Southampton holiday....

Monday 12th - Thursday 15th September

Hubby and I had a short break with SisterM and Brother-in-lawA. We had been told about a luxury B&B in Southampton by SisterP as she had seen it on a TV program. Setting off mid-morning and stopping for a lovely pub lunch we arrived at the huge security gated property and was greeted at the door by the host who showed us our rooms and around the rest of the house too.

M&A had said we should have the Executive Suite (as it would take her too long to get to the loo in the night) which had a huge bedroom with eight windows in a bay and window seat cushions. The lights and radio etc were all on hand held remote control and a small wall panel, the TV was inside a cupboard and the remote raised and lowered it (although very squeakily) and there was a balcony with a river view in the distance. Through the large dressing room was the bathroom with double sinks, large walk in shower and enormous jacuzzi bath tub, that has its own TV installed in the wall. All very lovely but the WOW and giggles came when we saw the Caribbean Room that M&A were to have.....it had a huge plastic shark hanging above the bed and the walls were painted with sunshine and palm trees and there were large plaster shells stuck in the walls and odd model characters sitting in the bathroom, M was a bit concerned at him watching her pee!

There was also a nice dinning room for breakfast and a really good size lounge with very comfy leather suite and a bar with the worst fake leopard-skin covered bar stools - Dell-boy would have felt totally at home :o)
Add to that a heated swimming pool, hot tub, fully equipped gym, a games room with pool table and pin-ball amongst other boys toys, very well landscaped garden with huge fountain and sun decks just about covers it all I think.

During the four days we had a bit of a mixture weather wise but it didn't really stop us doing what we wanted to. We went out to The New Forest and stopped at Beaulieu and Lyndhurst and was about to go into the forest when the rain came, so we went back and sat in the lounge reading etc. By M's special request we headed into Dorset and went to Monkey World and The Tank Museum then onto Lulworth Cove to watch waves (that bit was my special request). We went for a local walk to find the marina and river side and we also took the local ferry (which is bright pink) across to the village of Hamble for a walk around, and on our way home we stopped in Winchester for a walk and to find lunch. Once, way in the distance,we saw the Marine College workers/students coming back single file over the river along a metal bridge in their bright yellow high-vis jackets and helmets looking to me just like the 7 dwarfs so I couldn't help myself singing "High-ho high-ho it's off to work we go", very funny. We found lots of lovely places to eat, apart from the lunch in Winchester which took ages to arrive and was not very nice but you cant win 'em all eh?

Our host and hostess and the two ladies of their staff that we met were amazing and full of recommendations of where we should eat and visit. Nothing was too much trouble for them and the breakfast on offer was lots and varied plus they were always checking if we wanted more. Oh and the bar, we were told, was not drinks for sale as they didn't have a licence but we should feel free to help ourselves to whatever we want, and they would appreciate if we put a donation in the box so they could restock but to go more on supermarket prices than pub prices! One day M came down for breakfast and didn't feel very well so went straight back to her room, this was immediately spotted by our hostess. Thankfully she felt OK quite quickly and we went out for the day and when we got back M&A found a large vase with fresh flowers in their room, we found out later that it was specially put there by one of the ladies to cheer her up! What a thoughtful thing to do!

So a really nice short break and great to spend this special time with my sister. A big thanks to hubby who did all the driving and more and of course a special well done thanks to SisterP for suggesting this place first of all.
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