Wednesday, June 3, 2015
We had set the phone with a wake-up call at 5am to be sure
we’d be downstairs and ready to leave the ship today at 7am. It wasn’t
necessary. They were outside on the deck below us at 4:30am banging around
getting ready. Clay was up before that. Breakfast at Terrace wasn’t until 6am
so we had no rush. There had been some talk about needing passports and
clearing customs & immigration. I don’t know if that was for passengers
leaving the ship with luggage, but it did not apply to us. We just walked right
out, albeit with a local escort to walk us through the luggage hall to the
exit. Southampton City Cruise Terminal had a very large and nice building
though we didn’t see much of it. It was a change from docking at a parking lot
or tent on a tarmac lot.
We shared a guided car tour with a couple from our Cruise
Critic roll call. It was through Salisbury & District Value Cars. For 110
pounds per person we had a very nice Mercedes van with a guide/driver from
7:10am (was supposed to be 7:30am but we were all early) to 3:30pm. It was a
bright and sunny day with temps in the 60s but with a cool breeze. It was good
to be a bit warmer and nice to see the sun shining again. The downsides were that the 4 back seats were facing each other. So, 2 people had to ride facing backwards. The 2 men volunteered but Clay said it gave him a headache and I am sure it made it harder for them to see things. The other was that English was a 2nd language for Sebastiano and it made it difficult to understand a lot of the time, though he was well-informed, informative, personable and did a great job.
We drove to Salisbury and did a self-guided tour of the
Cathedral. Well, more or less self-guided as they had brochures for that. But,
we had gotten there before they officially opened so the Donations Desk had not
opened and we just went inside and picked up brochures and started. We dropped
donations in a collection box. Shortly after we got started a volunteer found
us and kept coming back. He was very informative and would have been willing to
keep us there all day I think. Being in the huge space more or less alone was
magical. Mid-way through our visit the organist started practicing and that
just made it all the better. The best preserved copy of the 4 existing Magna
Cartas is also housed there but it was not open yet. Sebastiano, our guide said
we could come back later in the day and we did. He drove us through the
countryside and we saw thatched roofs including one under construction. We saw
sheep and lambs and pigs. We saw a small Avon River (there are 4) with swans on
it. We saw Sting’s house. We used metal rods to check out the lay lines where
the people that built Stonehenge landed the stones they moved from Wales. We
went to Stonehenge and it was stunning in the sunshine even with the crowds.
They have a new visitor/exhibition/interpretative center there and they have
done a great job. We went to a pub for lunch. Then we went to Durrington Walls
and Woodhenge. They are both sites related to Stonehenge. We were running out
of time, so we just did a drive by and stop in the van at Old Sarum without getting
out. Then we returned to Salisbury for the Magna Carta which is 800 years old
this year. It was much busier there, but we did not have a long wait.
We had to be back onboard long before the 5pm sailaway because
they had a mandatory muster drill at 4:15pm. It was our shortest yet at under
30 minutes. We went up to Horizons for the Cruise Critic meet & greet. Our
goal was to find a couple that we had arranged online with to share a cab
tomorrow in Zeebruge. That was accomplished and we learned one of the group’s
main organizers had an auto accident in London and had gone home missing our
cruise. We should have made more of an effort to keep up with the roll call!
We had dinner at 6:30pm in Polo Grill. It was good. We have to
move the clocks ahead an hour tonight. We have another early morning and long
day ahead tomorrow, so good night.
