12th July

Southampton Sunny 26c

About 7am we arrived in Southampton and berthed at the QEII dock. We were alongside a big sister Princess Ship the Emerald Princess. As planned we had breakfast in our cabin and set off by taxis for Southampton Central railway station. Once there we got our pre-booked tickets from the machine by feeding in the credit card we booked with and entering the booking number. It was all very painless. We actually caught an earlier train than intended and the trip was very comfortable, much better than we heard later than the one by road. Once at Waterloo station we transferred to the Underground using our Oyster cards which still had money on them from 2 years ago. As always the Tube was a great way to get around and it was not long before we were at Mable Arch where we knew there was a Tescos because we had a list of supplies which we needed. Back on the Tube we then went to Oxford Circus and we went for a walk down Oxford St and had lunch in Debenhams. After lunch we went to the Tower of London to catch a River Boat Cruise which went past a lot of the sites and lasted for about an hour. We just could not believe the crowds of people that were around, including lots of school groups from the continent. We had to tell one lot on the river cruise to quieten down because we were having trouble hearing the commentary.

We then headed back to Waterloo Station where we had noticed there was a Boots Chemist and we needed to get things from there like cough mixture, not that we have coughs at present but the Princess Theatre cough is still going around. On the train back to Southampton we had another noisy school group in the same carriage that I think were from Spain.

Once back on board we went looking for Coral Craig and found her in her cabin still unpacking. It was great to catch up with her again. She had already had something to eat so we arranged to meet later to go to the show which was in the Princess Theatre called “Grand Adventure Showtime” with performances by the Singers and Dancers and an Instrumentalist named Chris Watkins who we immediately recognised from a previous cruise. He plays the violin very well. He will be on again later with a full show of his own. It was a fairly late night which will be good for Coral as she gets over her jet lag.

 There is not always smooth seas.

 London as if you did not know.

 Marble Arch

 We were lucky to see the bridge open.