Monday - April 18, 2005
England: Southampton
This was definitely a day of emotional conflict for us. After two days of packing and some pretty rough seas crossing the dreaded Bay of Biscay, we arrived in Southampton, the last port of call on our QE2 World Cruise. It was a bittersweet time because although we would be transferring to the "biggest, tallest, widest, grandest ship in the world", the Queen Mary 2, for our transatlantic crossing to New York and home, I really hated to say goodbye to the QE2 and all her wonderful staff. Stateroom 2057 had been home for us for the last three and a half months and we were really going to miss it. The good news was that the friends we had made on the voyage would be with us on the QM2 and were feeling the same sense of separation.
The day started very early for us because we had to have breakfast and be out of our cabins by 9:00 am, and from there on in the day was a case of hurry up and wait. We waited to disembark, we waited on a bus until the QM2 was ready to take us, we waited in line to register and to board the ship, we waited in line for an elevator with all the other passengers who had cabins on the 12th deck.... And then once we got to the room and got rid of our hand luggage, we got off the ship! My Aunt Peggy and cousins Tina and Mike were driving down from Bristol to meet us for lunch, so we hurried off the ship through the crew exit and flagged a taxi to the hotel where we were to meet. The taxi took off and then...we waited. Not only was there a big soccer match in Southampton that afternoon, there had also been a horrific traffic accident between a van and a motorcycle at an intersection between the ship and the hotel!
After getting out of the taxi and walking the last few hundred yards, we all met up and had a wonderful reunion over a pub lunch. It was so good to see them again and they had lots of questions about the trip. They said they had been reading this Blog faithfully and were enjoying the trip vicariously, which is exactly what I hoped people would do when I started this journal. All too soon it was time to be back on the ship, and the traffic was still all backed up. But my cousin Mike is an intrepid driver (he could drive a taxi in Malaga!), and he squeezed his car through the traffic to get us back in good time. We got back to our cabin and were bemoaning the fact that we hadn't suggested that they stay and see us off, when we got a call on the mobile from Mike saying they had gone for a coffee to wait for our departure time and were now back and on the dock. We went out onto our balcony on the 12th deck up and could clearly see them parked on a quiet dock with very few others. (In the photo I have included here, you can clearly see Mike standing by the edge of the dock taking photos of the ship (included below)and Tina and Peggy standing by their car.)
It was a great feeling to see them standing there and waving when the ship pushed out from the dock. I waved back frantically, hoping they could see us, and was still waving when we were long past them. After all the departures we have enjoyed on this trip, it was wonderful to be waving to some people I love instead of to strangers.
The photos of the QM2 were taken by my cousin Mike as we departed (he emailed them to me). If you look closely, you can see an orange dot on the observation deck under the bridge, just to the left of a huge spot light hanging down. That's my Mike, and I'm standing next to him. And the other photo shows the Queen Mary 2 about to pass the QE2 as we head off to the Solent and the Isle of Wight. I must say that standing up on the 12th deck gives one the feeling of being on top of the world, it is so high up.
So now we are off on the last leg of this great adventure. I'll tell you more about the QM2 in another entry.