Sea Day back to the UK, Winchester, and Home - Sept 2024
Sea Day and Winchester -- September 19-21, 2024
The last night's MDR picture. Four others got away, our waiters took pictures with everyone, before we thought to get a picture. I liked the diver sculptures in the buffet. Last sunset and wake at sea. I like seeing the full moon on the ocean and reflecting off the ocean. We had a full moon during this cruise; however, I found that it rose too late (okay, I'm getting old).
Back in the Southampton. Not exciting looking now, but this is the berth that the Titanic left from. A brightly painted tug and full moon and ship spotting.
On disembarkation day, they published a 7am walk off for those taking their own luggage, but they never announced it. We went down at 7:15 am and got off after a long wait for an elevator with luggage, another couple walking up later and taking our spot in elevator, and waiting a long time before another came. The elevator bays on the P&O Britannia were around a circle, so it was hard to watch all for which was coming or came. We got off (no passport control like in the US) and walked to our pre-booked luggage storage, through Bounce at Maynard News, which was equal distance from the train and bus terminals in Southampton. This worked well; we had to scan the QR code from the booking with the gentleman working there. He was prompt at drop off and pick up. We had pre-booked the to and from train tickets to Winchester and a pre-booked National Express bus to LHR/Heathrow. (The trains to the airport were very expensive, and National Express did not stop in Winchester.)
We had flexible train tickets, so asked (a human was there to help and very nice and helpful) when we got to the train station about an earlier train. She said that an earlier train left in a few minutes on platform 1 (the closest) and to just scan our tickets. There were other people at the scanning turnstiles to help as needed. BritRail has labels above each seat if it is reserved or available. We found a seat; though we did seat backwards -- not a great feeling when you start moving. It was a short ride, 12 minutes, and left quickly after we boarded. There seemed to be some drunk girls from a bachelorette party (just making this up/guessing) who were loud for that early in the morning and entertaining.
We walked to Winchester High Street and found the Buttercross, which was later moved to this High Street.
I do not remember what this was and cannot find it on Google maps now. I think it was close the Cathedral. Let me know if you know. It had a nice garden and a Jane Austen bench. There was an available restroom that a tour group was in line for, so we did not try to use it.
Jane Austen's 200 anniversary of her death bench.
Winchester Cathedral
They had their own little Citroen van.
Walking around near the Cathedral
This is the current Bishop's residence, private and very pretty, but we got to visit the old ruins of the once Bishop's residence.
A peek of the new Bishop's residence's window over the walls of the ruins. I thought this rock was interesting and common throughout the town.
The bathroom and sewer system.
View from the ruins
We then walked back to the Winchester City Museum and got the combo ticket -- 3 museums. Like the Sea City museum in Southampton, the ticket was good for a year, huh? First up, the Winchester City Museum; they had a restroom included. Saved mosaic at the museum. They also had a big diorama of the full city of Winchester.
Then a walk to the King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table museum.
The Great Hall where the museum is. It started raining when we were inside, so we stayed inside until it passed. Stained glass in the hall, and a look into Queen Eleanor's Garden. After it stopped raining, we got to see the garden.
The table
Wedding Gates
I liked the Queen Elizabeth II art, and then there was Queen Victoria too.
The garden
The table in mosaics outside.
The final museum was the Westgate Museum. This one was fairly small but had good views from the roof. I thought that the last museum was the 878 AD museum based on research on their website before. I thought this one looked cool. We found it, but it was in a mall and not open the day that we were there. Travis remembered the gentleman who sold the tickets mentioning Westgate, so we looked for this instead. Here is the gate. Cars (or buggies) used to drive through, but now the road is routed around to the left and only pedestrians can walk through. Views from the roof of the High Street with Buttercross and the clock and a view of Townhall. Arrow slits and prisoner graffiti.
We then headed back to catch the train back to Southampton. The train did not go as smoothly this time. Our booked train was delayed, so we were trying to read the map to determine if another would stop at Southampton. There were no humans; there was a Help Point call button. The area was full of people on cells, so we did not try it. We believed that we could get on the other train, so we prepared to try it. We walked to the end of the platform and could actually hear the announcements from there. They were announcing the replacement train. We did not leave too much later (a few minutes) than we would have on our original train.
Back in Southampton, we picked up our luggage and headed to the National Express terminal. There were restrooms on the train, so we did not need the 20p this time.
They were closing the terminal at 5pm, but announcing arriving coaches before that. When it was our time to board, a couple had too big of a suitcase. They allowed up to a particular size and one per person. With more, you had to pay extra for space for it. The driver was trying to send them to the machine to buy the extra luggage ticket (also could be purchased at pre-booking). He also noted not enough space. From the coach window, we could see them trying to combine contents of two, probably 29" suitcases into one. I think he ended up leaving them.
There were some wrecks, so lots of traffic -- slow -- getting to LHR. We booked to Terminal 4 because our hotel was near it. We were at the Holiday Inn Express. From Terminal 4, there were signs directly us to the hotel and others near. You walked through tunnels there, so it was very convenient. Here is the room. The hotel included breakfast, normal for Holiday Express.
In the morning, we walked back to terminal 4 and took the Elizabeth Line (free in the airport) to terminal 3 for American. In Heathrow (and the hotel) in this trip, I noticed for the first time that their escalators say no luggage. The hotel noted that the elevator would be faster; we did it there since they asked and the elevator was not busy. Elevator would definitely not be faster at Heathrow and no where in sight. This was nuts, and everyone was taking luggage up the escalator any way. Security was busy, but we had time. We had a direct flight to DFW.
Concluding here -- also check out my Cruise Review, what we ate on P&O Britannia and Menus, and the Daily Programs.
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