Portsmouth

18th – 22nd July

Lovely train journey from Bath to Portsmouth, just over an hour and the scenery very much like parts of rural NZ.

The AirBnB we are staying at is near the beach and the dockyards.

The beachfront is very 1920’s when people used to come to Portsmouth and ‘take the sea air’. There are lots of old hotels facing the beach but most set back due to a flood plain, so plenty of green open spaces alongside the promenade.

Decided to take the old hop-on hop-off bus to orientate ourselves, this one only did about 8 stops along the 4km beachfront! But only £5 each so can’t complain.

Had a walk around Spice Island, I thought this was where the boats from foreign lands unloaded their exotic cargo back in the day, but apparently it got its name from all the pubs, brothels and gambling dens that added ‘spice’ to their lives! It may have been an island once, but now is part of Portsmouth waterfront.

The next day it was up the Spinnaker Tower. This tower was built in 2004 and as the name suggests it looks like a huge spinnaker.

It is on the waterfront near the dockyards and has commanding views over the harbour, the Solent and the Isle of Wight, and also to Southampton. You can even see Chichester. There is always lots going on in the harbour with ferries crossing to the Isle of Wight, Gosport, and France, and Naval boats moving and lots of pleasure craft coming and going. (The blue tinge is because the windows are tinted)

And Sally and Shaun wanted to get in on the action.

Next stop was the Historical Dockyards. There is soooooo much to see here. You cannot do it in one day. After reading the reviews we decided to purchase the Ultimate Explorer option which was £39 each. This allows us multiple visits for the next 12 months on all the attractions. We are going to visit for 4-5 hours on 3 days.

Today we started with the Harbour Tour.

There are not many ships in at the moment but they are expecting an aircraft carrier to turn up in the next week or so. We did see the armory which is in the middle of the harbour away from everyone, and is the last place the ships visit before leaving. There were also half a dozen support vessels berthed.

The Submarine Experience follows.