Highlights-Portsmouth to Lymington

20 Apr Highlights-Portsmouth to Lymington

Driving straight to Lymington (“limb-ing-ton” according to the ladies I met the day before) from Portsmouth would have had me arrive far too early to check in so I made a side trip to Southampton. The Seacity museum there had a thorough interpretation of the city’s connection with the Titanic (the Captain and large numbers of crew lived there). I checked into the Angel and Blue Pig (pub with accommodations) in Lymington. The room was small, which wasn’t a surprise. It was only a little more cramped than the Victory Services Club (VSC). What was strange was not having a single flat surface in the room, no clothes locker, no dresser, and certainly no desk (even the VSC room had one of those!). Even the floor wasn’t flat so my bag kept toppling over when I tried to stand it up. I considered using the ironing board for setting things out, but it probably would have fallen over like my bag. Like the hotel in Winchester, finding the parking area was like a scavenger hunt. “Make the first right past the coffee shop, then right again, then it’s behind a red and white barrier.” Right. A gate down a driveway so long that the tiny red marks on the barrier were invisible from the alley. I missed it twice. After the second miss, I parked in the Carrefour parking area and walked around until I found it, ignoring the “pay and display” box (I felt like such a scofflaw). I was like an Egyptologist looking for a tomb in the Valley of the Kings! I gently mentioned my difficulty to the bar keeper at the pub (“the town council won’t let us have a sign” — sigh). I discussed customer behavior with two clerks at a bakery where I stopped for toast and coffee after the parking orienteering exercise. They had a sign on the wall about no tolerance for rude and impolite people (I know it’s redundant, but I didn’t write the sign). “Does it work?” I asked. Sadly no. They claimed a noticeable uptick began after COVID quarantines ended (“It’s like people forgot how to behave” — just as likely, they were out of practice). Maybe polite behavior is perishable.