Southern England - Boarding the Queen Mary2

 

Our last post had us in the quaint village of Broadway in The idyllic Cotswolds.

Since then we stayed in 2 more AirBnb's and are currently in a Hotel a mile or so from the dock where we will board the QM2 tomorrow.     The map below will show the travels from our last post up to now.

Starting with our last post... 

Our 2-weeks having come to a close, we moved south to the Atlantic Coast to the small town of West Bay.

Our time on this side of the Atlantic is drawing quickly to a close and I had scheduled 6 nights at a very nice condo next to a marina and just steps from the Ocean.    Unfortunately, the weather was quite uncooperative with rain and really strong winds.    This and a recovering dog kept us mostly close to home.

The view from our condo

The winds reached up to 70 mph while here.

along the seawall in West Bay

From West Bay - we moved to a really nice barn conversion outside of Melksham, UK.

On the way we made a slight detour to visit the Caen Hill locks.

There are 29 locks in total, divided into 3 groups, the largest of which contains 16 and is the one that we visited.

Caen Hill Locks

Caen Hill Locks - view from the top

Barge Boats above the Caen Hill Locks

Our home for the next 5 nights - our final AirBnb of the trip was a really nice barn conversion.   Surrounded by gardens, fruit trees and fields, it was a nice restful place to get regrouped and ship shape for our transition from shoreside life to getting on board.

Our home in Melksham, UK

While here we visited the nearby picture postcard village of Lacock.

The town has been the filming location for many films, the most notable being the Harry Potter Series.

Lacock, UK

As soon as we arrived here, we realized that we'd been here back in 2018 with our friends from Switzerland.

Lacock, UK

Lacock, UK

We had previously had lunch in the Red Lion Pub.

The Red Lion - Lacock, UK

We took a stroll around the grounds of Lacock Abbey.

Lacock Abbey

And finally a stroll around the grounds at home.

Grounds around our home in Melksham

Grounds around our home in Melksham

Soon it was time to move on to our final stop of the trip.   A hotel in Southampton for 2 nights about a mile from the dock.     Haveing a couple of hours to kill, we made a detour to Bournemouth, UK to get our last UK seashore fix.

Bournemouth UK

With a huge sandy beach - we could see that this place must be hopping in the summer.   Being a mid week day in the fall, it was nice and quiet.

Bournemouth UK

Riding the range inBournemouth UK

Finally it was time to check into the hotel.    We unloaded the luggage, and then I took the car back to Volkswagen.   It was hard to belived that I'd picked it up there over 5 months earlier!

Hotel in Southampton

Hotel in Southampton

Today being our final day on shore, we took a walk thru town.

Southampton, UK

There is an old defensive wall around the town.   The current one dates to the 1300's.    It's not as complete or ancient as the one in Chester, but still is an interesting structure.

Defensive Wall in Southampton

Finally came boarding day....

Time to shift gears and say goodbye to Europe and reset our sights westward.

Our Ubers came right on time and we took the 5 minute drive to the terminal.

The great thing about having dogs is that they always wave you right to the front of the line.

We checked in and waited about 15 min for Olliver & John the Kennelmasters to come down to escourt us onto the ship.

Then we passed thru security and waited for the rest of the pack to clear thru.

Our Queens Grill Suite

Then we made the mad dash thru the ship up to the kennels on deck 12 where we went over procedures for the "newbies" and soon it was time to tuck the dogs into bed till we go back up at 5 pm.

Normal visiting hours will be 8a-12p. 3p-6p abd 7:30 to 8:30.   As you can see - with the exeption of the 12-3pm shift, most of the day will be kennel time or rushing to and from feedings,

After dropping of the dogs we went down to our stateroom to check on luggage and get our key cards so that we could check into our muster stations.

Our Queens Grill Suite

After taking care of business we went down to the Queens Grill Restaurant for lunch.   

On Cunard there are 3 basic levels of service.    Think coach, coach premium, business, and first class on an airline.    Queens Grill is first class with it's own resturant, lounge, outdoor area etc.    Sort of an old left over from the Titanic days.    The rooms are much larger and have a butler, but the real draw is the Queens Grill Resturant.    The daily menu is extensive and you are not limited to what is on the menu...   If they have the ingredients on the ship, they will make whatever you ask for.

Having sailed QG a number of times before we have gotten to know Osman, the matre d quite well.    This time he reserved us a great window table right overlooking the stern of the ship!   One of the nicest tables in the whole restaurant.   This table is ours for the entire trip - breakfast, lunch, dinner.

 

Lunch at our great table

QG Restaurant seen from our table looking forward

We both opted for the Soup (vegetable) and Sandwich (Roast beef hoagie with horseradish mayo)

Kate washed it all down with a brownie and vanilla ice cream and I had the strawberry crumble with a vanilla sauce.

Then I took a couple of laps on the promenade deck and went to check out the aqua spa,    

I like to sign up for the weekly pass and go take advantage of the hot pools, steam rooms saunas etc.   We usually squeeze that in each day during the 12-3 kennel break and mix in some deck laps followed by lunch and return to the kennel at 3.

I discovered that I forgot a bathing suit...   When the shops open I'll have to see if they have something for me.

Lastly - I checked the marine weather maps for the week.   It looks like we might have a bit of weather Sunday into Monday, but then later thursday there appears to be some sort of tropical event coming up the coast and right into our path.    Should be an interesting ride.

Just as I was finishing up this post, the Queen Anne - Cunards newest ship was departing Southampton.   We will be leaving in an hour or so.    Anytime these ships get together, horns start blowing and people start cheering.