that if you need something- say shoes, you are likely to find several in the same area- brilliant.
After touting our prospective tenant wares to more than a dozen real estates, we are disappointed to find only three places that meet our needs, but promptly book a viewing of each. We note that most seem available more than a month away,  but from Australia they would not let up lease anything. We were told that legally we must view in person. Things may be a little difficult. Fingers crossed it will all work out.
We stop for lunch a little pub on the high street. The kind that you walk in and all four people look at you as clearly not belonging, but in fact once everyone got over the shock, we had a pleasant lunch of breaded scampi (crumbed prawns) and chips and I enjoyed a lovely cold Aspell cider.
This meal gave us the stamina we would need to get thoroughly lost and late for an appointment for Alexander's prospective college. Luckily the staff were really nice and our contact running a little late herself, so everything worked out. The college is enormous- 3500 students or so and much more like a Tafe in style and running. We were all really impressed with what was on offer and really grateful they had already accepted him, pending a local address- something we were just as keen to rectify.

Lastly it was time to check into our B & B accommodation at the other end of town, a lovely area named St Cross after the hospital in the area, which wasn't really a hospital but I think originally built to provide basic sustenance to passing pilgrims and which I intended to visit as it is supposed to be lovely. So many things to explore on other, less busy days, but for now it was time to go meet our B & B host.