day trips

Extended family of 9 in a mini bus taxi hired in London for the day to take us to Southampton. On our way from London for a Princess Cruise I planned our stop at Petworth House for several hours and did the guided tour of this amazing place! http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/petworth-house/ Had lunch in a quaint pub in the town.

I live about 30 miles from Southampton, Bob. Depends on what you like to see. Stonehenge and Salisbury are not far away. If you want the seaside, Bournemouth is half an hour on the train. It has a promenade that runs for miles and 2 piers, and lots of shops. Christchurch is the stop before Bournemouth and has a wonderful old priory, ducking stool, and a lovely river walk, with a couple of nice pubs and cafes. Lyndhurst is a village in the New Forest, not far from Southampton. It's pretty and popular with tourists. And Lymington is easy to get to, it has a quay and many, many yachts. Also Burley- known for being the center for witchcraft! It has some lovely old pubs which serve good food. And the New Forest ponies amble about freely along the village lanes. Beaulieu (pronounced 'Bew-lee) is an old village and is home to the Lord Montague Car Museum, with an amazing collection of autos. The Isle of Wight is also an option. Or in Southampton itelf, Netley Abbey is pretty. I'll go away and scratch my head, see if I can think of a few more places!

I like Winchester, which is really close to Southampton. Although the outside of the cathedral is not as impressive as Salisbury, I think the inside is much more interesting. There is also the castle (ruins and "round table" only a short stop to cover this). Also book ahead to get a tour of Winchester School. Winchester is very compact and everything is close to the railway station. There are also tours from the TI office I think.

Portsmouth is 19 miles southeast of Southampton, and has the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, where you can see the ships Mary Rose (rescued from the ocean floor and being restored), HMS Victory, HMS Warrior, and also see the Royal Naval Museum, D-Day museum,and Southsea Castle (built by Henry the 8th) which is actually a fort built to protect the waterfront. Charles Dickens Birthplace is in Portsmouth also. http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/England/Hampshire/Portsmouth/Travel_and_Tourism/ Click on Portsmouth Historic Dockyard for their website.

My sister and I visited Portsmouth back in the 70's and we visited the Victory. I had wanted to see the ship as a diehard Horatio Hornblower fan i really enjoyed seeing. If I recall right, there was site related to Charles Dickens as well. I would love sometime to tour the Mary Rose. ; ) Pam

About 12 miles east of Portsmouth is the city of Chichester, which has several good museums. Chichester was an important Roman city during the Roman occupation of Britain, and its museums have some Roman objects from that time period. The Cathedral there is built over an old Roman house, and one place in its floor has a large glass panel where you can look down and see a Roman mosaic tile floor. About 2 miles west of Chichester is the Fishbourne Roman Villa which has had its remains preserved. You can see many Roman mosaic tile floors still in place here under a protective roof. A visitors center with museum and cafe has been built around the ruins. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishbourne_Roman_Palace http://www.romansinsussex.co.uk/sussex/fishbourne.asp About 7 miles north of Chichester is the Weald and Downland open air museum. Many very old buildings from all over England were moved here when they were in danger of being demolished in their original location. There are 50 of them, restored, and there is a visitor center there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weald_and_Downland_Open_Air_Museum http://www.wealddown.co.uk/ If you like old English architecture, you may enjoy this place. I enjoyed it very much, and loved reading the history of each building in the brochure they gave us there as we toured the buildings. Well worth the trip. Don't know if you will have a car for your 2 days, but these places are definitely worth a look.