Day 18 (Saturday) Dock at Southampton, England

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Hello from Merry Old England. We have docked at Southampton and this marked the end of the cruise. That is sad, but we are looking forward to the remainder of the adventures we have planned. But let’s keep this in order.

FYI … Despite the minutes which Ray and Mary gave us, we could not get connected to the shipboard internet last night, so that entry has been delayed in being posted.

We had to meet in the Wheelhouse Lounge at 7:00 this morning for disembarkation. So it was up early (even with the extra hour for being back in the UK) to finish putting everything in our remaining carry-on bags, and off to the Horizon Court for one more meal. There was also a question on our bill to be resolved with the purser before we left the ship, but it all got taken care of and we were ready to leave when they called our group.

The disembarkation went very smoothly. Our small group was taken off the ship and lead through customs without any problems (already had done the passport days before on the ship). The bags were arranged in a nice orderly manner and we found them easily. They had carts available to load the luggage onto and easily push them through the terminal to our waiting bus. There were only 33 people in our group, so it wasn’t even crowded on the bus and we could use an extra set of seats for one of our bags (did not want to toss the computer bag into the luggage area underneath the bus). Then we were off to the airport, but first we had booked a side-visit to Stonehenge along the way.

We had a bright sunny day today. Southampton is essentially a commercial seaport. The guide told us a little about it, but we got out of town quickly and drove through the English countryside for about 90 minutes. We crossed the River Avon several times (not at Stratford and not even the same River Avon) and drove through the “New Forest” (established by William the Conqueror and still managed by the government today). We drove through Salisbury and past their cathedral before arriving at Stonehenge. We got there right at 9:30 (just as it was opening) and there were only a few cars and 3 other tour buses. The tour is actually a self-guided tour with each person carrying a small electronic player which you held to your ear and listened to the narration as you walked from point to point. They were quiet enough that you could only hear your own speaker, so every person could be at a slightly different place in the script and nobody got noise from the others (really was very effective). Stonehenge is a fascinating story (still actually quite a mystery) but they explained a lot and it was a very good visit. When we went back to the bus to leave, there were about 30 tour buses in the lot and many, many cars, so we just beat the crowd.

Then back into the bus and headed for the airport. Our guide did divert off the motorway so we could drive through Ascot, very briefly past Windsor Castle, and through Runnymede. The tour of Windsor Castle would have been our alternative and seems like it would be interesting someday, but we could only see it down a very long walkway since our bus had a schedule to keep in order for others to make their flights. So it was off to Heathrow and we were the first drop-off (British Airways) spot.

Again we found a convenient cart and loaded our luggage. There was a helpful person to get our boarding passes and then we had some time to kill before we could check our bags (not allowed more than 3 hours before flight time). So we got a table at a small café and had lunch. There is a “repack station” nearby so David was able to weigh each bag again (even though he had checked them with his portable scale the night before). We added a few items which we had needed in the cabin but preferred not to try to carry on the plane, and then were able to turn them in at the “bag drop” before going through security. Then there was the remainder of the 3 hours to sit in the terminal waiting for our flight, which turned out to be at a nearby gate and left almost on time. David did ask at the service desk if there would be a meal served on the flight and she said “Yes, a snacky meal, not a nice hot one like your mum would cook, but there will definitely be a meal served”. So we did not purchase any food to take with us - the meal turned out to be one glass of juice or tea and a bag of chips or a cookie. It was not at all up to cruise-ship standards for a meal. 

The flight was smooth and practically on time, but they de-planed out on the tarmac and bused us to the terminal. Then there was a long walk to got to customs for our Germany entry stamp on the passport. The EU-residents line went quickly but the non-EU line was shorter but much slower with several interruptions as various people pushed ahead. But we got through and then it was on to baggage claim. Unfortunately one of our bags (the biggest/heaviest) was damaged and one of the 2 wheels was broken. There was nobody nearby to complain to so we hauled everything out of the baggage room and found Janet’s brother Mike, and his daughter Maggie, waiting to pick us up. He was parked at a different terminal, so we had to board a shuttle train and pull our stuff through still another terminal, but his help was very much appreciated and he drove us to their house.

Mike and Sue have rented a very nice house and we had a good visit to start catching up. Both Maggie and Jessica have grown taller and seem to be years older instead of just 9 months. We had a nice dinner and a tour of the house, and then off to sleep for the night. They gave us the master bedroom during our visit and it was very comfortable. But it is bedtime now (remember we lost an hour while flying back to the continent so there was one more adjustment to the watches). Tomorrow is Sunday and we all agreed to get up in time for church.

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Photos

Stonehenge
on Salisbury Plain, England

Stonehenge Drawing
Depiction of how it might have looked