Year 3 Day 339- “Living the Dream”. Friday, 4/05/2024. Day 4 of 28-day European Vacation – day 2 of 18-night Northern Europe MSC Euribia cruise. Awe, I woke up totally refreshed today. We slept like babies in a warm cozy cradle last night. The ship moved silently through the night from Le Havre, France to Southampton, United Kingdom.
Southhampton is Europe’s third busiest cruise port. The largest container ship can carry 21,417 containers. If you line those containers up it will line up 91 miles. We are already docked in the Horizon Terminal in Southampton before we headed for breakfast at 6:30 am.
Southampton is located in Hampshire, Southeast England. It is 53 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy this morning. We are going on a 7-hour excursion to Stonehenge and Salisbury today. First, we had breakfast and then we headed to immigration check in at 7:15am. Everyone on the ship must go through this immigration check in before anyone can get off the ship at this port. The first few days on board a cruise ship is made up of finding things. After a few days we will settle into sitting in the same place for breakfast and eating the same food every morning. We both like a routine in the morning. I don’t like to think about what to eat when all I really need is COFFEE!!. Even though we have never been on this ship, the Marketplace buffet is set up the same as the Maraviglia, so we basically know the layout. We met in the Delphi Theatre on deck six at 9:20 am and were escorted to our excursion bus. There were a few busses lined up to go to Stonehenge.
It took 1 1/2 hours to get to Stonehenge. On the way to Stonehenge, we drove through the New Forest National Park. There are about 5,000 wild horses in the New Forest National Park. They are not wild in the true sense, because they have owners and are looked after by Royal Foresters.
Then we passed into Wiltshire County. There are mostly farmers in Wiltshire. They mostly grow grain and keep sheep.
At Stonehenge we had 2 hours of free time. Stonehenge used to be privately owned. It was bought by local man Cecil Chubb as a gift for his wife in 1915. The site was then gifted to the nation by the couple three years later in 1918. Since then, the site has been managed by the National Trust and English Heritage. Stonehenge was very crowded with visitors. It was a check on our bucket list, but kind of disappointing and a little bit of a rip off tourist trap. In the 1970’s a fence was placed around the stones to stop the graffiti. Four times a year the ropes are taken down for the solstices. You can enter free those days, watch the sun rise and hug the stones. The rest of the time you cannot get near the stones.
After Stonehenge It took 1/2 hour to get to Salisbury.
There we visited the Salisbury Cathedral. This cathedral has the tallest spire in Britain at 404 feet. It houses the best preserved of the four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta, and it has the oldest working clock in Europe. Salisbury’s main source of economy is tourism.
Houses along the drive today had many chimneys. All I could think about was Mary Poppins. With the wind blowing at 40 mph, I kept looking for Mary Poppins to arrive from the sky even though we are not in London.
I love this area and wish I could spend some time here. What a gorgeous clean area, beautiful land which is lush and green, friendly sweet people with a great English accent, and lovely homes loaded with chimneys. I love the English countryside and the never-ending fields of yellow rapeseed flowers. The feeling driving through the countryside is unbelievable. I was overwhelmed with a strong sense of community spirit. Very few places do I want to go back and visit again. But the area around Southampton has made my list of places to return.
Thought you guys would like to see the WI-FI prices. We dio have the Browse & Stream package for the total trip. I wouldn’t go without it. So far it is really good. The only problem with MSC wi-fi is that once you connect to a device that is where the connection stays. On Royal Caribbean you can share with many devices. Just disconnect from one and connect to another. Being able to share devices is much much nicer,
Here’s today’s compass
Things to ponder today! Have to leave you thinking.
Kraft Macaroni and Cheese –Here’s a link to today’s Amazon recommendation: https://amzn.to/3UxSLkn Not the healthiest but is easy to prepare and yummy with a good healthy salad and or a vegetable. Works wells in our new world where we will be cooking mostly on the barbecue at a construction site. A good one pot filling pasta.
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To view the complete daily diary, click here – This starts at Year 1 Day 1: Living the Dream – Deestimes – Make every step of the journey count