Day 1. Thursday 14th May 2009 Our First Day in England

Day 1. Thursday 14th May 2009 Our First Day in England
We disembarked from the QM2 at 8:15am, waited in the shore terminal room until 9:45am when we boarded a double Decker bus to take us to Beaulieu. We had completed a simple customs check on Board the M2 two days previously and were able to walk straight of the boat. Soon we reached the “New Forrest” area; at first I could not see any forest just rough tussock and plenty of yellow gorse in full bloom; “wild horses” were grazing. We soon reached a small village; once again horses joined by cows were grazing along the narrow road side. We observed several beautiful thatched roofed houses. Someone commented that the local council allowed discounted rates for such houses. The Beaulieu estate was beautifully landscaped with avenues of horse chestnut trees in full bloom amongst many other green trees and flowers. The first thing Fay and I did was to take a ride on what must have been the first double Decker bus ever; it was really old and the driver sat without any protection from inclement weather. We alighted at the first stop where in a small gate house to the estate castle was a display depicting the activities that were carried out at the castle during the 1939-45 world wars. The castle was used to train British spies and saboteurs. I found the notepaper interesting; three types were displayed; one could be burned without it smoking and leaving any residual ash, one could be eaten (it was rice paper which explains how in films spies eat their notes) and the other was a piece of brown string which could be untwined to provide a long flat writing surface. There were lots of other ingenious devices. We then inspected the solid stone castle. The rooms were very large; the dining room table which looked out through a very large window onto a private courtyard garden had sixteen places set. In the nearby kitchen the coal stove was burning; there was a newly cooked apple pie on the warming rack and the evening menu was chalked up on the blackboard, above which was a large board where a series of labelled service bells was mounted, one for each room in the castle. We caught the mono rail back to the car museum and the James Bond display. The rail passed over the colourful flower garden and then the symmetrically laid out vegetable garden followed by the orchard. Plum and apple trees were espaliered along the three meter high garden wall. We bought a cup of tea and scone before inspecting the vast collection of well kept vintage cars. All too soon our time was up. The bus on the way to Brockenhurst Rail station passed through what really did look like the New Forrest. The bright green new leaves on the deciduous trees mingled with the new green growth sprouting on the tips of the older and darker green leaves of the evergreen trees. Our electric powered train left at 2:45pm and soon the trees were just a blur as we sped through the spring green fields of the country side. In the small towns I could see well tended communal vegetable garden plots. After a pleasant trip in the sooth riding train we arrived on time at Waterloo Station in London at 4:20pm. We boarded a bus which took us to within 150 meters of our hotel.