Day 2 Part 2,

"Hello handsome man", said no one, ever, well not in the UK!

we were about to start our walk,

but Diana wanted to take a few photographs of the Hovercraft,

I should say even without the wind made by the Hovercraft,

it was a really windy day,

also as they went past, sometimes there was a lovely rainbow trailing behind them,

Diana liked this video,

and just had to have a few more photographs,

the weather was really nice,

as we started walking to the marina,

not as big as some we have visited,

especially considering we were on an island,

we often visit out of season, which has a great advantage, no crowds, the downside, many places are closed for the winter,

like this Crazy Golf course,

with its Skull Island and pirate influence,

even thought it was closed, one thing did stand out, the palms,

being so far south the weather is just a tad warmer, so many of what are considered to be tropical plants can be grown here,

the ticket office boarded up for another few months,

I walked past the office to look at the rear of the pirate gallon,

and back past the office,

to the seafront, the sands going way into the distance,

and past the sand, two of the Palmerston sea forts, 

we had the promenade almost to ourselves,

on our left the sea, on our right the enclosed swimming pool and lake,

and it was a big lake,

a couple of poses from Diana,

looking back towards Ryde,

we started at Ryde which is not on the map, but to the left of the marina, and are going to walk to Appley Tower, bottom right,

looking back towards the swimming pool,

the lake had a good population of birds,

this area sectioned off, sewer works were taking place further along our walk,

and there it is in the distance, 

Appley Tower,

Appley Towers, also called Appley Tower or Appley Tower House, was an English country house near Appley on the island,

 it was the home of the Hutt family, who bought it in the 1870s, and later of Sir Hedworth Williamson, the house has been demolished, but a number of its estate buildings survive,

we went to the far side of the building,

we just had to take a few photographs,

the sea walk continued past the tower,

but we decided to turn around,

and walk back to town,

opposite the door,

there was a plaque, three in fact, the one behind Diana,

and,

these two,

our walk about to start,

but I just had too!

Diana stars in this video, I have never seen her run so fast!

we passed a few beach huts, in the trees above,

someone's day ended in disaster!

we had a slight detour due to the work taking place,

but were soon back on track,

we decided to walk on the land side of the lake,

where some of the swans, 

were preening themselves,

I was reminded of the story of The Ugly Duckling,

as with most lakes and ponds, there were a number of Canadian

geese here,

I thought this was a bit unusual, it appears to be an albino duck,

a swam passed a couple of geese in a hurry,

and this is why, a family were feeding the birds,

looking back to the lake,

the swimming pool is known as Waterside,

at least one place is open,

we passed the roadside part of the Crazy Golf course,

a mixture it looks like, of ancient and recent,

I mentioned palms before, and here was a group of them growing in the open,

with no apparent protection from frost for them, in the middle of a roundabout,

the pavilion,

which in a few months will be packed with holiday makers and day trippers,

a map of the area,

one shop that was open by the bus station, the refrigerator magnet shop,

it was a bit chilly, so a coffee it was then,

after a warm up,

we decided to look at bus time tables for tomorrow,

it will be one of these,

to Newport,

over the railway bridge, 

to one of the Hovercraft,

which soon disappeared,

for a few moments in a cloud of spray,

for us down from the bridge,

to the waiting room,

where it was soon time to board,

in no time at all we were in Southsea, 

as we had never been here before, so we had a walk around,

one of the forts in the distance,

the outside amusement park locked up,

but one type of establishment that was open, arcades,

first on Diana's list, a motorcycle,

skip the lucky dips,

next a car, 

as if all of that was not enough excitement,

it was then a Halo shoot them up,

then the ultimate,

a VR house of horror,

it looked terrifying !

a video of Diana in the arcade,

after Diana had calmed down we went outside, past one of the black telephone boxes,

just in time for our bus,

back along the coast to Portsmouth,

we decided to eat at The Ship & Castle,

for a change a bottle of white,

for Diana a chicken Katsu curry,

and for myself, a trip to the coast would not be complete without fish & chips!

'Cheers!', we spent some time in the restaurant before making a move to our hotel, where it was feet up for a nightcap, a New Tricks and an Endeavor, before we were off to bed.