Blogs from Hampshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 6

Dateline: Southampton, England May 7, 2016 Sunny Southampton, Titanic, Mayflower, Stinking Rich and Underground Vaults Friday, after a 2 hour drive, we left the little airport in Florence but only by a miracle. We checked a couple of bags, as the plane was going to be small, and headed off to find some lunch. Delicious Margarita Pizza. The airport was very crowded so we decided to keep our seats in the restaurant as long as we could. We still had about 2 hours before we needed to be at Gate 7 which was just downstairs and about a 3 minute walk away. We would take turns looking in the pretty shops and reading. About 10 minutes before we were to board Cope took another walk around to check things out and …lo and behold…our gate had ... read more

Tuesday 5th January, 2016. Embark Marco Polo Yesterday we received a message on voicemail to inform us that we would now be embarking the ship at Southampton instead of Avonmouth. We were a little p***ed off about this as the same thing had happened to us last year! At the 11th hour we were told we would not be going from Avonmouth but from Plymouth. So now we have a 3/3 score of not departing or arriving at Avonmouth - our home town!!! Even more irritating was that we had arranged to have lunch with our friends Mike and Liz who are kindly storing our decrepit car on the driveway of their posh Southfork Ranch type house. The change of port meant that we had to check in earlier than originally planned so that we could ... read more

Morning arrived at long last, up before the alarm, repacking done and taxi awaiting at 08.15. Now I know embarkation doesn't start until 12 noon and yes I know the hotel is a two minute taxi ride, but I've been waiting for this trip for a year and I am ready to go! Of course we were the first ones there and the folk who had been on the one night cruise had yet to disemabrk, so we sat patiently watching the departing passengers leave, quietly coveting their NCL Escape goodie bags. A few more people arrived, including Bruce, an American guy who Alex met in the elevator at the notel, so chatted to him and an older single gentleman who lived in the Bahamas. Eventually our cases were checked in and we were in group ... read more

Geo: 50.7989, -1.09116Okay folks after this we will be caught up and will not hassle you with as many rapid entries. But today we took a two hour train ride south of London to Portsmouth where the HMS Warrior is docked. Also present is the much more famous HMS Victory, which is in dry dock, and the HMS Mary Rose, which is in the final stages of preservation.The Warrior was the first metal ship. It was not a clad as were the confederate ships but rather like the Union Monitor, although much larger. The ship had both sail and steam power. When launched in 1860 it is said to have made existing ships obsolete. Warrior soon became obsolete herself as sails were dispensed with on newer models.Victory, of course, was Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar. Also where ... read more

I suppose I had better confess... though my journey started in the New forest I didn't actually cycle from there. A couple of days earlier the family had discussed going to Drusillas animal park, at Alfriston. I decided that I wanted to do this too, so rather than set off on the Thursday, we bundled all my stuff in to the truck, ready for Friday. Again to be honest, this did mean I missed out all the problem points of Southampton and Chichester, though like everything, once you know about it, its not such a big problem, so I probably would have enjoy the cycle back through these places. Another change of plan was a lunch meet, midday Friday, with Louis in Shoreham, as Route 2 goes right passed his flat in shoreham-by-sea. On the first ... read more