Wednesday 7 May 2014

Torquay Day 3

Dartmoor !

We drove to Dartmoor today, following the instructions of the Google Navigator voice. She is an American voice, annoying enough to keep me awake. Also, when she stops talking, I notice. This happens because the phone has lost satellite reception (bad), or the same road continues for some distance (good or bad, depending on whether we're driving along a motorway, or going through 15 little tiny towns, up hill and down dale without a peep from the navigator).

We took "B" roads to get to the hamlet of Princetown. B roads have sections just wide enough for 2 cars to cross, and some bits that aren't. At one stage, I had to reverse for about 50 metres before a very small car could squeeze past. Added to this difficulty are the hedge rows. They can be absent (good), present on one side (OK), or on both sides of the road (bad). If they are higher than the car, that is worse. If they are at the edge of the bitumen - and most are, that is worse again. If the road is then winding, and uphill or downhill, that is worse again (we saw a maximum signposted gradient of 20% today; in Australia that's a cliff). The English also think it fun to replace one or both hedge rows with stone walls ! Still, it was good fun, in a daring, anxious, look-around-the-bend kind of way.

At Princeton  I read the car thermometer - 10 degrees.  We got out of the car after putting on everything we had. I bought gloves at the National Park office, and we got a map of our intended walk over the moor. Then we went for hot soup at a nearby café - and very nice it was too. After leaving the café we headed for the start of our 10 Km walk, only to be stopped by the sight of the Dartmoor Brewery. An oasis in the heather ! However, I could not stay and investigate - the moor called to us, and we needed to get around while the rain held off.

The first thing Robyn did was jump into a puddle in her new Crocs boots.

Into a biting wind we trudged, along an old disused railway track. It took us past tin mine workings, stone bridges, Dartmoor ponies, sheep, Iron Age round houses (Stone circle bases are all that's left), and trickling streams.

A Dartmoor pony; they're really small.

 

 



Sheep grazing contentedly in a freezing gale.

 

 



It is a bit run down now; but this round house was a premium address on the moor 3,000 years ago.

Rain showers came and went, and the wind was quite strong and cold; we walked on. The path goes around a low hill known as the King's Tor. This hill, and every other one around here has granite outcrops on the top.

Here's Robyn proving that a safety orange raincoat is a perfect match for a brown coat. Oh yes, there's a granite outcrop behind her.

Of course, after rounding the hill and feeling pleased that we were on the homeward journey, we missed a turn. I thought that another flat bit of track would lead us back to the main track, and it did ! - after walking a kilometre through a bog on the side of a mountain (don't ask me how water can sit on the side of a slope, I just know now that it can). Robyn was decidedly worried until we regained the path, and puffing like billy by the time we did. I, of course was not worried at all !! (really, I wasn't; truly ... )

The weather closed in about then. Rain dogged us most of the way back to the town (which actually was only about three kilometres - it just felt like twenty). The wind at our backs pushed us along. After about 2 1/2 hours on the moor, we reached the comfort of a warm, dry car. It only went one block up the road before calling into the local pub. Here I bought two bottles of "The Legend", which was made in that brewery we'd seen earlier. I put them in the car for later.

Feeling a bit warmer, we set off toward a Dartmoor Pony centre near Bovey Tracey. Only a mile into the journey, I spotted the Two Bridges Hotel; we stopped for tea and cake. England is chock full of pubs and tea houses in the country, many just there by themselves, or with one or two houses nearby. I expected the place to be run down and deserted. We had trouble finding a park, and inside we took the last free table. The place was humming. The pub had the local Dartmoor beer on tap - but I couldn't have one. I settled for coffee and disappointment.

More B roads and scary moments later, we arrived at the town of Bovey Tracey. Robyn then got some information from a local tourist information office - the place only opens on Sundays ! There was still time left to go to Plymouth, so we did. This was a major port in the old days. Francis Drake had his base here. He recovered so much treasure from enemy ships that Queen Elizabeth (the first) knighted him. This makes him Britain's favourite pirate ! They even named an island (a little one, in the harbour) after him.



 

Mrs Drake's little boy Frank. If you look carefully, you can just see that he is wearing shorts (bloomers). 'E don't 'alf look funny !

 There are three more military memorials on this same rise, which looks out over the harbour. The town still has a naval base, and we saw a navy ship come into port and proceed up a channel to their dock.

The cold wind drove us back to the car once more. It was time to go home. Our favourite American (Miss Mary-Lou Google-Maps) told us how to get to there, right to Warren Road where we are staying. In England, we can define an address by the postcode. Google maps recognises it, so we've started using that as a point to navigate to. Ours here is TQ2 5TN, though I don't know how much of the street that covers. It's weird until you get used to it, but it works.

Now we're home, and Robyn is cooking me a nice piece of cod. North sea cod really is nice, firm white fish. I can see why everybody likes it.


Till tomorrow - stay warm !

Lex and Robyn

Tuesday, May 6th      Torquay
Robyn writes:    We were thrilled to wake up to a sunny morning outside our window! The outlook of this apartment is absolutely gorgeous - hard to imagine how anywhere else might top it.
                 Goodness, it's tough waking up to this, but I guess someone has to do it....

We were up fairly early and keen to get out and explore Torquay while the sun was shining. Lex had discovered last night that the steps in our front garden lead down to the esplanade below (actually hidden from our sight), so we set out down them towards the seafront. They are fairly recent and are a wonderful thing to have there - lots of local wildflowers and even a friendly Torquay kitty who came and joined us for some of our walk for lots of pats and purring. I of course greatly enjoyed this!

        

                                                            Steps in front of our apartment. We spent quite a while walking around the seafront - first out onto the Princess Pier, built in the 1890s, then back around the harbor front and the marina to the original jetty from 1870. It was a beautiful morning for walking and though the wind was cool, the day was reasonably warm. The original Victorian Pavilion on the waterfront is sadly closed awaiting a redevelopment, but there were lots of other shops and tea houses etc. We had a lovely morning tea at Burridge's Tea House, which is in a shop that's been there since Victorian days. After that, we headed up the hill to the Torquay Museum, which has an Agatha Christie display and lots of other eclectic items from all over the place - Torquay seems to have been home to lots of explorers who went out and cheerfully brought back artefacts from all over the world for their local museum!
                                                   Some tourists don't read the signs......

                                     Lex - coffee break on the red sands of Preston Sands beach
We headed back down the hill into town again and happened upon an open-top bus tour which was just about to start, so decided to go on that (10 pounds each, turned out to be very good value). It went for an hour and a half, and we sat in the top of a vintage 1947 bus from Plymouth, and a driver dressed like Reg Varney in "On the Buses". (Apologies to all of those non- Baby Boomers reading this who won't have a clue what that means - Google it!). We had live commentary as we were taken around Torquay and the surrounding areas. It was great for Lex especially to be able to relax and look around, as when you're driving in areas like this you don't get to see a thing! We went down to one of the southern beaches, Preston Sands, for a break to have a cuppa and walk on the beach (RED sand, not pebbles for a change!) They also had rows of lovely little classic beach houses there - very picturesque! We also went past several of Agatha Christie's favourite hotels and her beach house so I was very impressed. One of the highlights for we Monty Python fans was the Hotel Gleneagles - the hotel which inspired John Cleese to write Fawlty Towers. Apparently all of the Pythons used to stay there when filming, and the manager was quite loony - he once threw Eric Idle's bag into the hotel pool because he thought there was a bomb in it! There was also a Spanish waiter who hardly understood English and he, of course, became Manuel.

                                            Hotel Gleneagles - the original Fawlty Towers!

We really enjoyed the bus tour, then afterwards we went and had a (very) late lunch on the seafront (it was well after 3 by this stage!) We looked around the central city area a bit more and went to the Information Centre to find out about Dartmoor for tomorrow, then Lex still wanted to explore a bit more but my feet were more than ready for a break, so I headed back home after a little retail therapy (have discovered "Pound Stores" - everything is a pound!) It was a great relief to get home and put the kettle on, I must say. Lex jumped on a bus and went around the bay to Brixham and Paignton for a look there.

Following a late tea (8 o'clock again - this Daylight Saving has us messed up!) we looked at our tourist info and decided on a course of action for Dartmoor tomorrow. Which Lex will tell you about...

Portsmouth - Torquay Monday 5th May - Bank Holiday!

Robyn writes: Today was moving day again - luckily I checked our folder, as we'd been blythly assuming that Tuesday was the day to move, then went: holy hell, it's tomorrow! Focuses the mind admirably! Anyway, we were up rather late last night (Lex is addicted to the World Snooker Championship on the BBC - the final is taking longer than an entire NRL season, I swear, and I'm hooked on a book on Victoria and Albert I bought at Osborne House the other day) and it was past 11 before we finally got to bed, so slept in until about 8 - the latest we've slept in here, I think.

Goodbye to our view from the Gunwharf Quays unit - one of the trains we took yesterday goes past.

It was another lovely morning and not too cold so we had everything packed and ready to leave by a bit after 9.30. Getting out was a bit of a process - it required two trips down in the lift to put everything in the car and dispose of our rubbish, then we had to drive the car out and park it outside, then we had to go back up in the lift and pop the unit keys in through the post slot on the door!

Navigating in this country is always traumatic - the cities have so many twists and turns and everyone zooms along at a manic pace. Our phone GPS (nicknamed 'Mary Lou' due to her strident American accent) didn't help when we were nearly out of Portsmouth and she announced "Signal lost" and left me to navigate (with considerable skill, may I add) for about half of the way until she decided to come back on board with the trip. Here I must give tribute to the signage on the roads, which is magnificent, and of course my dear husband's driving. I would be a nervous wreck and crawl along at about 20 miles an hour on most of these roads. It is easy to get lost sometimes though, we spotted "Maiden Castle" in the atlas and were trying to get to it to take a photo for Nikita when once more Mary Lou lost interest and we found ourselves heading west, so never found the castle :(

We drove down into Southampton to see what was there, but the dockyard areas seem to be filled with a retail paradise - the biggest Ikea store I've ever seen and several huge shopping centres. There was a massive passenger ship berthed there but wasn't much to see so we headed west again. We dodged a bullet on the A31 when we were trying to take a turn on it and realised that there were police ahead closing the road (probably an accident) so we had to turn left - Lex realised that the cars ahead of us all seemed to be going up a little lane, so we followed and a few miles later came back onto the A31, much to our relief. However, the oncoming traffic was backed up for about 5 miles with the end of bank holiday travellers stuck there! Goodness only knows how long it was before they got moving again.

We stopped for lunch in the New Forest Heathland at a little recreation area with a nice cafe looking out over the forest and play areas. As it was a bank holiday, it was full of families picnicking, playing and walking their dogs in the sunshine, so all was happiness. We had a lovely lunch there of jacket potatoes and salad so it was filling and warming.

                              New Forest café on right with lots of happy families in the sunshine!

We finally got to Torquay around 3pm after some beautiful scenery coming out of Dorset and into Devon. It was a rather traumatic time trying to find our way around Torquay - it was all built on the top of hills near the beach in the 1700 and 1800s so my, there are some nasty tight high little roads! Not to mention we'd entered the wrong postcode into our satnav. It's very strange here, they don't give you an address, just a six digit code that takes you right to the area. Our unit is gloriously high on a hill overlooking the bay and built some time during the Victorian era by my guess, so it was rather difficult to track down. Then we had to find a park in the street, use a code to get into the reception area then another code to get into the key safe. Then follow the instructions around the side of the building to our unit steps down on the patio (we are in one of 17 units!). Whew!

Our home for the next 5 days, Bayforth Mansions. Our unit, Babbacombe, is the one without scaffolding on the ground floor near the middle of the photo. Apparently the scaffolding is scheduled to come down tomorrow; they've been repairing damage done during some of the bad winter storms this year.

However, it was all worth it. Our one bedroom unit is overlooking the bay at Torquay and the esplanade runs along out of sight below us. Off to our left is the pier and ferris wheel. The view is absolutely beautiful. Will be even nicer if we score a sunny day; unfortunately the afternoon weather has turned on us and it's cold, rainy and miserable outside. We (after many more misadventures) found our way down to the local Tesco's for supplies (not that far as the crow flies but a nightmare of one way streets and steep curves lie between it and us....) and home again, and are now happily ensconced in the unit which is still rather cold, though we have the heaters on. Lex ventured out for a walk before and reports that we can go down the hill to get to the esplanade, which will be MUCH better than taking the car anywhere down there!

We've got into the habit of eating tea every night in our units, as it saves so much over eating out. Have become very fond of Tescos etc who have a wonderful range available which make it so easy to have really nice meals. Tonight we tried their ready cooked Indian curries with one of their naan breads and they were excellent :) There is also the ever-fascinating alcohol aisle, too, with a massive range of cheap beers so Lex has selected London Pride, Hobgoblin, Black Sheep Ale and the worryingly named Doombar as his current stock of pint bottles (actually they are 500ml, but half-litre bottle just doesn't sound right). I have an Aussie Sav Blanc for 4 pounds, so thought that sounded worth a try. Hope it's as good as the Chilean one I had last week!

As I write, it's just after nine pm and the sun has set. The lights are twinkling around the bay and it is so pretty! We really should draw the curtains to keep the lounge room warmer but just can't bring ourselves to lose the view. Fingers crossed for a clear day once more tomorrow!
　

　

4th May 2014

Portsmouth - Porchester

A fine, fairly warm Sunday morning greeted us as we made our way to the train station. After buying tickets to Portchester, we made our way to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard once again, to waste some time. The train did not leave for another 3/4 of an hour. I bought a cap to use later in the holiday, on our canal boat cruise (it has "Drunken Sailor" embroidered on the front). Soon it was time to go back to the train.

The journey was quick and smooth. Electric trains really are good these days. Also, the train was almost empty; I'm sure that helped. Portchester Castle started life as a Roman fort. It has been modified about a million times since then. The French even held it for a year or two. The audio guide (the Ipod type thing) took us around the place and told of the history of the castle. It has also been a hospital and a prisoner of war camp (for Frenchman- about 7000 of them at the peak). Today the Keep looks like this fro the outside

 

 

We climbed up to the top of the Keep (that big square bit) and had a look around.  The Romans built a defensive wall all around the village area. and later a church was built in the corner. That's it with all the graves around it (complete with dead people no doubt)

 

It was a very good thing that the church was built there, right next to where the local church ladies were going to run a tea house, 700 years later. . After our exertions, we were tired and hungry, and the tea was appreciated. It was good, and so were the sandwiches. It was made and served by the worlds fastest pensioners - they fed a big crowd from a kitchen just big enough to fit four people in (and there were four of them, including the old fella who stood at the sink and never said a word; he was outnumbered by women 3 to 1, and one of them was probably his wife).

 

It was about a kilometre back to the train station. We walked into the station a few seconds before a train arrived. (That's about the first time that has ever happened). It took us back to Portsmouth, one stop short of where we'd got on at the harbour station. Only a few metres from the station, through an entranceway, was a square. This contained a statue of Dickens, who was born in Portsmouth. Robyn wanted to get close to the great man, and he didn't seem to mind.

 

 

 

 

Just nearby was a marvellous pub named after  Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He was an engineer, the pub just served beer.

 



 This is me thinking about beer (it's Abbots Ale - after all, it was Sunday !)

 

Of course I had to drink a toast Misters Brunel and Dickens. The Abbott has produced a fine ale. by the way - it's not true that drinking beer sends you bald; that is entirely coincidental.

 

 

We walked home the kilometre to Gunwharf Quays- for the last time. Tomorrow we travel to Torquay that famous holiday spot where the English go to have fun. Whoopee !!

 

 

Till then......

 

 

Lex and Robyn



Saturday, May 3rd.   PORTSMOUTH  DAY  3
Robyn writes:   Today it's the start of the May Bank Holiday weekend, and they have a perfect start to it with the weather. We woke up this morning to dazzlingly blue skies (bit of a shock) - however, it was 4 degrees outside so that did dampen our enthusiasm just a teensy bit. After a slow start to the morning sorting blog entries, emails etc we finally got out at around 10.30. Our first port of call for the day was the Spinnaker, the huge white tower that dominates the whole port area (and city, really). It has 3 viewing decks so we bought our tickets (8.50 pounds each) and headed up there. As it was such a gloriously clear morning, we could see for miles, and could easily pick out Ryde, Osborne House and the chalk cliffs over on the Isle of Wight where we were yesterday. We also got several good ideas of things to visit over the next two days we still have here. Since it's a long weekend, there were suddenly people everywhere shopping and sightseeing and determinedly having fun! Most of them were in summery looking clothes which seemed overly optimistic to us, but that's Poms for you... Mind you, Lex DID take off his thermal underwear and I was reckless enough to have my jacket off for several hours, so it did warm up a bit!

The Spinnaker, as seen from our deck

We checked out the views from all 3 levels (highest was 110m up) and I took my shoes off to walk across the glass viewing floor to gaze down below. Seriously messes with your head! We were lucky to have such a good day to see everything and glad we waited until the weather cleared. By this time we were hungry so we headed home for lunch (cockles for Lex, bagels and cheese for me).

                                 Typical tourists (that's the Isle of Wight in the background)

Fortified once more, we headed out for a big afternoon of naval history back at the docks (using our tickets from Thursday again). Our first port of call was HMS Victory, Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 (England 1, France Nil). Unfortunately, despite the fact that it was a great English victory, Nelson was shot by a French sniper and died some three hours later. The ship was incredible - not as big as HMS Warrior but also full of cannons and a powerhouse of military might of the day. It would have been awe-inspiring to sail on one of those but terrifying in battle. They seemed to lose eyes, legs, hands etc with reckless abandon and viewing the ship's surgeon's instruments don't exactly fill you with confidence!

                      HMS Victory, and the plaque on the deck showing exactly where Nelson fell.

We spent over an hour exploring the Victory right down into the hull, then headed for the Mary Rose. This was Henry VIII's favourite ship and the pride of the Tudor fleet. It was built in 1509 and served the king well until it had a major refit about 35 years later with lots more guns added to bring it up to date. Unfortunately they must have messed something up with its balance because at the Battle of the Solent in 1545 it sank before it had even got out of Portsmouth Harbour. Of the approximately 500 men on board, only about 35 survived. The ship was lost for many years but rediscovered last century and raised in 1982. I remember watching it on the news at the time and thinking: I sooo want to go and see that! Well, today was the day, and it didn't disappoint. Only half the ship survived as it was covered in silt which protected it. They recovered many skeletons (including that of the ship's dog) and have been able to identify some of them and their professions plus done facial reconstructions to show what they looked like. The level of preservation of the wooden items especially is amazing - some of the huge yew arrows look as if they were only made last week!

                                          The Mary Rose as seen from the top viewing platform
The ship was kept wet for the first thirty years - last year they turned off the sprinklers and have started pumping warm dry air in (it's also been treated with a preservative). It's amazing to see it - obviously much smaller than the Victory or the Warrior, but the same ideas and structure. I'm so glad we've got to see it dry, as I've seen photos of it under the sprinklers and it looks a bit hard to see it all clearly, whereas today we could see so much detail. Some of the cannons were amazingly well preserved. It took us a few hours to see it all and to take it all in.

                                                    Lex trying his hand as a longbowsman

After the Mary Rose we went forward again a few hundred years to the museum of the Battle of Trafalgar. It was really interesting and took us through the stages of the battle and of course Nelson's death. Then the loudspeakers announced that it was closing time and once more we were very nicely kicked out. We walked back to Gunwharf Quays for a drink at one of the many bars along the way then home for tea, to put some washing on and to put our feet up. Another big day!

We are very much enjoying our flat here in Gunwharf Quays except for a few niggles - central heating is of course a fact of life in the UK but this one appears to be preset - and somewhat inaccurate. It says it's on 18 degrees but is quite hot, so we go from very warm inside to extremely bracing outside! Also, it's so minimalist as to be painful - obviously they wanted sleek and modern, but that goes with no handles visible on anything - so nowhere to hang a teatowel etc! Have decided we don't do minimalist and modern! However, its central location makes up for an awful lot and it is really a fabulous place to stay.

Hmmm, 8.30pm and it is almost dark. And, sad to say, we have clouds rolling in. I think our gloriously clear skies may be gone in the morning :(

2 May 2014

Portsmouth Day 2 - Isle of Wight

Today was cold. We went to the isle of Wight on a ferry from Portsmouth harbour. That is just around the corner from Gunwharf Quays, where we're staying. The ferry ride was quite short, and smooth, and cost us 17 pounds 50 each (return). There were good views of the two local landmarks, the Spinnaker (a man made viewing tower), and Gunwharf Quays on the 7th floor.

 

Portsmouth looking much bluer than it really was. (Photo has been edited to remove icy wind, traces of snow, grey cloud, rain, those pesky seagulls, and English people)

 

 

The ferry docked at Ryde after a 20 minute trip.

 

 

 

Ryde, from the dock.

 

Ryde looked pretty at the other end of the pier. After a 15 minute walk along the pier, it looked just as pretty close up. Fortunately the bus station is located at the start of the pier. We bought Day Rover passes and jumped on a bus to Newport. This is the capital, and all the buses terminate there. After tea and scones, we took a bus the western tip of the island. There are chalk outcrops there called the needles.

A chairlift is available to take tourists down to the beach nearby, and we paid our 4 pounds each for a return way trip. There are stairs down to the beach, about 200 of them.

 

The needles are clearly visible from the beach, but we didn't have time to walk around to see them up close. Instead, we looked around at the pebble beach, and the cliffs, which includes several colours of sand and clay. I felt the water with my hand, and as I was contemplating how bloody cold it was, I felt the water in my right boot as a small wave dumper a little bit of the English Channel into it. That too was cold, and wet, for about an hour.

 

 

 

Robyn modelling a coat in front of the needles. She also sports thermal underwear, a thick, warm top, and a vest. She was still cold.

 

Back at Newport bus interchange, we climber aboard a number 5 bus and sat upstairs, at the front. It is a little concerning, sitting in a very big bus, in very narrow streets with oncoming traffic diving into parking spots to avoid collisions. Some small cars seemed to pass underneath me, sitting in the top right front corner. I actually closed my eyes a couple of times and waited for the bump. The drivers are used to it though, and all polite- somehow we got to Osbourne House without having to call the police.

 



 



 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Osbourne House, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's little country retreat.

 

 

We are members of "English Heritage", who run the place. We got in for free. The estate contains the main house, a museum, the Swiss cottage (for the kids), the little house where they kept the deer (!), the private beach, and the surrounding beautiful, manicured, extensive gardens.

 

The Swiss House is a chalet style house built for their children. They each had a garden plot for vegetables, including individual wheelbarrows and carts. In the grounds of the house there was a tiny brick fort, complete with model cannons, and a moat. The house had a scullery and a kitchen, a play room, a dining room, and other rooms, including a model shop. The place was a wonderland for the children, and echoed a Swiss Cottage that Prince Albert had when he was a boy in Germany.

 

 



The Swiss Cottage - the royal cubby house !

 

We actually visited the Swiss Cottage first, and left the house until last. I could not believe the size, the opulence and the size of the house. There were several entrances to the house, each leading visitors to a different gallery. Each gallery was adorned with a theme; Indian, Classical Greek, and Contemporary Victorian. There were sculptures and paintings everywhere. There were small objects in ornate, beautiful glass cases. There was gilding around the ceiling cornice, false stone columns at intervals along the galleries, there were Greek scenes cast in plaster, set into shallow recesses in the walls, high up (the ceilings themselves were even higher up). It would takes weeks to see it properly, months to catalogue it and years to understand it all. It took a lifetime to collect it and Victoria had a long life. She died here in 1901; we got to see the very bed where she finally passed away. It became a shrine, kept private by her family for 50 years.

 

I would like to come back on a warmer day and see it all again.

Here is Robyn on the terrace, looking back across the "Solent" (the channel between the island and Portsmouth). The grounds go right down to the beach.

 

 

At 5 o'clock, we were kicked out of the house, in the most polite possible way. We made our way around the gardens for a bit then headed home via bus and ferry. It is the start of the bank holiday weekend; and we saw people going towards the island on other ferries. I hope they have nice weather over the next few days.

 

 

Passing through our local Tesco Express (local grocery shop), I bought more beer (it's cheap here - 3 pint bottles for 5 pounds- $9 Australian).

 

 

Now we are home and ready for bed - another long day.

 

 

Till tomorrow.....

 

Lex and Robyn.

 

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!