After the city of Hamburg, our route lay to the shores of Great Britain. The ship should dock at the port of Southampton, and then we planned to visit the capital of England – London. But before that, our liner had to cover a considerable distance.
We sailed from Germany at 21:00 on October 6, and arrived at the port of Southampton on the morning of October 8. A day and a half at sea, and we are finally in the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
In a previous article I already described how we spent our leisure time during such long passages on our cruise ship MSC Magnifica.
Southampton, UK
I remember now with a smile, but at that time it was a big challenge. Doubts tormented me greatly even at home. The temptation to visit London without a visa and other hassles was so great that in the end I had to take a big risk. The risk was this: I decided to get to London on my own. You will now understand my concerns.
Like all cities along our route, I prepared for my trip to London long before leaving on the cruise. Since our ship did not arrive in the capital of England itself, but in the city of Southampton, which is 120 km from London, the question was — how to get there?
Like all the cities along our route, I prepared for my trip to London long before leaving on the cruise. Since our ship did not arrive in the capital of England itself, but in the city of Southampton, which is 120 km from London, the question was — how to get there?
How to get from Southampton to London
There were not many options:
- Excursion from the cruise company MSC
- Taxi or bus with local guides
- Solo train ride to London
The British Customs officers had taken our passports the day before and did not give us any paper in return. The only thing in hand was the traveler’s on-board cruise card. According to the rules, passengers of cruise ships arriving in England can stay on its territory for no more than a day without obtaining a visa.
Initially I was inclined towards the first option. It’s safe, if there are problems on the road, they will contact the ship and wait for us, provide additional transport if necessary. The tour takes 4 hours round trip, plus 2 hours by bus with a guide through the city center. This pleasure costs 130 euros. Cons:
- Excursion cost is high
- Tour guides in English only
- Excursion in London for a couple of hours less
The second option costs three times more, their transport is very expensive, however, like everything else, it’s also in pounds. Exchange rate 1 pound = 1.1 euro approximately.
The most economical option to get to the capital of Great Britain is by train.
An average ticket costs 40-50 pounds one way, the journey takes an hour and a half. But there are economical tickets, they are time-bound. Apparently, at the time when passenger traffic is least, then there are discounts. For example, I bought tickets online for £12 one way.
And since we freed up a decent amount from the first option, we also ordered a Russian-speaking guide through this service
4 hours for 180 euros, guide Denis is ready to conduct a tour of London for a group of 10 people. There were four of us, 45 euros per brother.
Total, an excursion to London instead of $130 from the MSC cruise company cost us 70 euros with a Russian-speaking guide who took us where we asked. But more on that later.
City and Port of Southampton
Our ship arrived at the port of Southampton at 8 am, and the train left at 10. I looked at the route from the cruise port to the central railway station on the map in advance. Just 1 kilometer, which took about 15 minutes to walk. In fact, the central railway station is a very strong word. It would probably be more correct to say the station, this is what it looks like.
There was more than an hour left before departure, and we decided to explore the immediate surroundings. Since we were in the city center Southampton, we quickly found a large beautiful building and a park next to it. It was a clock museum, so we translated the sign at the entrance.
In the morning everything was closed and all we had to do was walk through the beautiful park, where either seagulls or albatross walked leisurely on the grass and red squirrels ran from tree to tree. An hour and a half flew by.
Exchanging electronic tickets for regular ones
I am sure that those who wish to repeat our feat will find the following information very useful. The fact is that tickets purchased online and printed will not get you on the train. There are terminals in the cash register where you can carry out this operation.
For this you will need:
- Bank card used to pay for the purchase of tickets via the Internet
- Digital code from the letter sent to you by E-mail after purchasing tickets
When we approached the ticket office, we met a group of Russian tourists. They informed us that they were unable to exchange electronic tickets for paper ones. Then I turned to the station employee with a request to help us. I just showed him the printed electronic tickets, and he immediately understood me.
It turns out that I had to do the following. First, insert a bank card into the terminal slot, which was used to pay for tickets via the Internet. Then enter the code from the letter that arrived in the mail after paying for the tickets. That’s all. The machine “spit out” 4 regular tickets and with the help of them we passed through the turnstile to the station platform.
By the way, the train was about the same as the one that took us from Paris to Le Havre.
We got into a comfortable carriage and went to London. Thus ended the morning in Southampton, one of the largest ports in Great Britain.
As you probably already guessed, the next article will be dedicated to a trip to London
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