Ausflug 38

A Midsummer Night's Dream

June-July 2013


 

Bergen 4
Index


 

June 16th and 17th: Southampton, England

After leaving our home on a sunny day, we staggered off the overnight flight to London barely coherent enough to answer the rather innocuous questions of British Immigrations and Customs officers--those flights aren't called "red-eye" for nothing! But we stumbled out of Terminal 5 in Heathrow and found the National Express bus stop so early, in fact, that we could change our tickets to the 8:30 a.m. bus to Southampton.

The bus trip took only 90 minutes or so, and we found the Dolphin Hotel right in the middle of High Street beyond the Bargate shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, our room wasn't going to be ready until 2:00 p.m., but the concierge was at least willing to take charge of our luggage so that we could wander around town unhindered.

And wander we did. We saw some of the half-timber Medieval buildings that have miraculously survived the intervening centuries as well as the remains of the city walls, harbor fort, and city gate that dot the city of Southampton. Since it was Sunday, lots of people were crowding the pedestrian sections of High Street and the adjoining Above The Bar Street, lending the setting a colorful and lively air. It would have been jolly fun if it hadn't been raining off and on, and if I had not been both sleep-deprived and jet-lagged.

We even walked over to the harbor to try to get a picture of the "Royal Princess", the newest cruise ship built by Princess Cruise Lines. It had just been christened by Kate Windsor, the current royal princess, the previous week amidst much fanfare, and the ship was still flying colorful flags from stem to stern. Those are nautical flags that actually mean something, I'm sure, but to me they were just colorful decorations.

We walked past the Duke of Wellington restaurant and the Red Lion to the central mall. There we found a stuffed-baked-potato store , so we both indulged in "jacket potatoes" filled with bacon, cheese, and other delicious things for lunch. By then our room was ready, and I just crashed onto the bed and slept like a log for three solid hours. Monika, made of sterner stuff, had a bath, read a book, and played on the hotel's free WiFi in the interim.


 

Wandering out again that evening to find a small dinner snack, we picked up some ready-made sandwiches at TESCO and munched them while comfortably ensconced in our room.

The next morning we indulged in shopping at the "1-Pound" store, where everything really did cost a pound or less (equivalent to about $1.80 US dollars). Since things there were cheap, we stocked up on mouthwash and toothpaste for the upcoming weeks--they are rather heavy and bulky to pack along so we prefer to purchase them on the road. I also found eyelashes to fit the headlights of our Prius (that you would have to see to believe!), and Monika found a set of 2 nice ballpoint pens and a fountain pen plus 3 ink cartridges. If you count the ballpoint pens as maybe worth 60 cents, the net cost of the fountain pen was just about a dollar,which is outrageously cheap. You see, I use Montblanc fountain pens at home but they are much too expensive to risk taking on a trip, so finding a cheap but functional fountain pen gave me the opportunity to write letters to my friends and relatives in my normal way for the rest of the trip. Yahoo! So we also purchased some postcards and I sat down and wrote them right then and there.

After mailing off the post cards to the grandchildren, we found two books of collected folk songs at the Oxfam store, one Irish and one continental European songs, that were too good to pass up. At the Lidl store down the street we picked up two athletic T-shirts, three sets of socks for Monika, and two bottles of wine for the cruise. Packing the additional items into our tightly crammed luggage proved problematic, of course, and in the end we deployed Mr. Sack, within which I secured one wine bottle, the socks, the T-shirts, and various bits and pieces to the top of my rolling suitcase, or "wheely". Thus prepared, we checked out and pulled our wheelies about 2 miles down to the Queen Elizabeth II dock where the Caribbean Princess was moored.

Once safely in the arms of Princess Cruise Line, we relaxed through the afternoon on our balcony, watching other ships steam or sail by.

We roused ourselves only for the lifeboat drill and dinner in the Coral Dining Room. We were assigned to table 389 with Barry and Lee, an Australian couple from the Sydney area, and George and Kathy, from the New York area in the U.S. I like a table-for-six as there are enough folks to keep the conversation rolling, and I am close enough to each person to generally be able to make out what they are saying. Although I enjoy dinnertime conversation, understanding folks who speak very quickly, very softly, or with very heavy accents can be a problem in a noisy dining room. Most commonly, folks do not take the trouble to slow down their normal speaking, enunciate clearly, and project their voice to make it easy on their listeners.

The next day was an "At Sea" day, and after the port lecture on the next three ports, I spent time writing letters with my spiffy new fountain pen, sewing an extra belt loop on my zip pants, and constructing a new cover for the old book of European folk songs we had purchased in Southampton, as it was literally falling apart. Fortunately, the cardboard price list for the mini-bar was the right size and weight for a new book cover, the life jacket had a spare belt loop, and the Guest Services folks could provide glue, a sewing kit, and all the raw materials to complete those tasks. Monika also attended the Champagne Art Auction while I updated the journal before dinner, the champagne waterfall, and evening show. Fortunately my black wool sweater, white shirt and tie passed muster for "Formal Night" wear and we were not turned away from the dining room.

Copyright 2013 by Robert W. Holt and Elsbeth Monika Holt
Southampton Bergen Flaam Geiranger Fjord North Cape Tromso
Lofoten Islands Stavanger Haffkrug Eutin Neustadt Bad Malente

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