Cultural landmarks of Egypt and India day -1

Sightseeing stroll through Southamton. This is the Queens Peace Fountain in East Park

Blogs are going to be sparse, so take every opportunity for free WiFi.

Having weighed our suitcases and found out that the lift at Alvechurch station was broken, we left early, to get on the train going in the wrong direction. Well it’s the same train, goes to Redditch and turns round, so made sense to us. We also made the late breaking decision to get the earlier train as it made no sense to sit on the sofa when we could sit safely at New Street.

Jackies nails are painted - Wow! How weird is that!

After a completely uneventful train journey we arrived at Southampton Central and eventually found our way to the Ibis, dumped our bags and went for a walk round Southampton. It felt like we’d been sitting on a train all day, and really we had!

Interesting art by the City Council buildings

Very pleased we did, it was a really happening place, we headed towards the big wheel we could see from our window. Turns out there were also a few other temporary amusements, not that we were tempted, but watching the lads sitting in a ball before being catapulted skywards was quite interesting!

The O2 Guildhall

A quick walk through the German Christmas market and East Park made us think we should come back and spend a few days.

Temporary amusements in Guildhall Square. In front of the big wheel, above the green light is  a cage with two young lads in it. They had just been catapulted upwards by the two bungee cords, spun round and round and bounced up and down. They went up so fast I missed them and only got this towards the end of the bouncing. Wishing good luck to two other 16'ish lads who were waiting for their go they said in the most casual voice they could muster 'we'll be alright!' Oh yes, I remember being like that!

A quick drink before watching our last Strictly. A terrible night’s sleep, and today we are off. Watch this space, but think of us crossing the Bay of Biscay! If you want to know where we are you can track the Bolette here on Fred Olsens website: click here and click on Bolette

This is the Titanic Engineers monument erected by friends and engineers around the world in memory of the heroics of the engineers and officers on board that night. Southampton was the port from which the Titanic departed on its fateful mission. 

Bargate. The Medieval gatehouse that formed part of the original city walls. Its now in the cultural centre and had the German market, amusement rides and bands playing all around it. Quite a night