Soon after take off from our launch site at the River Park Leisure Centre near North Walls Winchester passengers on our hot air balloon rides can look back for a great aerial view the City of Winchester and its Norman Cathedral. The current cathedral was started in 1079 but was still being modified and added to in the 16th century. It’s truncated tower which rises only 35 feet above the ridge of the main building was a result of rebuilding after the original collapsed in 1107, an event blamed on the burial of the dissolute King, William II who died without offspring and was described as "A devil-may-care soldier, without natural dignity or social graces, with no cultivated tastes and little show of conventional religious piety or morality—indeed, according to his critics, addicted to every kind of vice." One of many historically interesting characters buried within the cathedral then!