St Ives to Ropley

Wednesday 4 September

We packed and took our bags downstairs before breakfast then enjoyed our last breakfast at The Old Vicarage before the taxi came to take us to the station. We were in time to catch the earlier train and I'm so glad we did because it gave us time to sort out where we needed to stand as we did not have booked seats for this our longest journey. The train trip was reasonable, with the exciting part being along the sea front at Dawlish. I'd been really looking forward to this very short part of our whole train experience. We did have some very noisy children in our carriage but at least it was mostly happy noise.  

 

 

At Reading our train was late arriving, leaving us only 3 minutes to catch the next one. Luckily Elaine found the sign so it was up and down in lifts with me dropping my bag and we just made it. That train took us to Basingstoke and then another connection (about 10 minutes this time) for the train just one stop to Winchester.

Graham met us at Winchester station and drove us to Chalk Cottage. Rachael was at home with Tara (the dog) and Magic (the cat) and we were soon joined my Mary and Rosie. After a bit of taxi-ing of girls and chores we all enjoyed dinner together before sorting out internet and then going to bed. Today was our longest and most complex train journey apart from our very mixed up journey on our first day.

Thursday 5 September

While the family powered through their early morning routine Elaine and I had coffee/tea and kept out of the way until our breakfast shift at about 8am. At 10:30 Graham took Rachael to college and us to Winchester before his dental appointment, with arrangements to meet him for lunch at the Cathedral Cafe.

Our first task was to clear up issues we were having with our phone. The lovely young man was so understanding and even rang customer service on our behalf to find out what had happened when we tried to add funds at St Ives. It turned out I had recharged the dongle instead of the phone so he sorted it all out for us. Now we have money on our phone again and can make calls and answer text messages.

We then found our lunch destination and decided to go into Winchester Cathedral before we were to meet Graham. This was another magnificent building with a library we could view and some fantastically high vaulting. The stained glass window at the back of the church was huge and there was an exhibition of sarcofagi (including upright ones) called Quietus.

 

 

 

On then down the High St looking mostly at the beautiful old buildings. We also bought fruit for the family at a market stall.

We met Graham for lunch and sat in a lovely shady spot in the Cathedral gardens. The day was becoming very hot.

 

 

We then tried to walk along the river to the Abbey but the public footpath had been closed for maintenance so we were forced to take a much longer, sunnier route. We then found that the Abbey itself was full of scaffolding for maintenance. But the exciting thing was that we were allowed to look at the archaeological dig at the back of the Abbey where they have found foundations of even older buildings.

 

 

At last we got to the car and drove to Alresford (pron. Orlsford) where we bought some wine before arriving home at about 5pm to find the outside temperature in the sun was still 38C and inside was almost as hot with the Aga stove still on in the kitchen. Lots of opening of windows and drinking of water ensued with people just sitting or lying around until the temperature began to drop a bit. As rain is predicted we were detailed to harvest as much fruit and vege as were ripe for fear of them being knocked off by the rain.

We had dinner at about 8pm but Mary went to her yoga class. It was fabulous out in the cool of the evening relaxing and chatting whilst listening to bell ringing practice at the nearby church – of course, it is Thursday night! By bed time the temperature outside was down to 16C but in the kitchen it was still 25C.

 

Friday 6 September

This morning I woke early and was rather under par with a stodgy head after such a hot day yesterday. However, I was able to stroll in the garden for a bit and cool down in the shower. The outside temperature was 12C but the inside was still 23C. Graham, Elaine and I left just after 10:30 and headed to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard to the newly opened Mary Rose Museum. There were two other fascinating ships on the dock – HMS Victory (1765) and HMS Warrior (1860) but the Mary Rose was in its own building.



 

 

This was incredible with views of the real hull through peepholes into the climate controlled room. On the far side of the walkway were displays of all the artefacts found at that level of the ship. There were dozens of sea chests recovered owned by various of the seamen aboard. It was far too much to cope with in one viewing and was very crowded as it has only been opened for a month or so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then had a late lunch at the shopping area on the waterfront watching the Isle of Wight ferry come and go.

 

After lunch we headed towards home and decided to visit the new Butser site. Surrey and I and the kids had visited the original Butser in the 1980s and loved it. It is a reconstructed Iron Age village but this one also has a “Roman Villa”. There were Manx sheep, some goats and two very large pigs – a Gloucester Old Spot and a Wessex Saddleback. The iron age houses were complete with reed rooves and domestic fittings. I loved the whole place.

We then drove further towards home with a stop to look across to Old Winchester Hill and Beacon Hill iron age hill forts. Home then to the activities of the evening.