Portsmouth

Portsmouth

I went with my parents on a bit ouf an outing to portsmotuh to see the ships mum had been a bit sick before but luckily recovered just before we went.

The main attraction was the histroic docks that I had last seen over 10 years ago.

Victory

One of the first ships we visited was the victory which was undergoing maintanance. Seeing the wood and thinking about the amount of labour and effort that went into each of these mighty ships is incredible. Also seeing how crammed in everyone would have been.

Mary Rose

Later on we went to the Mary Rose. When I last visited it was still being sprayed and preserved. Seeing it now it is amazing at the preservation. The new mueseum is has been done very well to show all the items and where they have been found in context. As well as to balance picking out individual items while keeping the richness of what was found. Along with the depth of information they have managed to tease out from what was found.

Morning

The next morning we had some lunch in a dock dedicated to the small boats.

Then had a boat trip in the estuary around the docks (A highlight of any trip). There were various more modern boats and the current aircraft carrier Ark Royal was in that day to see.

Submarine

In the afternoon we went across the bay to see a submarine the size mass and colour of them always gives both and elegant and ominous vibe. To this of them “hanging there in the water”. Inside the men and machinary that has to be crammed into any ad all available space.

Warrior

The final ship we went around was HMS Warrior. One of the first victorian Iron ships designed to end war by being so much more capable then the oposition that fighting would be pointless. They had several actors in charater the one in the boilers was excellent at going through how it worked and the hell for the people working there to keep everything going.

Challenger

In the museum there was some of the relics from the Challenger expedition this was one of the first dedicated survey of the deep sea and Iad been reading about it just before we went.

Wincester

On the way back home we stopped off at Wincester we ran into a small norman religious foundation that we were unaware of. It would be good to go back some day for a proper tour.

We had some lunch by the river it was lovely.