Jolly Old England - Day One of Five

Sept 10, 2007

On a sunny, warm September 10th at precisely 6 a.m. the Queen Mary 2 slipped quietly into her berth at her historic homeport in Southampton, England. Knowing that we would have a long morning of touring the English countryside, we ate a full breakfast upstairs at an unusually crowded King’s Court buffet. Not knowing that our English breakfast staples would be replicated for the next 5 days, we ate our usual eggs, baked beans, baked tomato halves, English sausage, hearty whole grain bread and coffee.

One of the most convenient aspects to a transatlantic crossing aboard the QM2 is the orderly immigration inspection taking place over the course of three days. What this means is that upon docking, all you have to do is claim your luggage and you are good to go. No long queues to wait and wait to get your passport stamped. So with this complete, all we had to do was look for the bus driver holding a sign with, “Sherry Kennedy’s Group” printed on it. Sure enough, there he was standing by his twelve passenger van, allowing plenty of room for our luggage. By 10 a.m. we and our luggage were loaded onto the van and off we went. 

The plan was to make a stop at ancient Stonehenge and spend time walking around and back into the van to the next destination. Simply put, Stonehenge was awesome. A six-thousand year old purpose-built rock pile and no one knows for sure why they were placed there, let alone how they were placed there. As our admission was pre-paid, we bypassed the line to purchase tickets, picked up our hand-held information speaker and off we proceeded to explore and learn about the massive granite formation.  An hour or so later, we were on the road to the medieval town of Salisbury – and the centuries-old Salisbury Cathedral.

Comments

[Sydney Cohen]

Hi Sherry!

I am really enjoying reading your "Queen Mary" blog. My mother and I are set to sail her fron NY at the end of July 2009. We were also thinking of stopping by Stonehenge after we get off of the ship and then heading into London afterwards to our hotel. Can you give me any advice on the travel arrangements for that? It is just the two of us so hiring a van might not be the most frugal way to go. Just wondered because we will also be carrying all of our luggage around- ugh.

Thanks!
Sydney

[Sherry]

Hi Sydney,
Thank you for your nice comments and glad that you enjoyed reading about my trip.

The most economical way for you and your mom to visit Stonehenge (and a trip to England would not be complete without it) would be when you get to your hotel, ask or find the tourist brochures. There are several companies that pick up at the hotels for day trips to Stonehenge, The Baths, Salisbury Cathedral etc. Then you are part of the group and don't have to pay to hire your own van. You can even take a day trip into Paris or Scotland. I'm taking the Queen Mary 2 back to England in November. With a bit of good planning, I'll have 1 1/2 days to spend there before I "run" to Amsterdam for a Uniworld River Cruise.

Thank you again. I will be working on updating this blogsite. Please check back again and let me know about your trip. Have a wonderful time! If you can, have lunch at the Todd English restaurant...see the astronomy show...watch the RADA players perform...it'll be a wonderful cruise!
Sherry

[Sydney Cohen]

Thanks Sherry! You have wonderful information here. Your blog is terrific and I am definitely living vicariously through you! Color me jealous! Have a great time in November!
Sydney