Portsmouth (Day 1)


Dan working his stuff at the St David's Ladies Guild. They LOVED him!

Portsmouth

It had been in the plan since our fab English friends Deb and Dan had told us about it. We didn't have a lot of time but like most things in Wales/England, it wasn't too far away for an overnight trip. We left early morning and arrived in Portsmouth for lunch at Subway.


We knew there was a lot to see and we also knew we didn't have much time, but we were going to do as much as possible. We charged toward the Historic Dockyard ready to see the sights.




Today's main attraction was the Mary Rose, King Henry the 8th's (had many wives ...) famously sunk boat. They found it in the harbour of Portsmouth and recovered it. 



Here he is, ready to take us on our journey. Sadly for Hannah, she discovered that her birthday was the date of sinking.


The museum takes you through the history of the boat and the way the boat was used. It also explains some of the history as to why the English ended up fighting the French in their own harbour. 

By the way, the boat isn't in its original state. It sat on the bottom of the harbour for around 500 years and discovered in the 1980's and brought to the surface. So what you see is the persevered part of the boat. They don't know 100% why the boat sank. It did so very fast and apparently, King Henry watched it go down. They think that they had forgotten to close all the bottom cannon holes and as it turned it filled with water. The sad thing is that most of the sailors drowned with the boat because they couldn't escape due to safety netting at the top or because they were trapped inside. 





This is what it would have looked like. 


We did get to have a go trying some of the weapons they would have used. They were really heavy and the bow was really difficult to pull. 





We did get to do a bit of dressing up again. Such fun!




We then headed for the exit, which involved an elevator ride, giving us the best view of the boat. It was magnificent. But it was time to head to find our accommodation, which was at Southsea, a delightful part of Portsmouth.

We took the opportunity to wander along the promenade to see what we could see. And that was a lot of sea water. It was a lovely evening and the light was delightful. Dan and Hannah had a go at trying to skim stones, but it wasn't that easy. 









We did find an old castle and had a little nosey. It was King Henry's. This was where he'd watched his Mary Rose go down. 




We headed towards the main part of the 'town' of Southsea to look around and hopefully find somewhere to eat dinner. It was that weird early evening time where everything is shutting and the night things aren't really getting open yet. But we did manage to find the best pub. It was dog friendly and it had board games!! We spent a few hours eating and playing and ahhhing at all the dogs that came in. The food was delish and Hannah was the gaming champion.



Teamwork of the kids won them the game. 



Isn't she proud?!

Comments

  1. Sounds like an awesome overnight trip!! I wonder how many castles you've visited so far...? Go Hannah! :0) X

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  2. Man I'm loving the pictures, I was there when the Mary-Rose was brought up - so cool! You are 'almost' going to need a break from having a break! Good for you doing as much as you can - proud of yas x

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