August 21-24 North Atlantic

Well, we have completed the great circle passage across the North Atlantic Ocean and are now in coastal waters in a southwestern line from Newfoundland to New York.

We arrive in New York at 6 am on Wednesday so there are still two more days going down the coast.

The crossing hasn’t been great primarily because of the weather so I’m hoping the next couple of days will be calmer. 

Good fun playing in a Baggo Tournament!

 Norm came in 3rd

Nice and comfy at the end of the day

Sending love R/P

August 20 North Atlantic

We're on our way to New York!  Had a terrific Welcome Aboard party!

Our bed has been turned down, we have our chocolate so Nite Nite.

August 19 Southampton, Hampshire

Our last day in England.  Tomorrow we board the Queen Mary 2 for the voyage to New York.

We did some walking around the downtown and at the waterfront.

 God's House Tower

 City walls

 Words of Alfred Lord Tennyson in front of Holyrood Church

 Holyrood Church which was heavily damaged during the war in 1940

 Got a kick out of this pub!

 Titanic Engineers Memorial

Southampton also has a large indoor shopping mall very close to the harbor.  In both this shopping center and in the one in Portsmouth they have what they call Shopmobility.  This is a free service for a wheelchair or motorized scooter while you are shopping at the mall.  I think it’s wonderful but really glad I no longer need that kind of service!

Sending love R/P

August 18 Ampfield, Hampshire

We drove south to Portsmouth specifically to see the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.  Norm’s uncle Norman was a seaman on the HMS Hereward in WW2 and was lost when the ship was bombed and sunk by German divebombers north-north-east of Plaka, Crete.  His name is listed in the memorial as one of the seamen lost at sea with no known grave.

We then went to explore the harbor (of course, where else would we go?)  The harbor is a very active place to be.  There are ferries to the Isle of Wight, across the channel and to Gosport as well as an international port that is Britain’s best-connected ferry port with the most routes to France, Spain and the Channel Islands.

There is also a large shopping mall (most of it indoors) with over 90 premium retail outlet stores along with restaurants, bars and cafes.  It’s a very happening place!

We saw two things today we’ve never seen before.  The first was a children’s experience called Walk on Water.

The second was a shared sink outside the restrooms in one of the restaurants.  There were NO sinks in the restrooms.

Sending love R/P

August 17 Ampfield, Hampshire

A visit to Romsey was lovely this morning and we had a tour of Romsey Abbey which dates from c907.  Walking around, I saw this stone.

Romsey Abbey

Just across the street was King John’s House confirmed as built in 1256 but named in 1927 when it was thought to be the hunting lodge that King John built in c1206.  This was once the major building in a large medieval complex.  During WW2 Romsey was used as a remount camp housing up to 5,000 horses at any one time before being shipped off to the front.  As a community art project in 2011 visitors were encouraged to make individual terracotta horses and these were so popular that they have been put on display again this August as part of the 100^th anniversary of WW1 commemorations.

We then went back to Winchester and stopped at The Great Hall.  This is one of the finest surviving medieval halls which contains the legendary Round Table.  Although legend has associated the table with King Arthur and His Knights, it was actually built in the late 13^th or early 14^th century.

One wall in the Great Hall has a mural done in the 19^th century that shows the names of Hampshire’s Members of Parliament from 1283 to 1868.

On this same wall are The Wedding Gates which are stainless steel gates created as a gift from Hampshire to commemorate the marriage of Charles and Diana in 1981.  This wall was formerly the outer wall of Winchester Castle and is 10 feet thick!

We had to go back to Winchester Cathedral so we could go inside.  Amazing place – certainly one of the most beautiful cathedrals we’ve ever seen as well as one of the largest in Britain.

Norm sitting in a church????

Sending love R/P

August 16 Ampfield, Hampshire

We stopped in Winchester to see the downtown.  In fact, we ended up exploring Winchester Cathedral, the Guildhall, the Abbey and Wolvesey Castle.  There is more to see there and we may go back as it’s quite close to where we are staying.  Of course, all afternoon and evening we have periodically breaking into song;

Winchester Cathedral
You're bringing me down
You stood and you watched as
My baby left town

You could have done something
But you didn't try
You didn't do nothing
You let her walk by

Now everyone knows just how much I needed that gal
She wouldn't have gone far away
If only you'd started ringing your bell

Winchester Cathedral
You're bringing me down
You stood and you watched as
My baby left town

Winchester Cathedral 

Alfred, King of the West Saxons, Winchester 

 Wolvesey Castle

Abbey gardens

We’ve lucked out in our choice of hotel – the Potters Heron Hotel – and we will stay here for 3 nights.  It’s a really lovely place and we will enjoy this as our base.

Sending love R/P

August 15 Alton Hampshire

Very lazy day today.  After arriving here we walked around the town, then had a nap, dinner, then watched TV.

We've had a good laugh because to get to our hotel room we had to climb 37 steps and make 12 turns.  Then the top of the doorway hit Norm at eye level.  He's had issues on this trip with low doorways, ceilings and fixtures.