Clausentum

All things considered, my geography is poor.  Southampton's whereabouts are included in this statement.  I know it's south of Northampton and outside London.  In fact, it's in Hampshire, on the South coast, and is known for its docks and links with the Titanic.  Walking around the city, you can see many remnants of old wall ruins that the Romans built; they are still in amazing condition and often, you see red brick walls integrating the old ruins.


So anyway, my friend just lives outside Southampton city, so we met at the train station, and went to the local tourist office to see what there is to do.  I'd never been in a tourist office before.. basically, this one is a shop which sells local homemade things and has a whole bunch of leaflets and booklets and sells London memorabilia.  First, we decided to go to the Civic Art Gallery, which is in the Civic Centre, on top of the library.  It's quite open inside, with two main side galleries, and a central area with the permanent collection.  There was a photographic exhibition from students from the local university, some of which were very good and some which weren't so good... some of them didn't really 'say' anything to me.  These were some of the works I liked (and could find online, via google):

Afterwards, we walked through the high street(s) and through the market stopping for lunch then went onto the Maritime Museum, which is right by the docks and therefore very windy.  The main attraction of this museum is the Titanic exhibition.  I haven't seen the film Titanic for some time and we didn't ever study it in history.  What I gather is that the Titanic was made in Belfast then came to Southampton so it could set off on its maiden voyage.  Many of the crew were from Southampton, so after the news of the sinking, there was a huge public memorial service and a fund was set up for those families who had lost their main breadwinner.  So you all know the story of how it hit the iceberg, but it was sort of haunting to see things from the Titanic, like letters and pictures, meal tickets, a watch that stopped about the time of the sinking.. to hear the stories of those who were saved, and telegrams sent to family back in England about if their son / husband / brother had survived or not.


There are at least 3 shopping centres in the city: it's not that huge.  The main one, West Quay shopping centre is very Westfield-esque.. I am not such a huge fan of enclosed shopping spaces, but it was alright.  We ventured into it, and then sort of wound down the evening by coffee and dinner.


No other news... except, I booked my tickets for New Zealand :D