blue skies as we hit Croydon,
so off of the tram from Beckenham,
to East Croydon mainline station,
for our train,
and this is it,
and in no time we were here,
in Portsmouth,
home to amongst others H.M.S. Warrior,
but we were soon sidetracked, by Genesis Expo,
a shop/museum,
with all manner of exhibits like this fossilized bear,
and Green River shale fish, I am so looking forward to seeing all of my fish from the Green River and other minerals when we finally getting the attic completed, and we can finally unpack all of our bits and pieces,
the museum section is mostly upstairs,
where you can look down on a family of T. Rexs,
aren't they cute?
Diana liked the geodes filled with crystals,
for myself I was looking to buy a specimen or two,
there was certainly plenty to choose from,
cabinets were full of them,
a quick pose,
purchase made,
and we were off past the Emirates Spinnaker,
and one of the dockside pubs,
past the Warrior,
which we will be visiting on our next trip here,
it seems strange, these Citroen vans seem to turn up everywhere,
we stopped by the training pool,
and shop selling nautical memorabilia,
and a ships mascot,
but before we reached H.M.S. Victory, we had to stop at the field gun memorial,
the legend says it all, as a kid I was often taken to shows called Navy Days, where two teams from the major navy ports had to take guns like this over ravines and other terrain to the siege of Ladysmith, I can still remember cheering for our side,
Chatham on in the 1950s, most of both of my grandparents families were in the navy or police, based at Chatham for the navy or Woolwich for the police,
we also travelled to Earl's Court in London where the tournament made its home, in case you are wondering these are real guns, the combined weight of the gun barrel and gun carriage is 1,250lb and it goes over the wall in one piece,
on to the Victory,
looking resplendent against the blue sky,
'welcome home sailor!'
the tops have been removed and the ship repainted,
ticket bought,
and we were onboard, on the middle gun deck,
the first thing you notice,
well for me,
is how often you bang your head on the ceiling, they were a lot shorter in those days!
out onto the main deck,
also on one of our later visits we will be going to see the Mary Rose,
we made our way to the stern of the vessel,
there are of course lots of attractions here to see,
in the distance some of the British fleet,
what a lovely day for a group visit,
we made our way down to the open gun deck,
and marvelled at the sight of the huge yardarm below,
as Sub Lieutenant Phillips would say from the Navy Lark,
behind the wheel, one of the great cabins,
what stories this cabin could tell,
looking back to the stern,
Diana takes a photograph,
of where Nelson was fatally wounded, he died below deck,
work of course is ongoing,
like this gentleman making repairs using pitch, and hemp oakum, the process is known as caulking,
Diana is stood by one of the three masts, they are massive,
looking towards the bow,
and back along the deck,
next downstairs to the upper gundeck,
ta-da!
Nelsons bed,
we continued our walk,
reaching the kitchens,
I am not sure if this is the main kitchen,
but it somehow,
seems a bit small to provide the crew of 820 all of their meals,
now this is interesting,
one of the few guns of the period, most of the guns are made of wood or fiberglass,
but these are the real deal,
complete with their flintlock firing mechanism,
what a fearful noise they would of made,
in battle these 24 pounders could fire using a 12 man crew at a rate of once every 90 seconds,
down a deck,
a bit darker and with crew hammocks left in place,
as well as,
the food table,
a history,
of the vessel,
one of the ropes leading to the capsun,
the size of the rope,
is huge,
well it has to be, she weighs over 3,500 tons,
we made our way past other parts of the ship,
then down a deck,
where it was getting darker,
as less natural light was available,
more rope,
and presumably the rope store,
one thing about visiting the ship,
no flash photography is allowed, so a bit difficult to see, but these are muskets,
down a companionway,
to where it was almost pitch black,
as we neared the shop we could see these barrels, water or rum? that is the question!
into the light of the ship's store,
as we left the ship, on either side of us,
we could see arms supporting the vessel,
a final look as we were leaving to go to our next port of call,
I took a few pictures from the outside,
before going in,
there was so much stuff here for the Man Attic!
mainly militaria,
but lots of other items of interest, the time just flew past inside, it was such a treat to see so many items we would have bought, but all a tad too expensive for us,
I do like steam engines, if only we could have gotten this one on the train and upstairs!
next stop,
the Nauticalia store,
well we had to buy a refrigerator magnet,
next stop lunch,
going under the railway tracks,
on the other side is an open air shopping mall,
great idea, if it is not raining!
as we neared the estuary there were a number of eateries,
and we choose this one, the Slug and Lettuce,
we found a table upstairs at the front of the restaurant,
and had a nice view,
of the marina below,
a quick pose,
as one of the Brittany ferries sailed past,
a nice way to start a late lunch/early dinner,
our meal arrived,
a beef lasagna with garlic bread for Diana,
and a steak for myself,
what a great meal and lovely view,
on to desserts, we choose a mix of three desserts and shared them, the meal with wine came to £51.00,
back to the station,
and here is our train,
past the now fading wisteria,
and home for a late evening snack, and of course to put our magnet on the refrigerator,
and have a look at my treasures, firstly a piece of azurite,
a sample of bismuth,
and a fossil ammonite, after a late evening snack it was on with Game of Thrones, for the rest of the evening, we will only be making one post today as for some reason this one has taken a long time, so with that we were off to bed.
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