Day 13 -- 6/13 - Travel by Rail to London

 This morning we disembarked the Regal Princess In Southampton for the last time.   It was a mess doing their method of disembarkation.  Princess really needs to do better.  The plan was to catch a train to Midgham and visit a friend from Australia who is working here for a year.  We hailed a taxi, and the driver offered to drive us there, which we accepted.  He was very sociable and we totally enjoyed the conversation.  At Midgham train station at around 9am, he dropped us off. Before I go much further I should add that this is my wife's birthday today and this trip was partially to celebrate that.













We walked a short distance to a local pub where we were to meet our friend who couldn't be there until 11am.  We found a picnic table in the shade beside the Kennet River & canal and enjoyed the canal views including canal boats and a lock and a swinging bridge which we got to see operate a couple times.  It was very cool. Alice arrived at 11am and we totally enjoyed our our long chat.  She's 6 months into her contract.  We finally had to say our goodbyes and off she walked to her boarding school.

Since the pub was now open we decided to eat lunch before taking the train to London.  The fish & chips were the best of the trip so far.  We walked back to the train station and waited for our 1:22 train to Reading where we would transfer to an express train to London's Paddington Station.  There we transferred to the underground using the same ticket and headed for the King's Cross station.  At the King's Cross station it was a bit confusing how to find the correct exit, but we finally figured it out.  A friendly policeman helped with directions to the canal and soon (4pm) we were at the Spectrum, a canal boat moored on the Regent's Canal next to a floating bookstore. How cool is this!


Amanda, the owner, is an expat from Oregon who owns 3 of these canal boats and rents this one out as an AirBnB unit.  She wasn't there but the bookstore proprietor phoned her and soon she arrived and gave us an orientation.  The Spectrum is a solar powered long and skinny canal boat with a pull out sofa bed, compact kitchen, compact bathroom and not a lot of storage.  There's no shoreside 230v electricity; just 12v to run the lighting and the water pumps and 230v through a converter.  We view it as "glamping" or like camping in our travel trailer at home.  It's very eclectic in its decor with maybe a bit too much loose stuff and no storage space whatsoever.  But we love it for how we are traveling since all we really need is a place to sleep and since our plan is to tour all day and go to the theater every night. All this is just $100 per night which is dirt cheap for lodging in Central London.  


Amanda said goodbye, and we prepared to head out for the theater which is a short subway ride away.  We saw the Tina Turner Story musical and it was excellent.  The ending is super powerful.  We hopped back on a very crowded Piccadilly line train back to King's Cross station and walked back to our canal boat.  Unfortunately there was a strong police presence (a purse snatching attempt and altercation) and our direct access was blocked.  A policeman showed us an alternative access method, but we decided to provision up at a local mini market before walking back to the boat by a different route.

Back at the boat, we made up the bed and called it a day.  It was a very long day, but it was a good day being able to see our friend, travel by train, navigate the subway, and now stay on a canal boat.


Tomorrow we plan to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, tour the city on a Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) bus and take in a second musical.

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