On terra firma (but still feeling a bit of rolling)

We had a very long day yesterday. We were up at 5:30 am—actually we dozed from about 4:00 am—having packed the night before. The photos I took of my packing cubes came in very handy as I quickly figured out what went where. Sample photo below:

R always makes fun of me about “taking so many clothes” but seriously, I don’t take that much. I had four packing cubes of that size, three pairs of shoes and essential cables for my electronics and electric toothbrush (I took the charger along too.)

I actually left something behind I have dearly missed, my puffy water resistant jacket. I was okay on the boat without it because it was too windy to walk on the deck from New York to Southampton anyway. But I was cold in England today so I went hunting through the charity shops in Wimbledon for a warmish jacket this morning. No luck in the charity shops but I finally found one in a Mountain Warehouse for 70% off. Cuts into my souvenir money but oh well. Better to be warm than buy something I don’t really need anyway.

Back to yesterday and arrival and disembarkation. I watched the tug (?) guide the Queen Mary to her berth and I also saw a Saga cruise ship coming in behind us:

And then it was 7:15 and time to disembark. Our coach (bus in UK lingo) didn’t leave until 9:55 so we had a longish wait at the coach station. Why do stations always have metal seats? My behind was so cold and never really warmed up the rest of the day. The journey from Southampton to Victoria  Coach was meant to take two hours but, as what often—very sadly—happens on the M roads, someone had jumped from the pedestrian overpass onto the highway. So traffic was held back for about 20 minutes while the ambulance and air ambulance took care of them. I hope the person survived and that they get care and love.

We arrived at Victoria Coach Station at 12:15 and rolled our suitcases three city blocks to Victoria Rail/Underground Station. Where most of the escalators and elevators were out of service. R was getting testy because he was hungry and tired of rolling suitcases; rolling is better than carrying but when you have to carry them up and down cement stairs…. Anyway we found an okay place to eat lunch but we decided we were just too tired to try and put the cases in Left Luggage and go sightseeing yesterday. So we found the Underground train for Wimbledon—which of course wasn’t running directly to Wimbledon on a Sunday so we had to change trains at Earls Court. Ah Earls Court! I have bittersweet memories of that station…. 

We finally arrived in Wimbledon at 5:00 pm. Although R was annoyed we had to take a taxi from Wimbledon Station to the hotel (we couldn’t have pulled those cases up Wimbledon Hill and across the Common,) he became much happier when he saw the hotel and its grounds. The concierge was actually from British Columbia! 

And blessing of all blessings, although our room is on the top floor (I call it a Pollyanna room because it is under the eaves—if you look at the hotel photo below, we are the two windows to the far left facing the hotel—the lift/elevator was working! Hallelujah! We collapsed in our room, R immediately had a nap and I unpacked. When he woke up we ate the sandwiches we’d bought at Marks & Spencer at Victoria and it wasn’t much past 8 o’clock that I was in bed with my book. And five pages in, I was asleep.

I will do a recap of today, Monday the 25th, next.