Home Alone 2

Ah, summer.

Summer has arrived in all its glorious greyness, and with it, the annual westward migration of beloved family. Yes, I'm knocking around in London by myself for a few weeks, free to stay out late, sleep without interruption, leave the toilet seat up. The instant the door shut behind Michele and the kids, I switched to bachelor mode. The house now looks like a clothes bomb went off.

But I haven't just been spending the last few weeks dissipating. Oh, no. I've been extremely busy notching up visits to a wide variety of sites, both in and out of London.

I'd gone out with some friends on the Friday after the family left, so got a bit of a late start on the Saturday. Actually, it was about 2:00 before I could summon the strength to venture out of the house. For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to take the boat out to Canary Wharf and take some photos. I'd get some nice shots of Parliament and the London Eye from the back of the boat as we headed downriver, and make up for all of those boat journeys I've taken to and from the office and said, 'damn, I wish I had the camera'.

Unfortunately, there were about a million tourists waiting for the boat, and I just didn't have the patience to stand in the queue. The tube is just as crowded and disgusting on Saturday as it is the rest of the week, the difference is, instead of being rammed with commuters who basically know what they're doing and keep to themselves, on Saturday, it's mobbed with tourists who talk a lot and sweat. Finally arrived at Canary Wharf, drenched and irritated, only to get a number of pictures of rain.

The journey back was better. I got a spot on the boat without much trouble, and stopped off at the Tate Modern. This is a museum of modern art housed in a defunct power station. There's something serene about the cavernous turbine hall that appeals to me. Without children, I spent a few hours nosing around the galleries. My favorite work was called "Ishi's Light". This is an egg shaped object, open at the front, top and bottom, and with a dark polished interior. This produces the effect of a column of light that seems to float as you move across the front of the object.

I had much more energy on Sunday, which was bright and hot, so I decided to venture a bit further afield, to the town of Winchester. Winchester is famous for its Norman cathedral, which, for reasons unknown, was built on a bog, with a foundation of beech logs. The Normans may have been excellent warriors, but sometimes you gotta wonder. Predictably, the logs rotted away, and in the early 1900's, the cathedral was in danger of collapse. A diver spent 5 years digging trenches under the walls and filling them with cement, and is memorialized by a statue in the crypt.

Despite a few bright spots, Winchester is a monstrously disappointing town. The high street, while absolutely lousy with 16th century buildings, lacks even a single independent retailer. The overall feel is of a deep and abiding seediness. I felt like I needed a shower.

In fact, I did need a shower, since it was about 30 degrees (that's 85 for the Centigrade-challenged) and humid as only a country where it rains 150 days a year can be. The cathedral looked lovely. It being Sunday, however, they were quite inconveniently conducting a service when I arrived, so I couldn't go in.

This was fortunate, though, else I never would have found a hidden gem around the back in the Deanery. There, in the midst of piles of used books on sale to benefit the choir school, was a real Roman mosaic floor. Just, well, on the floor. I didn't even realize I was standing on it until one of the workers pointed it out. This of course led to a discussion of the history, and opened the door for me to ask what was up the back staircase.

I've always been intrigued by the routes in museums that the public is not supposed to use. I check doors to see whether they're locked, crane my neck to see into roped off spaces, peer through cracks in the walls. So the stone staircase winding up the back of the Deanery really got my James Bond up. David (he of the mosaic floor) kindly indulged my curiosity, and led me up the stairs.

On the other side of a massive wooden door at the top was an enormous ballroom, probably 40 or 50 feet long, and maybe half as wide, with a 15 foot ceiling. As I stood gaping around at the space, which appeared to be used for little apart from storing old chairs and spare artwork of questionable interest, I spotted a large, obviously ancient mirror on the far wall, with the letters "CR" in gilt at the top. David saw me looking at the mirror and told me that it was made for King Charles II, who, in the late 17th century, was a frequent visitor to the area, and would have been entertained in that very room.

After a visit to the ruins of the bishops palace, I headed about a mile through some fields to visit St Cross Hospital. Despite the name, this is not a place where sick people go to be cured (though one could argue that very few of the NHS-run hospitals are), but rather an almshouse, and a very old one at that. It was founded in 1130 to accommodate 13 old poor men, and to feed 100 at the gates daily. By this tradition, you can still ask at the gate for "the dole", and the porter will give you a (very) small cup of beer and a tiny bit of bread. These were not enough to sustain a hearty guy like me, so I had lunch in a pub nearby, as you do.

On the way back, I did get into the cathedral to have a look around, though sadly, the crypt was closed, so I couldn't see the statue of the diver. I did, however, attend an Evensong service, which was sung by the Thames Philharmonic Choir, complete with candles, a big, rumbly pipe organ and a vicar. It was magical, if you're into ecclesiastical aesthetics, as I am.

So having written this, I have to conclude that, despite the depressing town center, the ugly concrete buildings along the railroad tracks and the omnipresent chavs, Winchester was a good day out after all.

So there's the first weekend. Plenty more to come...