Southampton

Spending two nights in Southampton before the cruise.  We came here on the train - unfortunately managed to strain my back a little when getting the luggage onto the train, but apart from that it was a good quick trip. 
Staying at a new hotel we haven't tried before - it's called Room2 and I'd say we'll definitely be back here next year.  If nothing else, it's air-conditioned which isn't at all guaranteed here - Canberra winters have me acclimatised to sleeping temperatures around 16 or 17 degrees and here they like to warm the rooms up far too much as far as I'm concerned.  So, the ability to cool the room is great.  And, it's also a comfortable studio suite with a little kitchenette, a nice big bathroom, a king size bed and heaps of room for the luggage etc.
Today we went to Portsmouth to see the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard again - we visited a few years ago but ran out of time to see everything we wanted to, so it was good to get back there. 
Tomorrow - 31 October - we're finally off to start our cruise.  This is the third year in a row we've been booked on this cruise and the other two had to be cancelled, so I'm really looking forward to this.

28 October - Day trip to Winchester

This is Sandy's only (mostly) "post jet-lag" day before we go to Southampton.  We thought about going to Greenwich or to see Westminster Abbey, but in the end we got on a train to Winchester.
Quite a chilly day today, it only got to 10 degrees and I'm pretty sure the apparent temperature was a lot lower.  We weren't alone in our plans to go to Winchester either - when the guard looked at our tickets he exclaimed that he had no idea why everyone was going to Winchester today!
Anyway, one of the main reasons for going was to see Winchester's Military Museums. They weren't all open, but what we did see was quite impressive - in particular the really outstanding diorama of the battle of Waterloo at the Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum.
For Adam - with our new-found enjoyment of Forged in Fire - here's a few samples:

And of course, Paul with weapons:

We didn't go into the Castle or the Great Hall, but I gather they're both worth a visit.
Of course, there's the cathedral:

And the Westgate on the way there:

There are plenty of other places that we didn't get to see - for example there's a museum in the Westgate that wasn't open today, and a city museum that we glimpsed on the way back to the train.
Lunch is worth a mention - we found the Forte Kitchen.  Once you pass the challenge of a steep and narrow staircase, the food was just excellent and a truly excellent coffee.
Overall, a beautiful old English city - glad we decided to get the train rather than drive, but it seems you could easily spend a few days seeing all there is to see.

Sandy is now in England

My flights from Canberra to London went ok.  Highlights and lowlights:

• Snack on the flight from Canberra to Melbourne - yukky huge blob of hummus and 4 small, stale crackers.  Nasty
• Melbourne Airport - I've only been here a couple of times and the first thing I see is an ad for Sydney Skytrain - I was confused.  Then I was even more confused when there were zero crowds - usually you can follow other people through the departure process but I swear there was only one other person trying to go through Border security while I was - lots of lanes for people to queue, but no queues.
• Explosives test - for the first time in ages I wasn't nabbed at Canberra.  But then of course I got nabbed at Melbourne.  And, it came up positive!!  The man then had to test himself, and then test me again, twice, before they could let me through.
• Extra leg-room seats.  Both were as promised, and well worth the money, although the first one (on the Airbus from Melbourne to Singapore) would have been less comfortable except that the seat beside me wasn't occupied.  Still, next time we come to London, I'm flying business class or I'm not travelling.
• Flights - not too bad.  Singapore Airlines look after you fairly well.  It's still a horribly long flight though, and a very long flying time in the dark.  Food was quite okay - sadly I managed to actually sleep through one of the snacks (!!)  but Paul tells me I didn't miss anything good.  I didn't have Paul's issues with flight delays - he got expedited through Singapore Airport because his connecting flight was due to leave by the time they arrived, but I had enough time to walk by myself.
• Arrival in Heathrow - as usual, a very long walk to get out of the airport.  But, for a change, I felt just a little less unwelcome in England.  Each time we've arrived here for previous visits, we've had to line up with the "Non UK and EU" people and be interrogated about our reason for visiting etc.  At least this time they have now opened up the electronic arrival gates to foreigners like me, so it's just "show you passport, have your photo taken, 6 month visitor visa granted".  Almost the quickest I've ever gotten in to the country.
• Bus to Reading - not a problem, it arrived a little late but only 5 passengers and a really smooth trip.  

Met up with Paul at the bus stop at about 10am, went and had my first coffee for 30 hours (!!) then back to the apartment where he has been staying.  Wandered around the shops later, and had a look at the ruins of Reading Abbey.  All the travel caught up with me by about 5pm but I managed to stay awake for dinner and then crashed.

And all of a sudden, the next holiday is now (for Paul at least)

Paul left Canberra on Wednesday and after the usual "three flights and more than 24 hours on planes" finally arrived at his home for the next twelve days.  
I'll leave Canberra on Saturday 26 October for the same long, long haul - from Canberra to Melbourne to Singapore to Heathrow. 
The interesting thing is that both of us have our flights booked through Princess under one ticket - the two international flights with Singapore Airlines and the Virgin flight from Canberra - Melbourne ticketed with Singapore Airlines as a code-share. 
This somewhat surprisingly meant that at the normal Virgin domestic check-in at Canberra Airport, they could check Paul's luggage through to London and gave him his boarding passes for all three flights as well.  We had assumed he would need to pick up his luggage at Melbourne and check in there with Singapore Airlines, but no need.  It was the quickest check-in I have ever seen for an international flight, and the luggage found its way to Heathrow without drama.  I hope mine goes just as smoothly next week.