So the bed at Hayes and Harlington was very soft, but it still worked out ok. I woke up at 3am for ages, got a bit more sleep, but it was all over when I woke up at 5:45.
Got ready and went downstairs and got some snackages from Tesco to keep me going while the sweetie woke up. I blogged and did photo stuff as well.
We had breakfast in the hotel, which was ok (I do like me a good English breakfast - bacon, sausage, tomato, hashbrowns, mushrooms, although I didn't have any scrambled eggs, but did have some fruit and yoghurt as well).
Breakfast bar at Staycity Aparthotel, Hayes and Harlington
Breakfast at Staycity Aparthotel, Hayes and Harlington
Got ourselves ready and headed out at 10:45 to the station to get tickets for Southampton. Got tickets in time for the 11:04 to Reading, where we needed to change. Well we sat on the platform and waited but the train never showed. Express after express went through on the other line, but nothing came for us. Eventually EVENTUALLY they finally got the information that there was a points/signal failure a few stations away, and so nothing was coming down our line. So they said we should go to Ealing Broadway and then catch one of the expresses. So we did that and it was all fine, but it did take about two hours out of our day sitting on a freezing train station, or in a hot train (they were slow in both directions). Fun times. Not. Never happen in Japan ... Good thing we weren't in any sort of hurry!! (the people that *were* in a hurry were fuming)
View of the Staycity Aparthotel from the train as we zoomed past - two hours after we started the day
At Reading it was twenty minutes til our next train so the sweetie got a coffee at Starbucks.
The train to Southampton was pretty crowded so we struggled to find suitcase rack space and seats "available" for the whole trip. But the trip was pleasant enough and didn't take very long. The GPS didn't work either for most of it, which was a bit annoying.
At Southampton we got a taxi to the hotel, as it was just a bit far to walk. Only 5.20 though. The hotel is a lot of fun. The owners have a quirky sense of humour, and there's fun stuff like a "bits and bobs box" which has all sorts of useful bits and pieces like stationery, sewing kit, and games, and there's a recipe book in the kitchenette by someone who wanted to make recipes that would fit in a Tweet, so they're all 140 characters. Cool stuff.
Our room at Room2, Southampton
Kitchenette at Room2
Our room at Room2
Table and chairs at Room2, Southampton
Stuff on the table at Room2
Bits and bobs box at Room2
Contents of the bits and bobs box at Room2
Contents of the bits and bobs box at Room2
View from our hotel room at Room2, Southampton
We dumped our stuff, and I took one look at the sunset and dragged the sweetie down to the waterfront to have a look. We walked out on Town Quay and saw the sunset, and the Queen Victoria was in port getting ready to sail (but we weren't going to stand around in the freezing cold waiting!), and the Balmoral was there too.
Sunset in Queens Park, Southampton
General Gordon's Memorial in Queen's Park, Southampton
Ships docked at Southampton - Queen Victoria, something else, and Balmoral
Queen Victoria docked at Southampton
Balmoral docked at Southampton
Sunset over Southampton
Swans at Mayflower Park
Walked around a bit more and headed back to High Street to find the nearest "golden lettered pub" (all the pubs in England seem to have gold lettering .. is that some sort of standard they have to keep or something?). This turned out to be The Standing Order, so we tried a couple of ales, and then got some pub snacks for dinner.
The Duke of Wellington pub that we walked past
Tudor House tourist attraction
Stu enjoying beer at The Standing Order
Stu and our dinner at The Standing Order
Me at The Standing Order
Photo by Stu
After dinner went up to the Tesco to get more snackages, then headed back to the hotel. It was only about 7pm, but the sweetie just wanted to crash, so we did. I questioned the sanity of going to bed so early - it could also mean a very early wake up haha...
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