World Tour Part IX

Wednesday 18th June 2008 - Dover UK

After all the work I did yesterday, washing and packing we realized that needed to either buy ANOTHER suitcase or send some more clothes home! Jan and I had already brought a medium sized suitcase each a month ago and we had already sent 2 boxes of winter clothes home from Prague so somehow we have accumulated more things and have a real problem. Must have brought too many clothes in Italy!

So, today in Dover Nick and I venture into town to the Post Office. We have packed up 2 bags of more 'winter clothes' and purchase a post box which will fit it all in. $150-00 Australian Dollars it costs us to send. I guess when you add it all up its probably better to send things home rather than pay exess baggage and as we are hiring a car and driving throughout the south of England we don't want to have to be lugging suitcases along with us.

After taking care of this task we walk into town. Surprisingly this is quite a lovely little town, easy to get around and quite quaint.

We find a lovely little outdoor cafe and order a beer and steak sandwich while Nick reads the paper (he hasn't seen an English speaking newspaper for so long so is quite novel and is interested to catch up with what's been happening in the world. I am happy to do some 'people watching' and after an hour and a half we decide to go back to the ship to finish our packing.

We decide to have an early dinner and early night as we begin another adventure tomorrow.

Thursday 19th June 2008 - Southampton, United Kingdom

We rise early and have a light breakfast before going to the Pursers Desk to pick up our passports so that we can disembark. Once there they hand me my passport but have a problem locating Nicks. We had arranged to meet Jan and Barrie at a certain time so that we could all disembark together but we were in the hands of the cruise staff now and didn't have any other option other than to wait.

After about an hour and with some alarm the Purser arrived with his passport. Apparently, there are 4 safes on the ship and they couldn't find which one they had put his into. I think they need a better system as we were completely at their mercy as we were unable to go anywhere without those passports.

We met up with Jan and Barrie and before long were in a taxi heading to the location to pick up our car.

I was the designated driver, Jan was the navigator and Nick and Barrie were our 'crew'! i.e. they looked after the finer points of finding accommodation, finding places to stop for sightseeing, rest stops, coffee and just a general look around. This arrangement worked perfectly.

Tonight we are already booked into "Stowell Farm", a 15th Century Farmhouse in Sherborne a couple of hours drive from Southampton.

As we are not due to be there until 5pm this evening we decide to take a slow drive and have a look around the countryside on the way.

We arrive at the farm at 5pm as arranged and are greeted by our hostess Liz. She is a lovely English lady and welcomes us with a lovely afternoon tea before showing us to our rooms.

This is a working farm so it was fascinating to see the cows waiting to be milked. It brought back memories of when I was a little girl and loved to visit my aunt and uncles dairy farm at Ingleburn.

As the sun doesn't set here until about 11pm at night Nick and I made the most of the daylight hours and had a walk around the farm. It is absolutely beautiful and we were fascinated reading the inscriptions on the headstones of the graves in the adjoining church.

We decided we would drive a few Kms down the road to the local pub, "The White Horse Inn" for dinner and enjoyed meeting some of the locals, plus our hosts who enjoy Thursday nights here playing indoor bowls which is very popular here in the south of England.