Day 57- Elmer to Portsmouth ( and a bit of sightseeing)

Well we had a bit of a sleepover this morning with a late breakfast at 8.00 am.

After the night of festivities doing bingo I had a reasonably good night of sleep on the air bed. I can’t remember doing bingo ever but it was quite fun really.

Breakfast was muesli with a cooked breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, tomato and bacon… it is getting to be a real habit of having a cooked breakfast and after the light breakfasts in France it might mean I really gain the weight I have lost so far on the ride.

After breakfast we packed the bikes and were on our way at about 9.15…. Very much later than usual. This was ok as we only had a short ride to Portsmouth of about 45 kms and it was flat. The big test for us was the weather and particularly the wind. Well fortunately for us we were on sheltered roads which made for good travelling. The temperature was about 18 degrees which meant I needed to wear warm clothing.

Morning tea was in a cafe just outside Chichester where I had a rather expensive cappuccino £ 3.50 which is about AUD 7. Gee we are finding that the UK is far more expensive than Europe!

After coffee we made our way to a little town called Havant where we stopped for a light lunch. As we stopped we were approached by a lady who stopped to have a chat with us. She was interested in what we are doing and the fund raising aspect interested her. We invited her to join us for a coffee and cake and she delighted us on her life story and where certain events in her life occurred… such as weddings and the like. She then disappeared for a while and we waited and she returned with £50 for Alkira… what a real surprise. Her name is Sue Hresh and I will make sure her kind gift is recognised in some way.

After this it was on for the final 20 kms to Portsmouth. It was on a cycle trail for most of the journey but the traffic was awful!

We arrived at the guest house at about 2.30 pm and decided to make a visit to the D Day Experience Centre which was quite good. The bike ride to the centre was short but there was drizzly rain and wind … so I was cold!

The Centre was good as it gave a really good overview of the whole D Day landing preparations and the actual landings… worth a look if you can get time.

We arrived back at the hostel and after a warm shower we are off to an Indian restaurant for dinner.

Tomorrow we do a visit to the Naval Dockyard and Museum which should be interesting.

I am light on pictures today unfortunately

First Up both routes today

The 3 of us with Sue after she made the very kind donation

Statue of Montgomery outside the D Day Exhibition

Our home for the night