Wednesday: Chichester

Wednesday morning was beautiful; sunny and warm and just enticing us outside... we had a lovely English breakfast in the downstairs morning room, admiring the beautiful garden just outside the window, and went outside straight afterward... to clean the previous day's mud from the wheels of the pram.

On our way back from the Grand Hiking Adventure on Tuesday evening we'd passed the Fishbourne Roman Palace, so we knew exactly where to go to find it again on Wednesday morning. There's not a lot left of it now, but it's famous for some pretty impressive mosaic floors, which are still in situ, including a very large and almost completely intact one called Cupid Riding a Dolphin... just stunning.

They also have a Roman-style garden, with the proper aromatic and medicinal plants, and a museum, and the day we were there was the middle of Roman Army Week, put on especially for half-term, so there were squads of kids marching about dressed as legionaries and being roared at by large gruff men dressed as centurions; archery, spear throwing, etc (the great Asterix quote kept coming to mind - '...because my pilum is harder than your sternum').

Chichester is a very old town (well, really, show me an English town that isn't, Kathryn), the central part of which is still surrounded by ancient walls, and which is based on a very simple plan - four main roads in a cross shape; North, South, East and West Streets; with a beautiful rotunda marking the centre. Most of the buildings are Georgian, and there's also a lovely cathedral, parks, etc.

While there was a great deal we enjoyed in Chichester, the highlight was definitely the cathedral. Not only was it beautiful, interesting and impressive (including a window designed by Chagall), the church community obviously hadn't forgotten what it was originally built for, so we were warmly welcomed when we entered, and on the half hour, as apparently happens throughout the day, the vicar welcomed everyone over the PA system, and invited those who wished to join him in a short prayer and reflection. It had a very living atmosphere, in a way that ancient structures do not always have, and we both remarked on how much we enjoyed spending time there. And wherever we were in the town for the rest of the day we kept seeing the spire, over the tops of the other buildings.