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The travel plan for this trip called for me to fly from Faro on the 7th of May to Southampton and spend time until the 11th May visiting my friend Stuart and my new friend Jane Alexander and her husband David. The FlyBe flight went very smoothly, tho I wasn’t quite ready for the transition from 80 degree temperature to about 55 degrees in Southampton. The wind and light drizzle weren’t good omens for the next few days, but I held out hope for better weather.
By now, my subscribers are familiar with my friend Stuart with whom we visit back and forth. He’s the guy who came thru for me in January 2008 after British Airways lost my luggage just prior to embarking QE2. He needs to bring less clothes when he comes to visit me in the states cause all that clothes I borrowed is still hanging in the guest room closet. Through a stroke of wonderful luck, I became friends with Jane Alexander and her husband David when I blindly sent an email to Southampton’s daily newspaper, the Daily Echo in the fall of 2007 and it ended up on her desk. I was looking for inaugural
information coverage of the new Cunard QUEEN VICTORIA in December of 2007. Jane and I started a great email correspondence as she gathered up information to be picked up by Stuart and turned over to me prior to my boarding QE2. I wasn’t able to meet her then, but we did meet when the CROWN PRINCESS called at Southampton for the day in May 2008 and again when, in a stroke of luck, she and her husband were on holiday near Cartegena Spain when the NAVIGATOR OF THE SEAS called there in November of 2008. This time, they were determined to show me some of the sights in this part of England.
On Friday morning, they picked me up and we started out for Hythe, which is a lovely village on Southampton water. A quick look around the town and a stop for late morning tea and a raisined tea cake. Then we started driving thru the New Forest, which is the largest national park in England with little land grant villages and homes. The forest was known even before 1066. We pulled into a lay-by just to overlook the beautiful scenery and right behind us came about 15
other cars. What had we stumbled onto? Come to find out, the other people were gathering for a scattering of ashes!!!!! We watched them walk and stumble over hill and dale until the group of over 20 people reached a grove of trees in the far distance? What could top that? How about going to a village known for its witches? The town of Burley, deep within the New Forest has been known for its witches. We checked out a few shops then popped into the Queen’s Head pub for some luncheon pub grub. Our next stop was Christchurch on the River Avon where we walked thru the Priory church which dated back to the 1200s !!!! We ended the day with a quick drink at the Red Lion Pub in Southampton where I got to meet her son Eric and his wife. The Red Lion, of course, goes back to the 1400s and is just down the street from one of the many TITANIC memorials in Southampton.
On Saturday, Stuart and I went to Romsey, which is an old market town not far from Southampton. Like so many old towns, it too had a Priory which dated back
to the 1000s so I got another chance to light a candle. Again I got also got a chance to ask if the church had been Catholic until Henry VIII “did his thing”? Kind of put my foot in my rude mouth on that when I was chatting with the vestryman!!!!!! Then we on to Bournemouth for another crowded pub lunch and a walk thru the city garden to the famous pier.
On Sunday, Stuart and I met up with a guy named Stephen that I’d been chatting with on line and comparing tattoo notes. He really has some amazing tattoos. Then the 3 of us went to a fantastic pub for a traditional Sunday roast. After lunch, Stuart and I went on to Gosport where there was a model ship show. We got there just as it was closing down, but I still was able to buy a ship model. Later we drove into the town center which overlooked Portsmouth harbor and we could see so many ships of the British navy and the HMS VICTORY in the distance. Also across the harbor was the Spinnaker Tower which we didn’t have time to visit on this trip. Finally, in the evening, we went into downtown Southampton for a cabaret show which was jolly good fun, especially when the Jewish drag queen really got into Hava Nagilah !!!!!
So….it was a real busy trip to the UK and I’ll probably take a couple quiet days in Berlin to recover. I’m off on the train and bus for the British Airways flight to Berlin at 9:30 tomorrow morning.
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