Empress Dock

Sometimes things don’t go quite as planned which seems to be a bit of a recurring theme so far... The delay meant we had to jump on-line and change our transport arrangements to Southampton (at a cost of an extra 20 pounds).

So the flight from Singapore was delayed, and delayed, eventually taking off just after 3 am. The flight itself was pretty uneventful with a sleeping pill ensuing 9 of the 13 hour flight passed with me knowing nothing about it. We were just about to land at Heathrow (literally just over the end of the airport) when we had to do an emergency go around as there was a plane on the runway in the way. Luckily no issue apart from from some startled looks on the passengers faces and we eventually landed safely.

A quick trip through immigration and then onto the loser cruiser (err...bus) to Southampton arriving about 2.30pm. We are staying at the Premier Inn West Quay which is pretty basic but close to the centre of the city. So we walked down to the Sea City museum to visit the Titanic exhibition and history of the Southampton (both really good).

While we were there we saw some photos and commentary about Robert Hickens who was the grandfather of a friend of Christines (Deidre) and the Quartermaster on the Titanic. More of him later as we have a special job to do when we get to the Titanic Experience in Belfast.

We went out for dinner and were going to a local pub (the Titanic) which is cute from the outside (see attached picture) but really basic and I don’t say that lightly. It had a small but friendly crowd of regulars so we had a couple of drinks there and adjourned to the nearby Standing Order pub for actual dinner.

An early night as we were both knackered after about 38 hours of travel/faffing around.

Photos attached show our seats from Chch to Singapore; Singapore Airport terminal 3; seats on the much delayed flight to Heathrow; the double round approach to Heathrow; the Standing Order pub; the Titanic pub; the old City Gates Southampton; a bio of Deirdre’s grandfather; a mock up of class 2 Titanic cabin; a article from an April 1912 newspaper again featuring Dee’s grandfather.Läs mer