Docking at Southampton

Cold and wet Southampton docks

Well, here we are at Southampton – and a grey day it is too.  Wet and cold, although it was amazing how quickly we became acclimatised.

We had to have our bags packed the night before, so most of the morning and half the afternoon was spent sorting clothes and bits and pieces, returning books to the library and saying farewell to new friends.

Lunch with Anne and Ted

Our former table mates Anne and Ted from Yorkshire had invited us to have lunch with them in the Britannia – the formal restaurant – on Saturday.  Very pleasant company, we shall miss them.  Unfortunately, Anne and Ted are going to their house in Spain and don’t get home to Yorkshire until the day after we leave for New York.

The Cunard choir

Anne was in the passenger’s choir, so after lunch we watched the choir sing its repertoire.

John and Fred

We shared meals with Fred and Jenny from Brisbane, finding out that the latter has a PhD in physiotherapy; Fred is a hydraulics engineer with his own company, and it was great to hear that he makes a habit of employing other wheelchair users.  We also said farewell to Eileen and Gerald who hail from Aberdeen in Scotland.  This is their third world voyage in about six years.

Gerald and Eileen from Aberdeen

Ingrid was great fun, and very hard working

And of course we couldn’t forget Ingrid, our exceedingly hard-working and excitable stewardess.  She was a lot of fun.  On the last night, she left me four times as many chocolates as she should have.  I wasn’t about to give them back!

Ingrid is from Argentina, so John insisted on teaching her some Aussie phrases – “Gidday mate, how ya going? Alright?” and Hooroo.

At the Southampton terminal

Disembarking was very easy.  Our large bags were available for us in the terminal building, and we easily secured a helpful porter who carried them the rest of the way to the terminal entrance and transferred them to a trolley whilst we waited for Ange to pick us up.   We didn’t have any hand luggage checked, and I presume our large bags had already been x-rayed.

Ange is my fourth cousin and has become a great friend ever since we made contact in about 2007 and first met in 2008.  She has a wheelchair accessible car because her husband Paul has been a wheelchair user for nearly as long as John.

My cousin Ange with John

So she was able to pick us up; help us drop our bags at the hotel (Holiday Inn Express); help us find a Wifi solution – even using her own bank account since they don’t do pre-pay; and purchase rail tickets for London.  We are taking a slow train – across country – to London Victoria since the difference in price is £20 compared with £73.  Who cares if it takes over twice as long to get there.

Today (Tuesday), Ange drove us down to Portsmouth to check on the car – a Fiat Doblo – we are having delivered to our London hotel the day we leave there (7^th May).  I was worried it would be too small for John and our luggage, but no problem.  It looks much easier to drive than the large van we hired in 2008.

At the One Pound shop in Totton

After that, we messed around with suitcases trying to find a way to make it easier for us to carry it all to London on the train.  Our pull apart shower chair is very heavy and having it all in the one case made it impossible for me to manoeuvre without damaging my hip – agony last night.

A pub in Totton

Tomorrow night we will be settled in at the Premier Inn at London City (Tower Hill) for seven nights before heading north.