Yeah so bed at 7pm. I wouldn't say the wisest idea ever with jetlag :) I woke up around 11pm for a while but got back to sleep. Then woke up around 1am? 2am? for ages. Which was pretty annoying. But got a little more sleep before waking up at 5am or so.
Went downstairs for the buffet breakfast but it was pretty disappointing. The food was ok, there just wasn't any of it. They brought out new food a couple of times, but like three sausages or two pieces of bacon at a time. Dumb. Struggled to even try a bit of everything. I did make my first ever waffle though. It wasn't too bad although stuck to the grill in places so it didn't look like much. Definitely not worth the 25 pounds we paid for it.
Breakfast bar at Room2, Southampton
My first ever waffles!
After breakfast we headed out in the refrigerator temperature air. We repeated the walk of yesterday afternoon - going down to Mayflower Park to see what ships were in port. Turns out the Queen Elizabeth was there! That'll mean all three Queens will have passed through Southampton in three days.
Buildings in the old city wall
The Watergate ruin, Southampton Old City Wall
Kuti's Brasserie
Queen Elizabeth docked at Southampton
City Cruise Terminal, Southampton - where we'd be departing from the next day
Entrance to City Cruise Terminal - Associated British Ports
We then wandered up along the western wall of the old town until we got to WestQuay shopping centre, where we went into M&S to look for some new shirts for the sweetie (he'd bought some recently but a size too small). He got one, thinking he'd try it on and go back if it was ok. Also wandered past the Christmas markets they had setup outside. Mulled wine was calling me haha, but didn't have any.
West Gate
West Gate
Southampton's western old city wall
Blue Anchor Gate
The Titanic pub in Southampton
St Michael's Church
Buildings in Southampton. Whoever took the bribe to build that multi-storey monstrosity smack bang in the middle of the old city should be shot.
Southampton Mural 2013 mosaic by Joanna Dewfall
Remains of the drum tower at Castle Gate
Catchcold Tower and Old Southampton City walls
Temporary winter ice skating rink
Arundel Tower, Southampton
Santa flying over Southampton
Arundel Tower, Southampton
Footbridge where a section of the Old City wall used to be
Christmas tree in Westquay shopping centre
Porky Pig at the Christmas Markets
Southampton's Advent Calendar next to Bargate
By this time it was late morning, so decided to head back to the hotel so the sweetie could try on his shirt. Walked past the Holyrood Church with its Titanic memorial, and QE2's anchor
Holyrood Church, Stu, and QE 2's anchor
QE 2's anchor
Remains of Holyrood Church, built in 1320, destroyed in 1940
Titanic memorial fountain at Holyrood Church
Titanic memorial fountain at Holyrood Church
Holyrood Church
Christmas tree in Room2 hotel foyer
The sweetie had a rest while I headed out on some of the Titanic memorial trail to spots near the hotel. The old hotel South Western House was pretty cool - that was where some of the first class passengers stayed the night before the voyage. And the offices of the White Star Line was cool too.
Former Sailor's Home, where some of the crew stayed before boarding the Titanic
Terminus Railway Station, the closest station to the docks in 1912
South Western House, where some of the first class passengers stayed before sailing on the Titanic
Canute Chambers, formerly housed the offices of the White Star Shipping Company
Titanic Memorial (used to be inside the security gate on Central Road but was moved recently)
Building in Southampton where the Titanic Memorial has been moved to (shown at left)
Came back to the hotel but the sweetie wasn't feeling the greatest (travel catching up with him much?). So he stayed in and I headed out again. This time up through the parks on the east side of town all the way up to the cenotaph and the memorial to the engineers of the Titanic. Came back past the SeaCity Museum then down High Street.
William Chamberlayne Gas Column in Houndwell Park
Titanic Engineer's Memorial
Titanic Musician's Memorial
The QE2 Mile sign
Southampton Cenotaph
Isaac Watts Memorial. Note the seagull that wouldn't piss off even after me sitting there for ten minutes
Side of SeaCity Museum
Did you know that Britain has changed its one pound coins in the past couple of years? Turns out the ones I'd brought with me leftover from our last trip are no longer legal tender (aside: they still haven't seen the light and still have their stoopid 1p and 2p coins). Anyway so I went into a Lloyds bank to see if I could swap them but they wouldn't do it unless I had an account. Buttheads. So went to a Barclays bank across the road and they happily swapped them for me.
Walked past the Christmas markets again. The mulled wine was still calling me. But I was by myself and it was cold, so just came back to the hotel.
Bratwurst store in the Christmas Markets
Glassblower at the Christmas Markets
Bargate, Southampton
Holyrood Church and QE2 anchor
The sweetie was feeling somewhat better but didn't really feel like going out for dinner, so I went back to the Lidl supermarket (much like Aldi) and got some supplies for dinner and breakfast. Two dinners, food for breakfast, some snacks and a fourpack of beer for 11.53. A lot cheaper than eating out!
Not used to the very short days here. Sunrise is at 8am and sunset is at 4pm. It's getting dark at 3pm. So weird.
Had beer and dinner, and fought with the tv and chromecast. The tv was having a spaz and the remote was doing weird things. We ended up rebooting the tv and it came good. But I couldn't get the Netflix app in windows on my laptop to cast to it (couldn't find an option anywhere), so couldn't play the movie I'd downloaded. So we streamed it live. Worked just fine, although I'd rather have used the offline copy.
Did I mention we watched Love Actually? ;) It has to be watched every Christmas :)
I was super tired and even starting to fall asleep during the movie. Went to bed around 21:30.
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