Recollection of Portsmouth

My blogging cannot keep up with our travels. When I have internet, I am ready to read for a while, and then pass out. Anyway, today we are in Conwy in Wales, and have decided to slow down the pace a bit.

So we left Winchester with Tim and Ruth and headed for Portsmouth. (It is amazing how many Virginia towns are copied from the British.) They have a historic shipyard there that you can tour (for a fee of $30, of course). There were many ships to tour, so we could not do all of them. David and I spent most of our time on the Victory, a tall sailing vessel (launched 1765)

In front of the Victory (without masts, removed for repair)

that was also a man-o-war, and the flagship for the British Navy. It was a very good tour, including an inspiring rendition by one of the naval officers on board about the killing of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. After an hour on board, I was ready to leave, tired of bending over. I can't believe all of the sailors of the time were THAT short!

We also toured the exhibit of the Mary Rose, a ship that was preserved down in the silt of the Channel. They are still preserving it in a climate-controlled room. Many artifacts of life on the ship were also preserved. The exhibit on the ship's carpenter got our attention, especially with the dog's skeleton.

Just like Hercules, waiting for his master

We briefly toured the first iron-clad tall ship, the Warrior. But we were running out of time, so we headed on to the boat tour of the harbor. It went all around the harbor, and the captain kept up a patter about all the ships we saw. It was a great day for a ride around the harbor, but I was glad I had my windbreaker and scarf. We drove towards London afterwards, to Southwater, outside of Horsham. We met our hosts for the evening, Joy, David, and son Jonathan at yet another nice pub. There were tables out back where we could enjoy the English countryside, including some sheep, which cover the  countryside in England and Ireland. The meal at the Sir Robert Tichborn was our best pub meal yet.

David took a picture of the rear door. It is very typical, because of two things: the sloping of the building above it, and the height of it, about 5 feet 8 inches. I walked through it with ease, but there were many doors like this in the pubs we visited, with a sign "Mind your head" posted above.

Behind the Sir Robert Tichborn Inn

 

Notice the tilt above the door