April 30th Robyn writes: We were up fairly early, as we had to organise ourselves to get packed up, clean up our junk and get on the way for Portsmouth. We'd decided that rather than go along the coastal road, which looks like the obvious route, we'd head inland and then down again on the major motorways, and try to avoid the many bottlenecks and life-threatening drivers of the smaller towns and villages! We'd rung Steve and Linda, the owners of our next accommodation, to organise to meet them at 4pm in Portsmouth, and set off a bit after nine, bidding farewell to Dover and the Gatehouse.

This is our building (above) - we're on the seventh floor on the left as you look at the photo. The area has some lovely old buildings as well as all of the new ones. The Customs House (below) is now a pub.

Getting on to the A2 was no trouble - in fact the vast majority of the trip was quite easy with the help of our road atlas as we were on major motorways throughout. We stopped at one of the "Services" just north of Guilford for morning tea then headed south again. The morning had started cool and quite foggy but cleared to a beautiful blue sky and a few moments of an unheard-of 19 degrees - lovely! It was great for travel so we saw lots of the English countryside at its best. We soon realised that we were going to be in Portsmouth much earlier than we'd anticipated so texted Linda, who said that 1pm would be fine to meet up. The most traumatic part of the trip was the last mile or so where Portsmouth harbour area gets very, very busy and there are roads going everywhere. However, we survived that with our marriage intact (just!) to finally arrive at Gunwharf Quays - a huge new precinct in the old naval yards which now has DFO shopping outlets, restaurants and accommodation.

It's just lovely and so central to the historic naval part of Portsmouth. Our apartment is on the seventh floor and is as new as the Gatehouse was old. We look out over the precinct and poking above the building to our left are the masts of what I suspect is Lord Nelson's Victory. Behind that somewhere is Henry VIII's ship The Mary Rose. Tomorrow will be a day dedicated to naval history!

Linda, our host, was on hand to greet us and show us our flat. Just getting into the building is an experience with security levels we haven't seen before - just to get in you need a special "beeper" to tap the door with, then it's very specific about how you use it! Once we'd lugged all of our belongings up (the car is safely parked underground - parking was included, which was a major attraction for this unit as it's VERY expensive in places like this), we headed out to explore. I was starving and discovered that right in front of us was a Jamie's Italian Restaurant - that's Jamie Oliver, so I was hooked! (Sorry but this is about to degenerate into a foodie's rant again....) I had the 12 pound lunch special, which was incredibly good value - a pumpkin and ricotta bruschetta for starters followed by Jamie's beef and pork bolognase. Yum! Lex had "The world's best olives" for starters (he said yes, they were) followed by a pea and pancetta risotto. He also sampled a local Kent beer called "Curious"(!) and an ItalianPinot Grigio so was quite happy after all that...and as a great Jamie fan, I was so thrilled to go to one of his restaurants! I feel we'll definitely be back there again before we leave - the menu is incredible :)

                                                            World's best olives!

After our lunch we waddled off happily around the area then headed to Tesco's (conveniently just across from our doorway) for some groceries and back to the unit to put some washing on (there is a drier in this unit, which the last one didn't have - it took 4 days to get one pair of thick socks dry!) Then we went down to the DFOs to have a bit of a look - I bought myself a new long-sleeved top from M&S, having seriously underpacked warm clothes, a pair of slipper socks and visited the Cadbury shop, just because it was there! We now have some local choccies which I have been nibbling for dessert and can report that Cadbury's is actually different in the UK - a bit sweeter and creamier.

Lex decided to go for a bit of a walk (he found the Mary Rose) while I came back to check on the washing and finally wash my hair - I'd thought that the Gatehouse had no hair drier - Lex found it in a drawer this morning, which was a bit late! Anyway, I finally have clean hair. We had quite a late tea - it didn't get dark until after 8 and we just weren't hungry after that huge late lunch. It's been a big day! We've enjoyed watching the lights come on over Portsmouth.