Day 58- Visit to Portsmouth Harbour Naval Base

We had a real sleepover over this morning as we up and about at 8.00 am!!!

The weather today was a sharp contrast to what we experienced yesterday… the was a bit of wind but relatively clear skies and sunshine. It was about 20 degrees for most of the day.

We made a trip down the street for breakfast and found a lovely little cafe which served muesli and toast with a cappuccino.

After breakfast we made our way by bikes to the naval museum which was only a short 3 km ride. The deal there is you buy a day ticket as a senior and it includes a trip on the harbour plus visits to HMS Victory, the Mary Rose and several other sights including the boat building workshop. The trip on the harbour was a real treat and we enjoyed it so much we had another trip on a war landing craft.

The harbour included seeing HMS Queen Elizabeth which was docked plus an additional 10 war ships of various kinds. They included destroyers and frigates and the like.

After the harbour trip we went on board HMS Warrior which was an iron ship built in the 1860’s. It is remarkable how the crews survived on these ships which carried so much cannons…. The noise must have been tremendous when it was in full battle mode.

After this we had a look at HMS Victory and the Mary Rose. Victory is being restored so we were not able to see it fully due to scaffolding around it.

The Mary Rose was also quite good and the efforts to bring it up from Portsmouth Harbour after it sunk in the 1500’s was quite impressive. Seems Henry the V111 was overly ambitious in building the ship in the first place.

After this we visited several other parts of the museum which was very interesting but frankly I had enough by mid afternoon. Too many things to see is not really my thing! Also I feel as if I am coming down with a cold which made me feel quite lethargic.

We went back to the hostel at about 5.00 pm and after doing a Covid test which was negative I am feeling okay.

The photos today are as follows:

Our route to the naval museum plus my trips on the harbour and walking around the museum…. I forgot to turn it off!

HMS Warrior

HMS Queen Elizabeth

The boat builders warehouse

HMS Victory

The landing craft we went on… it was used in the Falklands war