Today, unable to agree on where we should go and all being rather peeved over missing out on HMS Victory on Saturday we had the rather expensive idea of returning to Portsmouth and visiting the Historic Dockyard. We drove to Ryde and caught the catamaran which only takes 20 minutes and docks only a few minutes walk away from the museums.
We spent six hours at the Dockyard but even that wasn't enough time to visit all the museums and you could easily spend 7 or 8 hours there - its very good value for money.
First of all we took a 45 minute boat trip around Portsmouth Harbour which is included in the ticket. Saw lots of Royal Navy warships (haven't published any photos of these as these days there seem to be a lot of restrictions on photos of sensivitive places!)
Photo of figurehead from HMS Benbow
The Spinnaker (again)
HMS Warrior
Visited HMS Victory(Lord Nelson's flagship and the world's oldest commissioned ship) first - it is in excellent condition and you can walk all round the interior of the ship. It was all very impressiveand strangely moving.
A quick visit then to the Victory gallery and very impressive Trafalgar experience. The upper floor houses a collection of ship figureheads.
Next stop the Mary Rose Museum - this was really interesting as I can remember watching the raising of the ship on tv in the 1980's. The museum contains some superb tudor artefacts from the ship (sorry no photos as flash wasn't allowed). The ship itself is still being restored but will eventually go on display.
Final visit before we ran out of time was to HMS Warrior launched in 1860 and the only remaining ship from Queen Victoria's Black Battle Fleet.
Had a very late barbecue in the garden tonight and watched a green woodpecker anting on the lawn at the top of the garden.
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