Hampshire to Singapore

Another catch up blog, we have been so busy sightseeing and revisiting the places from Jill's childhood, that by the time we get back to Christine's & Michael's have a couple of drinks before tea, then enjoy more of Christine's wonder full cooking, the blog seems to have fallen behind.

But here we go the story so far.

Tuesday the 22nd.

We decided not to go to far afield and first up we went for a stroll around to Jill's old house which was about a kilometre from C&M's with all the time Jill gushing about how wonderful the area was.

We arrived home from there and drove through to Petersfield Lake and took a stroll around there, then it was off to the Red Lion Hotel, a traditional thatched roof English Country Hotel where we dined on some roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and other fine meals.

We left the Red Lion and it was time for the boys revenge, as M&C took us to the B&O store which is the equivalent to Bunnings. Once inside the boys systematically went down each aisle and compared price and quality of each product. But alas we could of spent whole days in there and the girls would still have the edge in retail hours spent. From there we went to a local lookout and enjoyed an ice cream in the lovely English Sunshine as we enjoyed the view of Portsmouth and surrounding area.

After this grueling schedule it was time to go home for evening drinks and some fine food.

Wednesday the 23rd.

We got up a bit earlier as this was our last day and we still had a busy agenda.
After breakfast we set of for Chichester where we had a canal boat ride booked.
We boarded the boat at 10.30 am and enjoyed a lovely morning cruising down the canal.

The Canal was opened in 1822 and was able to take ships up to 100 tons it serviced Portsmouth Harbour and surrounding areas. The canal fell into disrepair after the advent of Steam Trains. It is currently maintained by the Chichester Canal Preservation Society who also run the canal boat rides. They do a great job maintaining a important part of England's History.

After the boat ride we stayed in in Chichester for some more retail adventures then it was of to the Chichester Cathedral for lunch. From there we went back to C&M's to tidy up our last minute packing, we watched England scrape into the next round of World Cup.

Our cab arrived at 5.00 pm to take us to Heathrow Airport.

This was a sad moment for Jill as it was time to say goodbye to her family. It was sad for the rest of us as well, because we had all enjoyed our stay with Christine Michael Sue & Barbara and it was unanimously agreed that it was the icing on the cake of a great holiday. We also thank Christine & Michael for taking us into their home and for being such wonderful hosts.

We arrived at Heathrow around 6.10 checked in for our flight which departed 10.10 pm Wednesday, once through immigration we wandered around the busy airport, trying to expend some energy before the long flight.

We arrived in Singapore at 6.20 Thursday evening it was not a bad flight as we all slept for around 5 hours. We arrived at the Furama Hotel about 7.30, checked into our upgraded executive rooms ( We also were given a 4.00 pm Checkout Bonus ) freshened up then went out for our evening meal at an Italian Restaurant on Clark Quay.

More Singapore to Follow.


JJJI