Winchester and Chawton

• On 12 June, Friday, I visited Winchester and Chawton. This time, I took first a coach to Winchester so that I could save travel costs; the price of a railway return ticket to Winchester was £28.30 whereas the fare of coaches (the national express) was only £16.70. The cost could have been reduced more if I had bought a ticket a few weeks in advance. I've learned that if you plan your journey well ahead you can save every kind of fee. The coach I have to get on was scheduled to leave Victoria Coach Station at noon. So first I had to go to the station by local buses. The final destination of the coach was Portsmouth. The coach made brief stops at Heathrow Airport and Winchester. It took just two hours to get to Winchester.
• When I got off the coach, I saw a statue of Alfred the King of West Saxons; the station for coaches was located in front of the statue. I knew that I had only 4 hours to look around Winchester and visit Chawton, I hurried up to the bus stop for Chawton in order to check the time table. As I searched the route the previous night, I had to take the bus X64 from Winchester to Chawton. Finding the terminal and timetable, I learned that the bus had just left and the next one would leave in one hour. Therefore, I decided to look around Winchester first.
• I headed to Winchester Cathedral (the left above), in which Jane Austen was buried. Showing my student ID at the reception, I could enter the cathedral at the student price £3.50. The man at the entrance asked me where I came from, and I answered I was from Japan, then he gave me the brochure in Japanese. Thanks to it I didn't have difficulty in finding Austen's tomb. There were little people around it, so people would pass by without realizing. Fortunately, I could see the live performance of the orchestra for free there ; Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra was rehearsing in the chancel for that night. I was very impressed by the resonance. Many people were sawing their performance with enthusiasm.
• After looking around the cathedral, I went back to the terminal bus stop. Then, I waited for the bus about 10 minutes. When I got on the bus, I bought the return ticket to Alton Butts. It took about 40 minutes to get to Chawton. Originally I tried to go to Alton Butts, but I saw the sign when the bus went around the roundabout near Chawton, so I got off the bus there though it was on the way to Alton. 15 minutes walk from the nearest bus stop took me to Jane Austen's house. It was easier to get there than I expected because I had only to follow the signs. Here again, I could go in the museum at a student price, which was just £3.00. The house (the right above) was wonderful, and I took some pictures of it. Walking through the exhibition, I could learn Jane's life again. What impressed me most was her writing table (the left below); it was a very tiny round table, from which she sent her imaginative stories to the world. According to an explanation on the panel, she always wrote her stories on it after breakfast. 30 minutes were enough to look inside the house.
  
• Coming back to Winchester, I walked to another house where Austen lived her last days and died. It is now a personal residence (the left below), so tourists are allowed to take a picture of it only. I wanted to go to the Great Hall where the Round Table noted in connection with King Arthur was hanging, but I couldn't, because it was closed at 5pm, and it was 6pm when I arrived at Winchester. The final coach for London leaves at 18:50. So I took it to the station in London. I got very tired of a long bus ride.