New Forest

Off the ship for the final time this morning about 8 am. We arranged to get a cab to the rail station with a couple of friends we made on the ship and disembarking was so easy we were off the ship and at the station within 25 minutes which meant over an hour’s wait for our 9.30 train to Waterloo station in London.

That all went smoothly enough and we arrived about 11.15 and picked up a black taxi to our hotel/apartment in South Kensington. You know how Londons cabbies used to do “the knowledge” (which was a test that meant they had to memorise every street and the quickest direction to it in central London)? Our cabbie was obviously a complete failure at the knowledge as after 40 minutes in his taxi we were further away from where we wanted to be than when we started.

We had done this trip a few times before so I knew he was completely lost and following a few increasingly heated exchanges we parted ways, settling on a ten pound (out of the 45 on the meter) as fair exchange for his uselessness. I imagine he can still hear the very colourful language I used as I left the cab and hopefully my parting advice to him about choosing a different career path comes to fruition.

Anyway ten minutes and one driver who did actually know his way around later, we were at the Collingham apartments. We have stayed here about 4 times previously and they really look after us. We have been given a split level balcony apartment and there was a bottle of wine and chocolates awaiting us on arrival.

London has a reputation for cool cloudy weather, well not today! Almost 30 degrees with more just like it forecast for the next few days. It was a very hot and sweaty journey by tube out to Camden Town Markets for the afternoon where we were met by every other person in London who also wanted to be there on a Saturday afternoon - jeez it was packed!

Made a few purchases and made our way back to Kensington about 4 pm. After a quick stop at one of the local pubs and a bit of supermarket shopping we decided to call a halt to the day about 6 pm.

I had intended to get to a local football match (probably QPR) but the time it took to get to our apartment and the crowds at Camden Town put paid to that. A quiet night in cooking for ourselves in preparation for another day in the London heat tomorrow.

Photos show... The Collingham Apartments; several shots of the inside and balcony of room 122...Read more