Portswood

It was only going to be a short drive today - less than 2 hours, so we decided to do some exploring around Redditch. Mary had family from a small market town called Alcester. We parked and spent most of the morning going from shop to shop and talking to the locals. We also checked out Studley Castle where we stayed once before - they are spending £M's on it - should be great when finished.

Much to Mary's delight we bought some coat hangers - now we can dry more clothes in our room - happy wife, happy life.

The Alcester Post Office box in town was painted gold because a local won a Gold Medal at the London games- nice touch.

Halfway down to the coast we stopped at Andover - another picturesque town - again I tried to drive through the pedestrian mall - until I noticed the bemused look on the parking attendant.

Arrived at out hotel in Southampton and the hotel looks great - might stay here two nights and just do a day drive to the New Forest. The best part was - our room was on the ground floor, easy for suitcases and had a had a bathroom for people with disability - that is, a huge bathroom with plenty of space for all our stuff.

Southampton is a difficult city to drive around - no structure to the streets, shops spread all over the place and a real mix of old and new [in most big cities the old part is preserved - note to HCC].

We found a large new shopping centre and had a good shop around ending up in a Nordic restaurant - had a large share platter of fish and other Scandinavian delights.

Tomorrow its the New Forest and another night in Southampton.

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