P&O Britannia - Travel and Southampton

Count down to cruise day!!! - September 11-12, 2024

It was not lost on me that we were flying on September 11th. Our flight was in the evening, so I went to Aldi for some milk and a few other items in the morning for our youngest and my brother staying with him at our house. Our oldest is now in college. I drove past the flags up in our neighborhood on the way. At first, I thought it is way past Labor Day, and Travis argues that it is an anti-government holiday. Then I remembered oh, for September 11th and almost broke down crying.

We were on a booked through American Airlines (which by the way now gives abysmal miles for basic economy -- a 10th of the miles flown, geez, and it was still an expensive flight!), operated by British Airways, direct from DFW to Heathrow. The plane was a full two story plane (we have not been on one before) -- Airbus 380-800; however, we were on the bottom and not permitted a tour of the upper floor (or it was not obvious how do get there, I did not ask, and I suspect that they don't let people mix, so stairs may be in a crew only area). There were two jet bridges, and someone was between them directly people the correct way. Rows were 1 through whatever on the bottom and then continued at the top from front. I guess that is easier not to get confused with top row 30 vs. bottom row 30. From the seat map, it looked like all classes were on both floors (or should I call them decks?). We had basic economy, but luckily got seats together and even had an empty seat next to me. Travis had the aisle and I one in, in the middle section. We had entertainment, the flight map, a pillow and blanket, earbuds, dinner, and breakfast. The best kind, it was an uneventful flight.

We landed a little early, since basic economy, no checked luggage to collect, and Heathrow now has just scan your passport at a gate to enter the country. As mentioned, we tried to get on the 11:30am National Express coach to Southampton since we bought the Change & Go for 5 GBP each. It was 11:15am. The Change & Go was facilitated on their website; however, only allowed later choices. I do not know if it was because it was already fully booked or if we would have needed to be earlier. We went back into the airport and waited. We stopped at a few shops for lunch at the coach, went to the restroom, and filled up our water (I think just in the bathroom sink; this was Terminal 5. Coming home, American used Terminal 3, and there were bottle fillers in the secured area.) We went out and waited for the coach early to not miss it. We had found the general area before, and now found the labeled bays assigned to National Express. Travis found a website with their coach tracker and could see that it was running late -- slow traffic between Terminals 4 and 5. There was an assistant walking the area to take questions and help. We talked to some others; one from Germany that lived in England now. She noted, now returning to England, that she needed to get her British accent back. I noted that we could not help with that :).

Coaches routes were assigned a number; however, we did not find them unique enough. We were on 205 both directions with watching the tracking website, there were several 205s to pick from. A 205 pulled up, and Travis noted that the tracker had it not here yet. It was the right time though. We waited for other passengers to disembark and get their luggage that the driver unloaded. Then the driver said that he was terminating here, so we had to wait for the next/ours (there was a full group waiting). Later, ours arrived, checked our tickets (which had QR codes, but he did not scan them), and loaded our luggage. We did not book a seat, 3 GBP each, so I asked where we could sit. He noted that it was full, so maybe not even together. The reserved seats did have a reserved sign on the seat/that the passenger sat on. We were at first across the aisle from each other, and then the reserved seat next to me got off north of Winchester. So, Travis moved to her seat. It was raining a little on the drive, alternated with some blue sky. When we arrived at the station (they have a Southampton office), Travis wanted to visit the restroom, but was 20p. I understood from Travis that the UK replaced all of its coins and not accepting the old ones, learned from his April 2023 trip, so I did not bought any -- we had some 20p coins at home. It was really just the 1 pound coin that they replaced. So, we headed to our AirBNB, a 15-20 minute walk. The coach also had a free restroom onboard.

The walk was interesting. The sidewalks have quick history notes. We passed Bargate.

Remainder of a church; Southampton was bombed during WWII. Its bells with two little men to ring them.

The city had an interesting old walls.

We then arrived at our AirBNB. It was hard to tell where it was. Since we had a UK number/SIM card, I tried to call but did not get an answer. I sent an update through AirBNB with an ETA after we got on the National Express coach. We finally went into a gate that looked to match Google maps and buzzed the number of the apartment. He answered immediately. He came downstairs, asked us to wait because they were finishing some work in our bathroom, that the worker took longer than estimated. We did not have to wait long when he called us up. Though I did not understand the floor # and England does ground floor, 1st floor, etc. We took the elevator up to 3 when he was asked where we were. So, we went down with luggage to the 1st. He was making up our bed, giving us info and keys, and offered a complimentary meal at his Lebanese restaurant due to the issue. We had had an airplane breakfast and a sandwich from an airport store, but we were hungry for lunch-dinner.

We went immediately, after a restroom break. We shared an appetizer: fried Halloumi cheese -- very good with a garlic sauce and a chili sauce, and a main: pitas, lamb shawarma, fries, and rice. All good and filling. The waitress was very nice and gave us some grocery store recommendations. I found some interesting ones that I pinned on Google maps before leaving; we did not make it to all of them. Next, we walked around more and did some cruise shopping. We went to Lidl, Poundland, and the recommended new Asian grocery store. For the cruise, we got lotion, bar soap, two cans of soda for me (more allowed to take onboard, but to be able to reasonably transport them), and candy. We got breakfast for the morning -- I got a chocolate twist, and Travis found some very affordable (compared to home) bran flake cereal. We also walked to the port area to scope it out. This building was in the Southampton port webcam that we saw online, so I got a picture. Another interesting building, and a WWII mural.

Our AirBNB room and a view from the window of the walls. Our host was having very bad luck when we were there, or it is normal... We had a private bathroom but not an ensuite, so we had to leave the room to get to the bathroom. I could not tell that our bathroom had really been under construction; it looked in his room instead. Our room locked but the handle was a little lose so hard to unlock, luckily no problems in the middle of the night. We had access to the kitchen where we stored a few things in the fridge. Someone tried to walk in on me in the bathroom, eek, luckily locked. Also, the shower went to freezing and would not warm again halfway through my shower, which was very unpleasant. Travis only had a freezing shower. We could not get the room heater to work, so I messaged. He could not fix it either and noted that some one knocked it off level with a suitcase (it is in the picture under the TV). As we were going to bed early (no sleep the night before), he ran to his restaurant and got a portable one for us. We used it all night; it was supposed to be 39F, very cold for us leaving 80F at night -- outside, that is. We also talked to him about storing luggage tomorrow when we arrived; he said that he would see what time the next people were coming to see if we could keep the key or needed to give it back and just store with him.