Ken and I met up with Cheron and Mark in London and we drove down in a rent car to Winchester for a night on the way to the Voyager. We decided to stay at the Wykeham Arms a boutique local hotel. The rooms are over what is supposed to be the best bar in town with excellent food. Deightful small town, streets so narrow in places the cars drive on the sidewalk to pass. We visited Winchester Cathedral which is huge and was interesting.Then it started to rain and rain and rain. I asked this dear old lady in the information booth how to find Winchester castle. She said go to the close and turn where the bishop lives. I said I am not sure what a close is (I though it was a square but was not sure) and I do not know where the bishop lives. She said "everyone knows where the bishop lives". I asked if she could show me on the map - she said "sorry love I cant see a map". She was dear old thing but I did wonder why she was in the information booth. So there were three ladies wearing red sashes for information. The two young ones were busy so I talked to another older lady. Basically got directions totally opposite of what I had gathered from the first lady in the information booth. At this stage I am totally confused. One of the younger ladies stepped in and gave me clear directions that we could follow. Totally different from either of the first two sets of directions. Good thing since it was now pouring down rain wasted steps not a good thing in a down pour. It did give us a giggle and the older ladies were really sweet and trying to help.

We stopped in on the way to the castle at what is said to be the oldest pub in England over 1000 years old. We were hoping the rain would ease. I was starving for some meat and three of us ordered burgers. HUGE double meat must have been at a minimum 12 ounces of beef. It must have been lowfat as it was heavier than our beef but was great after my lack of meat for the last 12 days. I saw fish and chips - HUGE a full fish. Prices incredibly reasonable for England I thought at about six to eight pounds a plate. We had intended to go for dessert and coffee at one of the little local pastry shops but we were all too full. We stepped outside and it was still raining so we decided we would not drown and set off for the GREAT HALL of Winchester cathedral where King Arthur's ROUND TABLE is housed. This was really interesting I just need Andi to write up all the facts. The table is 18 feet in Diameter and is on a wall where it has been in place since the 15th century. The great hall is the only part of the old Winchester Castle that is still original and standing. The castle was first built by William the Conquerer and added on to over the centuries by other Kings. We found this to be very interesting and I bought some playing cards with all the various royals over the centuries.

We decided we were cold and wet and would return to the hotel and hoped our rooms would be ready. We were really dripping wet and Cheron and Mark's room was ready ours was not. We knew this would be an "adventure" to stay here but decided to go for it and see what happened. So we went up to the first floor to their room. It was chilly and we were wet so we turned on the water radiators to warm up the room. Then we looked at the bathroom and found it was warmer in there. Then we figured out here was a towel warmer rack and were laughing we would all stay together in the bathroom and huddle around the towel warmer and get stay warm. The room warmed up fairly quickly. Their room is covered with pictures of the Royals - most King George and Queen Mary and also a famous picture of Elizabeth and Margaret as young girls. Very high ceilings. Our room is up one more narrow staircase with low ceilings and many attic like angles particularly in the bathroom that is A frame I know some men who could not stand up in this bathroom. Ken and I decided not to drag suitcases up this narrow stairs and pulled dry clothes out of cases and just bought those and our electronics upstairs. We are now in a nice warm room in dry clothes after a nice warm bath and quite happy little campers. I still have to go get Ken some dry socks terrible wife that I am I forgot about getting him socks.

We really enjoyed seeing Winchester and it would have been spectacular on a nice day. Flowers everywhere. We hope tomorrow will not rain so we can enjoy the town a little more or perhaps visit another little local town on the way to the ship.

We are SO looking forward to my nice suite, great meals and seeing everyone on the ship.