Well here we are, the first post of the new year. Lusted’s travel season has commenced.
Just a quick overnight stay at the Winchester Royal Hotel (been here a few times in the past, when I worked in Winchester, many many years ago) before walking up the hill in the evening to the Golden Lion pub for an old company 25 year reunion – I hope I recognise everybody after all this time !!!!!
Since I haven’t been to Winchester for many years, I took myself off as a tourist in the late morning and followed a couple of the published walks. In some ways NOTHING has changed in 25 years to the city centre, although some of the shops are different. Traffic is as chaotic as ever. You can’t really do much imaginative traffic management in the centre of an ancient place like Winchester, I guess.
En route I had a celebratory half at the Wykeham Arms – as one does ! It’s not changed much inside or out. London Pride still tastes good though…..
Then it was a walk around the city, down by the River Itchen, past the cathedral, up to the army barracks and then back to the centre. Very nice, brought back a shed load of good memories.
All in all an 8k/2 hr hike around the city – it’s hard being a tourist – good though…..
The pre-reunion walk to the pub was certainly invigorating and the first pint went down well. It was interesting to meet some of the guys after all this time. Some had aged well, some not so ! Plenty of laughs though about some of the old times, customers and all sorts of other boring work stuff. It was all well worth the effort.