Day -01 5/31 - a Titanic Walking Tour in Southampton

 Today on our final full day in Southampton before our cruise, we did a Titanic self guided walk which took us to the Engineers and Musicians Memorials. At the entrance to the park, we enjoyed a lengthy really pleasant conversation with a park maintenance worker.  He had all sorts of tips for us.  While searching for the memorials, we came across a memorial to Isaac Watts, famous theologian, preacher, and hymn writer.  We then found the permanent Titanic exhibit in the SeaCity museum.  This day there electronic payment system was down so cash only was accepted.  The Titanic was memorable to Southampton as it was the departure point for the Titanic's first and final voyage.  Much of the crew was from this area. There was also another permanent exhibition on the contributions of Southampton.





We then caught a #12 bus (4£ Roundtrip) out to the local Costco where we enjoyed a Costco Dog and Gelato along with very pleasant conversations with locals and the Costco store manager.  The Costco was roughly the same size as our Tukwila, WA store and the layout was quite similar.  They had lots of seating in the cafe area and they served the customary 1.50£ hotdog plus a wide variety of other items including pizza.  There was also a refueling station which was quite busy and a very large tyre centre.

The return bus dropped us off at IKEA where we ran into the two fellows we chatted with in Costco.  It's a small world.  We walked the entire store which was laid out much like our Renton IKEA. We found a couple of collapsible water bottles at a 1£ store before walking back to our Air BnB where I took a short nap.


We watched another semi-final of Britain's Got Talent  (tonight's show wasn't as good as last nights), did some laundry, and still are feeling tired.  Back to back over 10k step days probably don't help.  Tomorrow morning we'll stroll down to the Ocean Terminal (about a mile away) and board the Regal Princess.


Here are some final thoughts about our 3 days in Southampton.  The National Express bus transfer from Heathrow was excellent.  It's a city with a rich history.  It suffered a lot of damage in WWII. The two stops I would highly recommend are the SeaCity and Solent Air museums.  The greater downtown area is quite walkable with lots of historical sites, shopping and services.  There are many parks which are neat & clean and have paved pathways.  Hotels are widely available at prices starting around $100 per night, and our 2 bedroom AirBnB was just over $150/night.  The pub grub was terrific, and the people we encountered were super friendly.  We'd certainly come back here again.

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