Who knew England was so far away? After what seemed like forever on the flight, I checked the animated map to find that we were over Green Bay, Wisconsin. Fortunately, most of our students were able to get some sleep and the rest were sufficiently entertained by the huge number of in-flight movies that were available on demand. We arrived at 10 AM England time (which is 2 AM Sage Hill time), and immediately dove into our first day of sightseeing. On the agenda:
- Jane Austen's House in Chawton
- Winchester Cathedral
- Winchester Castle
The Jane Austen house is quite charming and looks just like this:
This is where the magic happened. Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and all the rest somewhere in there. The house is filled with interesting artifacts, period outfits (costumes?) and donkey carts. There was also a 19th century pianoforte that "may have been owned and/or played by Jane Austen." Whether or not that actually happened, it was actually played (possibly to the dismay of the matron running the joint) by Cash. In the back of the house is a lovely garden where the students stretched out, relaxed, and took the air for an hour or so before heading on to Winchester.
Winchester Cathedral is one of the largest cathedrals in England. It was built in the 11th century, so that makes it both gigantic *and* old. You can read all about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Cathedral
It's a truly amazing structure that is the final resting place of Jane Austen, two Kings and one Queen of England, and a bishop whose statue was later beheaded (more about that later). I'm not sure what Orange County looked like in 1080 CE, but it certainly wasn't as monumental as this:
One of the really interesting parts of the cathedral was the stained glass West Wall (the giant stained glass in the picture above). Here's what it looks like on the inside:
In the English Civil War (1660s), the parliamentarians blew up the wall and destroyed anything related to the monarchy (including beheading several of the statues). After the war, the West Wall was rebuilt using the shards of stained glass from the original.
Here is some old school graffiti:
Fun fact: if the date is to be believed, this was scratched into the stone 193 years before the first use of the word "vandalize" in the English language... We're not sure about the authenticity of this one, though. Mr. Paulsen was seen carving the message ("GO REDSOX 1502").
After the cathedral, we hit up Winchester Castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Castle), or at least what is left of it. Remember the revolution and the destruction? The parliamentarians did not take too kindly to the castle, so they pretty much destroyed it. Today, one can see the ruins of the original walls and the surprisingly in-tact great hall. Although the castle was originally built in the 1100s, the great hall is a much later addition and was not built until 1225, so it's only almost 800 years old. Inside of the castle was a reproduction of King Arthur's round table, which also dated to the 13th century. It's huge. It is 16 feet in diameter and weighs 2700 lbs (193 stone).
After the castle, we were all pretty beat, so we headed back to the hotel. The hotel is great but we're here for two nights, so we'll put off writing about that for now. It's dinner time, and then bed. Stay tuned...
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