Saturday, August 03, 2013

Friday July 19th - The day before the cruise!

Today we left Beryl's and met Nigel and Denise for lunch at The Queen Inn, Dummer, Hants. We had eaten there once before with Kevin and Joan and as it happened it was conveniently on the way to Southampton just off the M3 and not far from Pangbourne for Nigel and Denise.

After lunch Nigel got his brand new mountain bike out of the trunk of his car for me to try out. It's got a carbon fiber frame, disc brakes and fully adjustable front and rear shocks, an awesome bike.

The Queen Inn at Dummer

The Queen Inn's sign

Steve on Nigel's bike w/Nigel

Jill, Steve and Nigel

Jill with Nigel and Denise
We carried onto Southampton and dropped off the rental car at the airport and then caught a taxi to our hotel for the night, the Ennios Boutique Hotel. We had stayed there in 2011 when we traveled on the Queen Mary 2 from Southampton to New York. After check in we took a short walk around along the Town Quay;

The Quay at Southampton with our hotel in the background

A cruise ship in Southampton dock, not ours!
We had arranged to have dinner with Alan and Kate and had made a reservation in the hotel restaurant, rated the 7th best Italian in the UK! Had a great meal and enjoyed catching up with them as we had only met them briefly while we were in Australia in 2003.

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