Day 7 - Western England

May 8, 2008

We woke up and started getting ready for the day. I went down stairs and caught Gillian before she left for work and was able to say goodbye one last time (around 8am). Miah came down a little bit later to eat. While he finished getting ready and packing, I wrote in the Blog about Day 6. I went upstairs and finished getting ready and packing. We packed the car and everything fit just right. We had our maps in hand along with our new GPS unit. We withdrew some cash and bought some more water from the local store.

We said goodbye to Charlotte and headed to the car (minding the dog pooh on the sidewalk - we had to avoid this each time we made a trip to the car with more luggage and it became a joke between us). We were on the road by about 10:30am (it may have been a bit earlier but I can't quite remember). We told the GPS where we wanted to go and it told us how to get there; it even gave us warnings when there were cameras ahead watching for speed to give you a ticket automatically - very cool!

We found our way through town to the M25. We stayed on this for quite a ways and there was some traffic at times. Miah is getting a better hang of different driving and between the two of us, we have it pretty much down. We finally got to the M3 and took that motorway towards Winchester. Our first stop, after a bit more driving, was Jane Austen's house in Chawton. We got to it pretty easily and found that it was situated in a very lovely town.

(Side Note: On the way, we stopped at a service station to use the restroom - or toilet as they call them here; they don't understand what you mean when you ask for a restroom. Mike had talked about service stations the night before and we had no clue what he was talking about; we thought he was referring to gas stations. But in actuality, it's a little station right on the motorway where you can pull in for gas, food, and a toilet. Then you can pull right back out onto the motorway. Another Note: The drive out of London was beautiful with all the green scenery of the rolling hills with yellow flower fields. I saw my first sheep on the side of the road as well!)

We parked across the street from the house and walked over. The house was so beautiful and I could just see Jane living there and writing her books. The gardens were lovely as well. We went inside, paid our £6 each, and started looking around. They had signs up everywhere telling you what each room was and what the items on display were. it was so awesome being there. We learned more about her history there and more about her relatives.

Upstairs in here bedroom that she shared with her sister Cassandra, I did something sneaky. Throughout the house they had on display dresses that were used as the costumes in the recent BBC version of Sense and Sensibility. There were two of these dresses in her bedroom and I started looking at them closer to see how they were made. They were different than any pattern for a Regency dress that I had seen thus far (the closures for the dresses were in the front instead of the back). I didn't want to forget how these looked and I wanted to share them with others so, with Jeremiah's encouragement, when no one else was in the room, I took pictures of the dresses and even undid the closures to take better pictures. Now, this wouldn't have been a big deal except 1) you normally don't touch things in a museum, 2) they said no photography when you walked in to the house, and 3) they had video cameras in each room watching your every move. But I did it anyways and didn't get caught :)

We walked throughout the rest of the house and through the gardens a bit before we left. We then headed to Winchester and, after a bit of confused directions from the GPS system in the middle of Winchester and a little frustration between the two of us, we found a parking space we thought was near Winchester Cathedral where Jane Austen's grave is located.

We walked around a little to find something to eat for lunch as it was after 3:00pm by now. We found a Pizza Hut not too far away and it was the fanciest Pizza Hut I have ever seen. It was like an actual restaurant with a waiter to take your order and deliver it to your table. We got a medium Hawaiian pizza and some water - one of the cheapest things we could get.

Afterwards, we went back to our car as the paid time was nearly up (you could only pay for 1 hour and were only supposed to be there for that long.) We risked it, and put in another £1 and stuck the new ticket on our dashboard. We then waited around for a few minutes from the sidewalk (our car was in the middle of the road between two lanes) to see what would happen as a traffic officer had just arrived and was checking the times on some of the tickets in the cars. He got a few cars away from our and then left.

We then headed up the road in search of King Arthur's Roundtable as that location closed first at 5pm. It took a little bit of searching but we finally found a section of what looked like an old wall from Medieval times with a sign near it telling us the right way to go. This wall was very cool as you could tell it was a piece of history.

The town had incorporated it in with the surrounding buildings. We made a left and walked for another minute or so and found another old looking building. There were some ruins that looked like walls and then we found a sign telling us they were the walls to the castle that was once there and that used to house the kings of England. There were a few passageways that led to the basement area so we walked through them.

You couldn't go very far but it was still very cool. We then climbed back up some steps to the old building which happened to be The Great Hall with Kind Arthur's Roundtable. Apparently the castle was demolished by order of one of the previous kings but they kept the Great Hall which is hwy it is still standing.

Inside it was magnificent and very large. On one end, the Roundtable hung on the wall and throughout the side walls, there were any windows with stain glass. The stain glass was first the picture of a past king and beneath the picture, in two columns, many Coat of Arms. On the other end of the Hall, all over the wall, was the lineology tree of the Kings and Queens. It was all really neat and you could just imagine big banquets being held there.

We then headed back down the street to our car as our time was nearly up again and on the way we stopped by the tourist information center to ask for a better parking area. They helped us out and we moved the car up the street and over a bit, right behind the Cathedral. The Cathedral was also very magnificent. But the only reason we were here was to see Jane Austen's grave. You were supposed to be charged a £5 admission fee to enter but no one was collecting it so we didn't worry about it. There was a live choir singing at the top of the Cathedral and that really added to the atmosphere - very beautiful.

We walked around until we found a plaque on the wall that commemorated Jane Austen. It didn't say that's where she lay and it did talk about her writings, which her "tomb" stone does not do. So I looked around to see where she was actually buried. A sign next to this plaque said she lay in the ground in the North aisle so we started looking at the floor around us. Before this and when we were still looking at the plaque, an older Englishman came up to us and told us to read the plaque to him. He was partially deaf so we had to speak loudly. The we looked around for the grave and found it.

After a bit we thought we should tell the old man that what he was looking at was not the grave but that what we were looking at was the grave. He had a portable chair and sat down next to the grave and started talking with us. He asked where we were from and then told us that he had been to San Diego ad liked it and San Francisco but not LA. He also told us 1) he had been to almost every state in the US, 2) did not like LA, Denver, Florida, and one other city he couldn't remember, 3) that we had too many Muslims in the U.S. 4)that everything has gone downhill for us with Bush in office, 5) that everything will go uphill if Hillary is in, 6) downhill if Obama is in, 7) Hillary will win if chosen as the candidate, and 8) McCain will win if going against Obama. It was quite the interesting conversation to have over a grave. We then asked him where he was from (oh, and he doesn't like London either) and he told us Lester. He then told us that he was on a Jane Austen tour (seeing things about her) and would be heading to France to finish their Marie Antoinette tour (had more opinions about what happened to her).

We then went our separate ways and headed outside and around a corner to what we thought was a more private area. We took some pictures and then found out that this was a decently busy walkway. The old man and his wife even ended up coming through there and informed us, "This way to Austen's house." We hung back a bit and decided to follow then at a distance to the house.

On our way in a little nook there were old books for sale, so we looked around for a bit and bought a few. By that time we had lost the old couple and just walked in the last direction we saw them go. After a bit, I walked into a store to ask for directions and we had passed the street with the house but not by much. We retraced our steps and found it. This was the place where she spent the last few weeks of her life. You couldn't go inside, though, as it was a private residence. We walked down the lane and decided to try a different way back to the car and we are very glad we did.

We found a couple of beautiful areas along the way but at the end came to a river that is running through the town. There was a path that ran alongside it that we soon discovered was a common path for the locals to take. There was a swan in the river and it made its way upstream to visit us for a bit (at least that's what it seemed like) and then stopped paddling its feet and slid back down the river. It was as if the swan was putting on a little show for us. We sat down on a nearby bench and soaked in the beautiful scenery.

This is a town I wouldn't mind coming back to to enjoy again. We reluctantly left as it was now 6:30pm and we told our B&B (Well Cottage) that we would arrive between 6:30pm and 7:00pm. We walked back to the car and got situated to find out next stop. We found our way out through the town and on to the right highway.

After a bit and just before 7pm, we called the B&B to let them know we were running a bit behind schedule. On the roads we were surrounded by beautiful scenery everywhere. The only odd things we saw were 2 crossing signs on the side of the road. One for "Elderly People Crossing" and the other for "Tank Crossing." We wanted to take pictures of these but there wasn't a good place to stop and get out. I thought about using the picture of the Elderly People Crossing and putting it on a T-Shirt for my dad :)

We put the postal code in the GPS unit of the B&B and thought it would just take us to the general area of that postal code but it actually took us right to the B&B. Very cool. We were taken to our room and the whole place was very cute and beautiful (the only negative was that later when I was getting ready for bed, I found a few spiders - one rather big - in the bathroom; we kept the bathroom door shut that night). We walked around a bit outside and took some pictures of the cottage. Then we headed out to a local pub, the Barge Inn, down the road.

By now it was after 8pm. This was our first pub and it was situated right on the canal. It looked just like you would imagine one to look. We split a Chili Bake dinner and (censorship right here Debbie if you are reading this to your mom) a Green Goblin Cider. After dinner we walked to the other side of the pub and played a little pool.

It was a fun game and I won! We had a great time. This was the first day, though, when we didn't fit in everything we had planned so we will have to make up for it the next day. Until then!

Love,
S&J