Virginia and I drove down the day before the cruise started, packing the bags into the back of Virginia's Kia estate (larger than my Kia). The boot of the Kia estate is smaller than the Skoda she used to drive, we recently got two new medium suitcases so the cases would all fit into the boot.

We stopped at South Mimms on the A1 for nourishment at Tossed there which was OK. There's a Burger King and KFC there, perhaps less healthy, the last time we had something from KFC it was more than we needed. Increasingly one can order from terminals rather than at the counter which does make the process of ordering less intimidating. You have more time to work out what's available, less pressure of people waiting behind you.

There was a lot of congestion and slow moving all the way along the M25 and then the M3 on the Friday, and even around our normal overnight stay of the Holiday Inn Express Southampton M27, loads of cricket fans swarming the area despite the rain. There is an arena close by the hotel. We were glad for the drive down that temperatures were not as extreme as they could be. We had an evening meal at a nearby Pizza Hut (I do like a pepperoni pizza).

On the Saturday morning we went to Mottisfont a National Trust place. An interesting place for the trompe d'oeil work inside tricking the eye. Doors which aren't real doors, doors where there seem to be doors. Coincidentally they were having a Beano exhibition there. The National Trust have reworked the site a lot since we last went, new plusher entrance, more facilities. We went round the house, saw some of the Beano exhibition, walked round the gardens where the roses weren't blooming. The weather was up and down, I failed to have a cap on me and had to improvise with a pullover when the sun unexpectedly shone. We had an ice cream cone each from one of the National Trust food vendors who seemed lonely.

The mistake of not taking a cap with me I repeated in Olden. I also only took trainers and a pair of black lace-ups for formal nights - a pair of sandals would have been a good idea. The black shoes disintegrated and I'd better order another pair from Hotter Shoes.