Portsmouth

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3rd October

Today we arrive in Portsmouth, Hampshire.

Around 7.30am as I pulled back the curtains the sight of Portsmouth Harbour & Docks appeared. Cruise ships, Container ships, naval ships, sailing yachts we are definitely surrounded by sea vessels of every size and description, we even saw the huge aircraft carrier The Prince of Wales.

Not sure what to expect from our included tour today but it turned out to be very interesting.

The coach took us on a drive up to Portadown Hill, the summit of a long chalk ridge where we could view the whole city, a bit misty but we could see the Isle of Wight in the distance.

We then drove to the little village of Southwick where in 1944 General Eisenhower made his historic decision committing 3million men & 2727 ships to Operation Overlord.

We continued back into Southsea & enjoyed a stop at the D-Day Story Museum. The D-Day Story is the only museum in the UK dedicated to the Allied Invasion in June 1944. It tells the unique personal stories behind this epic event providing an engaging insight into the lives of those who took part in D-Day.





The Overlord Embroidery was amazing - It was commissioned by Lord Dulverton of Batsford as a tribute to the sacrifice and heroism of those who took part. Inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, it traces the progress of Operation Overlord and the events preceding it, by telling the story of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy in 34 extraordinary hand-stitched panels with a total length of 272 feet long.

The panels were stitched by a team of highly skilled women at the Royal School of Needlework in London. More than 50 different materials were used in the Embroidery, including actual uniforms. Everything was stitched by hand. It took five years to produce. The final panel was finished in January 1974.

The last surviving Landing Craft Tank from D-Day is at the location which enabled you to appreciate just what it must have been like for those military personnel as they boarded the vessels back in 1944.

There was time to view Southsea Castle a fortress that was built for Henry V111

En route back to the ship we passed the historic dockyard of Portsmouth & another sighting of the Spinnaker Tower, built as part of the centrepiece of the Renaissance of Portsmouth Harbour Project and now Portsmouth’s most prominent landmark.

Portsmouth residents voted for their favourite tower design in 1998. 60% (30,000 people) voted for the Spinnaker, reflecting Portsmouth’s unique maritime history and the harbour’s place as an international location for yachting. The Tower represents a sail billowing in the wind, a design accomplished by using two large, white, sweeping metal arcs, creating a spinnaker sail design.

So all in all a lovely couple of hours full of interesting history & sunshine.

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