Day -01 - Fri - 09/26/2025 - Southampton

 On this, our planned rest day, we did not set any alarm to get up and it was well after 9:30 before we stirred. After getting ready for the day, we prepared a simple breakfast of toast and jelly and hot tea and some cereal and talked about what we would do this day. The general plan was to head out in search of a grocery store to buy a few provisions and then to walk around the neighborhood and perhaps walk the Southampton Commons, which is a very large park right near our Airbnb.

With breakfast completed, we headed on out and walked to the west about 10 minutes and found a nice little grocery store where we bought some provisions. The next stop was to find a hardware store where I could see if they had a door latch set for our daughter's home. Her home was built by a person who used all European hardware and they have a latch assembly that's broken and we couldn't find anything in the US to fit. So we strolled south along Winchester Avenue and found a Wickes home center, which is like a Home Depot only on a little bit smaller scale. With some help from an employee, we quickly found the lock assembly that I needed and it measured out perfectly for the need we have. So for £8, I purchased one of the assemblies. If in fact this fits, on one of our return trips (yes we are planning to come back multiple times in the next few months), I may purchase a few more for them to have backups in case other latches fail.

We continued our walk south on Winchester Avenue and found another grocery store where we bought a few more items and then noted on the side of the building some interesting signage about how the building was used during the second war as a dispersed factory for Spitfire airplane parts. Our route then took us back to the east and the Southampton Commons Park. This park is the largest in Southampton and it has many miles of walking paths and many large open areas and a number of lakes and children's play facilities. There was also a small café (Hawthorns) in the middle of the park and we took the opportunity to eat a lunch there. I chose a dish that had french fries covered in bacon and bits of ham and sliced breaded chicken and cheese melted on all of that. All of this was covered with a light dusting of barbecue sauce. I found that this definitely rivaled poutine however, there were way more french fries than I could begin to eat. Angela enjoyed the sandwich with a salad and after this filling meal, we continued our stroll to the south border of the park before turning back north, and we walked in the entire length of the park back to our Airbnb, which is about 300 yards away from the northern park boundary.

We dropped off our purchases and I laid down to take a short nap and rest up. After this little rest, we then decided to venture out and find some dinner at a nearby pizza and chicken place. It was about a 10 minute walk and located near the grocery store that we had found earlier in the day. I ordered the two piece chicken meal which came with french fries and a drink and Angela had chicken kebab. The french fries were totally overwhelming of my meal and I couldn't begin to eat them after having so many at the lunch hour. Angela's chicken dish was also very plentiful and she saved enough that we were going to use for breakfast the following morning. After finishing dinner, we headed back to the Airbnb and prepared for bed.

Tomorrow is our embarkation day on the Emerald Princess and I verified that it was in France and had departed for Southampton and due in at 7 AM on Saturday morning. With that it was time to try and get some more sleep and catch up on missed rest and the time change. It's probably important to know that I did wake up at 4 AM this morning and watched the game cast of the last part of the Seattle Mariners baseball game which was a major sleep interruption, but with the Mariners in the playoff scenarios, it has a high interest for us. But the downside is that it's very hard on sleep. England is eight hours ahead of Seattle time so evening games that start at 7 o'clock Seattle time start at 2 AM London time. It should be an interesting next few days are in the playoffs, but the hour is early.

Embarkation  day is tomorrow and we are certainly ready to get back on a ship. This cruise will be approximately 30 days long and includes a trip up to the northern tip of Norway in search of the northern lights. It's one of the few cruises that leaves a port in one country and makes all of the remaining stops in another single country before returning to the embarkation port. After returning to Southampton, we visit a few ports in Europe before sailing back to Florida. Then after returning home we're only there for a couple days before flying back to England and we're doing another 30 day cruise on an entirely different route on a different Princess ship but ending again back and Florida in early December.  This means that we will do two transatlantic cruises within a month on two different ships. Yes, we like cruising and sea days.