Thursday, May 1st                 Robyn writes:

Today was our first full day in Portsmouth. Unfortunately the weather forecast wasn't promising - it was for some heavy showers and a top of about 14 degrees. Undeterred, we headed out at 9.30ish to see the historic naval yards. We decided to pay for the ticket which covered all of the attractions and we can use for a whole year (probably not going to get a LOT of use after that after the weekend!). The tickets cost us 28 pounds each but worked out much cheaper than even paying two of the admissions separately.

                                                     

First, we went and visited an 1860 warship, HMS Warrior. It was huge and amazing to explore. It was a real crossover of influences, as it was both a sail and steam ship, made of both wood and steel - pretty much the first and last of its kind. We were able to visit all decks, from the engine room right through to the captains and officers' rooms and the gun decks, still filled with canons. It must have been amazing to be in the middle of a naval battle in those days (and noisy and terrifying). There were several school groups of primary children there so I felt right at home! Afterwards, we had a cuppa in the Georgian Tearoom, then went through the museum, where we saw the Lord Nelson display. By this stage we were hungry so we headed back to our flat for lunch (Lex got some cockles from a seafood stall to bring home to eat with toast - they were tiny!). Our tickets will last more than the rest of our stay so we decided to leave the Mary Rose and Victory for another day. It's really handy being so central so we can come and go to the flat

                            Rick Stein (Lex's food hero) had visited the same seafood kiosk and loved
                                       the cockles as well!
After lunch, we walked the kilometre or so to the shopping centre in the city's high street, as we both had things to look for. I finally got myself a travel hair straightener (Boots, 10 pounds) and Lex now has a great pair of binoculars and a new camera. Luckily, just after we got back to the flat, the promised downpour arrived, so that was very good timing. Once it had cleared, we went out for another walk down to the bay as it was much warmer and quite clear.

Because of daylight saving, it doesn't get dark here until around 8.30pm (just ridiculous) - we are getting really bad at eating late as it just doesn't seem like tea time! Anyway, I cooked tea and then we decided to pop down to Jamie's Italian Restaurant once more for dessert - Lex had the fruit crumble with granola and frozen yoghurt and I had the best-ever lemon meringue with a crunchy pistachio praline of top. Double yum! Thank heavens we are walking miles and miles every day or we'd be absolutely huge by the time we got home....

Tomorrow we are planning a trip to the Isle of Wight - the ferry there only takes about 20 minutes or so apparently, and there is lots to do there including Queen Victoria's summer residence, Osborne House. Looking forward to it!