Arrrrr me hearty,
shiver me timbers, pieces of eight etc etc. It is Saturday October 12th
and we are going to Portsmouth for the weekend with Sarah & Jon. There has
been a fair amount of sea faring emailing mostly from Mr Scott but we soon got
the arrangements sorted out. We are meeting at the Portsmouth Historical
Dockyard and are going to see the Mary Rose exhibition, HMS Victory a boat trip
and so much more, hence the sea faring jargon and emailing. Hence the
excitement.
Mr F’s new
car has arrived so I get to drive it whilst he reads up on all the new gadgets,
sets the radio stations etc etc. Despite being slightly wary of driving the new
pride and joy we are soon pulling into the car park just about the same time as
Sarah & Jon. (More sea faring noises and welcome greetings).
After a
noggin of Costa coffee and beating out the weevils from a lemon & poppy
seed muffin (I jest) we are soon headed in the glorious Portsmouth sunshine for
the Mary Rose. We have been told how good this is & we were not disappointed.
The ship was underwater / silt for 425 years thus preserving many artefacts.
There was a lot to see and do (games and quizzes) but not too much reading
therefore speeding up the process. Normally it takes Ian twice as long to get
around a museum as anyone else as he likes to read EVERYTHING. We had a site
pass which meant we could see everything there, we got a great deal from Virgin
experience days and it was £30 for 2 of us normal price £52. Plus the tickets
are valid for as many visits as you like within the year. All four of us were
blown away by the exhibition alone.
Being such
a beautiful day we opted for the boat trip next. Up on the top deck in the
lovely warm sunshine we had great views of the dockyard. A running commentary was
provided by a very witty sailor person. It was very informative, funny and
cleverly delivered making the trip even more enjoyable than just having the
delight of being on a boat.
The sea air
has given us an appetite and raging thirst, so we made our way to the local hostelry.
This proved to be a very lucrative move. We got a sandwich (steak & onion
for us non veggies), chips and a drink (Wine and beer) for £5 and it was good
too. Suitably refreshed we head back to the dockyard and HMS Victory. 5 decks,
104 cannons, lots of cannon balls and some pretend horn blowing later we
disembark.
By this time
our feet are screaming for relief so it is off to the hotel we go. Just a
holiday inn and despite me booking the wrong one J it was better than the intended
version.
After a
short rest (too short) we are heading back into town for drinks and dinner. Bar
38 is heaving with people out on the town, it is rather noisy for us oldies but
that does not stop us from enjoying the 2-4-1 cocktails. Jon & Ian settle for
Long Island Iced teas whilst Sarah & I dabble with a Little Miss Sunshine followed
by a Raspberry Woo Woo. We all agree that we are happy that we are not young
anymore and have to hang out in these places until all hours of the night. (A
sure sign of getting old) Jamie’s Italian was dinner destination. The food was
good (when we got it), it was such a shame that they had run out of several
dishes and the service was very slow.
Soon we
were back in the hotel and in our beds being tired from lots of walking &
too much excitement.
Sunday
morning dawned grey & gloomy. We were hoping the weather forecast to be
wrong so we could go for a walk by the sea. Alas this was not to be, so we made
do with a good cooked breakfast and some retail therapy.
All of us
are planning to go back and do it again – it was a great weekend and a great
time was had by all. Even if we were tired for 2 days afterwards, I blame the
walking some blame the cocktails.
