A Way Down South

Back from a few days 'down south', taking Martin's Mum and Aunt to a family funeral.  

It was a long way, so we booked a couple of nights in a hotel in Southampton - breaking the journey either side of the funeral which was still nearly two hours drive away.

It's been a while since we visited Southampton and once again we didn't really have time to explore the old town as much as we might have liked.

We did have a walk out the night we arrived - here we are by the Pilgrim Fathers' Memorial - and managed a short wander before heading off the next day.

Hopefully we'll make it back for a proper visit one day (and on a happier occasion) although can't say we enjoyed the south of England traffic - way busier than mid-Wales!

All Aboard!

Our 'big' holiday of the year - both somewhat apprehensive about how the 'cruise' experience would suit us, but were really keen to see the Norwegian fjords, and this seemed one of the easiest and cheapest ways to do it.  Just had to get to Southampton, get on board, and relax . .  .

Having booked a hotel for the Friday night, enjoyed an evening wander round old Southampton town, which looks like it has some interesting sights of its own.


Embarkation day was a little more fraught - acquiring a taxi to take us down to Mayflower terminal was easier said than done (despite booking in advance, we were still waiting a good 45 minutes later, at which point we hijacked the next taxi dropping someone off!).

Did eventually get to the terminal, then queued to check in, queued some more to get on board, but eventually made it to our stateroom (all very nice, large balcony, and two bottles of wine, plus strawberries dipped in chocolate, as a gift from Martin's parents).


Anyway it was a beautiful first day to be on board - glorious hot sunshine, and as we were the last ship out of port, the fire tugs saluted us on our way . . .