October 4 Southampton Day #2

October 04, 2022

Cloudy sky, light breeze and 15°C this morning. We walked to the Poppins restaurant on High Street which was less than a ten minute walk away, just a bit further than we walked to get to the pub last night. We were the only customers at 8:30 on a Tuesday morning. Poppins was on the sea side of the Bargate on High Street. Yesterday we saw the north side of it. Bargate was built with flint and stone. As mentioned yesterday, in 1280, builders added imposing round drum towers on this north side, on either side of the large archway, including a watch bell to warn people if invaders were nearby. In 1320, the upper floor was extended and became an impressive guildhall. Southampton suffered major damage in World War II with almost nightly bombing during the Blitz (September 1940 and May 1941). Over that time 30,652 incendiary bombs were dropped. The worst night was November 30-December 1, 1940 which destroyed the town centre. 3,589 buildings were destroyed and over 40,000 buildings were damaged in the German air raid.

Next, we looked for a shoe repair shop to fix the small separation of the sole on one of my dance shoes. After asking at a shoe store, we went to Timpson, in the Marlands Shopping Center. The does lots of different services - locksmith, key cutter, engraver, phone repairs, shoe repair and more. The sole was glued back within 30 minutes. We continued our wander around the Old City through Palmerston Park into the college area where we passed the St. Mary’s Church and its clock tower. We kept our bearings by consulting the maps at many of the corners in the area. We explored the ruins of Holyrood Church at Bernard Street and High Street which is a memorial to the Merchant Navy. We were just two blocks away from where we ate breakfast. Across the street on the opposite corner were two red stone buildings the Market Chambers and Holyrood Chambers. We walking south along High Street and saw The Red Lion pub, near the red stone old Post Office buildings. There was a convenience grocery store that we explored which had Pepsi and Coca-Cola products, Heinz soups and sauces, Cadbury and Nestle chocolate bars, Oreo cookies and many recognizable brands. Nearby there was a booth containing a phone and defibrillator. A pharmacy advertised that Flu vaccines were now available.

We reached Town Quay Road where there were ruins of buildings and a sign explaining that French Huguenot refugees arrived in 1685 and they integrated into the Southampton community. At Town Quay Road and Bugle Street we passed the Dancing Man Brewery bar and restaurant on the way to Mayflower Park which had a view of the cruise terminal with no ships in today. The port is actually on the River Test. There are two other rivers in the area, River Itchen runs through greater Southampton and River Hamble is further southeast. They both flow into River Test that then flows into The Solent. The Solent is the body of water on the north coast of the Isle of Wight. The south coast of the Isle of Wight is surrounded by the English Channel. There was also a view of the cargo ships, there was a container ship, “ONE” being loaded. We have seen the pink “ONE” boxcars on trains at home. We made our way over to gate 8 which has Berth 101 where the Anthem of the Seas will arrive early tomorrow morning. Finally, we strolled past gate 7, where there was a ferry loading cars, on the way to Town Quay. We walked to the end to look over at gates 4 and 5 to see if a Cunard passenger ship was docked – not today. We had left the hotel almost four hours ago and headed back. When we got there, the step count was 12, 956.

Mid afternoon we passed the Titanic Pub as we ventured back to the Marlands Shopping Center for Costa coffee and S’more cake. Then browsed in the £ store, like our Dollar stores, and the large ASDA grocery store. While at Coata coffee there had some rain since we crossed a wet street with water running down the hill.

Dinner was a short walk away from the hotel at the West Quay Retail Park. Bill’s Restaurant was a five walk away. However, we were not sure where in the mall it was and entered on level 2. Checking the map, Bill’s was on level 1. There was a staircase nearby and we descended to the second level of a carpark and then down to street level. We turned right and should have turned left. The West Quay mall is surrounded on two sides with parking garages, which were the sides that we were walking. Finally, we found Portland Terrace on the third side of the mall and found an entrance which was the same level where we started on the other. We went outside again and found the steps leading down toward the city wall and saw the Bill’s sign. It took over 15 minutes when it should have been just 5 minutes. Dinner was delicious. We chose a fixed price meal ordering calamari as a starter and sea bass for the entrée, both were cooked perfectly. Our walk back to the hotel was more direct. We just had to follow the city wall along Western Esplanade to West Quay Road and the hotel was visible. We had used this street several times during our two day stay in Southampton.

Total steps 20,665 = 12 km