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| Scenic view from the bus on our way to Southampton from Brimingham |
The morning started so early and before I knew it we were at the Megabus stop in Birmingham having just said bye to the sweet waiter, Leo from last night who turned out to work at the front desk of our hotel as well.
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| Yellow flowers through a rain splattered window |
Our bus driver got lost so the bus arrived about 40 minutes late and only after the Megabus rep who coordinates travel at the waiting area went with another bus that arrived early and lead the lost driver to us. It was so, so cold but I survived waiting outside with the luggage as mom stayed warm thankfully on the early bus that went off to help lead the lost bus in.
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| The following pictures are from the famous British University town of Oxford |
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| St. Frideswide Church Oxford |
The trip was fantastic and so easy once we got rid of the luggage and were snug in our seats. No changing buses, no running from the train to the taxi to the bus and so on. And the scenic drive made the 5 hours fly by. It also helped I had a great audio book that I downloaded from the New York Public Library to enjoy as the beautiful green pastures captivated the eyes and captured the imagination. And the surprising moments when large fields of yellow flowers come up out of no where and were simply breathtaking.
And just as we arrived in Southampton city center we passed the Jury's Hotel where I had booked us a room and just about 100 feet away the driver stopped and made an announcement over the PA and I saw someone getting off so I quickly gathered my belongs and signaled to mom that we should get off and thankfully the bus driver kindly went along with our request to get off and removed our luggage from the under storage area. Technically we weren't suppose to get off until the bus station so this was such a happy turn of events. It was only a 5 minute walk in the cold and wind to get to our hotel, so perfect!
After a quick check in and dropping off our bags we headed down to the lobby cafe for a satisfying and tasty lunch. Mom went up to take a nap and rest and I went off into the town center to just explore a bit.
The city has several very pretty parks and a main shopping street with some castle remains as well small segments of ruins from the wall that apparently once encircled and protected the seaside, main shipping trade port.
The rain started to come down more ferociously and the wind picked up so I headed back to the hotel because it was just too cold for anymore exploring. Hopefully tomorrow morning before we have to take the taxi to the ship I'll have a chance to walk a bit more around the neighborhood.
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| The Rock Garden |
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| View from our room |
