Southampton

Pam and Norman’s Trip to Southampton - 5th - 7th January 2009
5th January
We were travelling to Southampton to take our large cases to P and O for storage on Aurora when she leaves on her World Cruise on Norman’s Birthday - Sunday 11th January. We are only allowed 20kgs hold luggage for the Qantas flight to Singapore where we join Aurora after a three day stay at the Marina Mandarin Hotel. We picked up the tip of putting cases on the ship at Southampton from seasoned world cruisers last year - it means less “wash and wear” and has let us take more shoes and travel guides!
Typically, we woke up to the worst weather of the winter and the lowest temperatures for many years - an inch of ice on the car and the first snow, although not much compared to New England. The snow left a film of white but roads soon cleared (apart from Rookery Drive!). It was bitterly cold and never reached 0 Celsius until Thursday!!
The journey was fine as the M 40 was clear and it took three hours to the hotel - we booked the De Vere Grand Harbour Hotel on the Waterfront via Last Minute.com. It was an excellent choice - luxurious and welcoming with a lovely swimming pool.
First stop was the pier at Southampton to see Saga Rose and Saga Ruby at the QE2 Terminal and Arcadia at the Mayflower Terminal (for Norman). Arcadia didn’t sail until the next day as she had an engine problem and a part and engineer had to be flown from Italy to sort it.
It was so cold that we decided to get warm in the Shopping Complex and then spent a warm and comfortable evening in the Hotel.

6th January
We drove to the Mayflower Terminal with our cases as arranged - it didn’t matter that they were overweight! After they were x-rayed we had a look at Arcadia as she was not sailing till 4pm and then drove back to the hotel car park where the car sensibly remained for the rest of our stay.
It was -3 degrees Celsius but sunny and didn’t feel as cold as yesterday so we walked to the pier and caught the fast ferry to the Isle of Wight at 10.45 am. It took 23 minutes and was great - we even got special Retired rates! Excellent value at £8 return.
We hadn’t visited the Isle of Wight for about 25 years and had never been to Cowes. The Catamaran docked at West Cowes and we went in the Tourist Information and the helpful lady suggested we took buses round the island - free with our National Bus Passes!
We took the link to Newport from where buses go all over the island. Services are every 30 minutes and we picked the 8 to Sandown and then the2/3 to Ryde and finally the 4 to East Cowes - we thought this was enough to allow us time to look round each place. We really enjoyed the day though the buses certainly took circuitous routes - double decker buses driving down country lanes and through housing estates with parked cars! Sandown had a lovely beach and Ryde a nice ambience and long pier on which we walked out to the Ryde to Portsmouth Ferry Terminal.
At East Cowes, we had to cross the mouth of the estuary - a bridge was too expensive so the only way is the old Chain Ferry - another first - to West Cowes. We caught the 4.15pm Cat back to Southampton as it started to go dark. We were nearly back when we passed the Arcadia on her way up Southampton Water on her World Cruise. Black Watch was in the QE2 Terminal and due to sail shortly.
Back ashore, we caught the free bus to the City Centre and bought some books in Waterstones and then walked back to the hotel where we had a lovely swim.

7th January
Overnight temperatures had dropped to -8 Celsius (worse elsewhere) and it was dark and cloudy so we drove home after Breakfast. We were amazed to see snow still on the ground in Crewe and Nantwich - none further south but it actually got above freezing - just!!
We had used the opportunity of the “case drop” to spend an enjoyable three days away and look forward to being reunited with our luggage in Singapore on February 14th.