Been away for almost a month and at the start of our holiday spent some time on the Solent to see the Royal Princess inaugural visit to Southampton for its naming ceremony. For the journey up the Solent it rained, and rained, sunny before, sunny after but not for that 40 minutes.
The rest of our time in England was sunny, as it was when we left St Peter Port with the Hanseatic at the anchorage on a visit from St Malo with just under 200 guests aboard. Good to see the liners from the "sea" side of Guernsey.
The day the Royal Princess arrived, Southampton had 4 others liners in port producing a queue to depart.
As they departed the ships' whistles acknowledgement of each other was good to listen to with the Royal Princess winning, although the deep tone of the Queen Mary was special.
As the liners departed there was much waving between the thousands of guests on board each one, some off on a 2 week cruise, one of the liners off to Guernsey and Zeebruge.
The Hythe Pier was a ideal viewing spot jutting out into the Solent with its oldest Pier Train in the world. The pier was opened in 1881.
The Hythe foot ferry into Southampton is the daily commute for many people producing a different view to that which most workers see on the daily ride. The 15 minute ride produces one of the best views of shipping in the Port of Southampton
Glad to see you back!
ReplyDeleteI love this blog, I'm also off on Azura in October too, so its always nice too see her visit here.