Blogs from Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 3

November 4 – Weymouth to Portsmouth – I got up early this morning and am doing some homework on hotels in Caen. I haven’t found any hostels there so I may have to rent a hotel room. I found a couple at around $50 a night so I will check them out. I booked a room for Tuesday night at the Hotel La Fontaine but that was the only night the hotel had a room available so I guess my most important task for the first day will be to root around for another place to stay for the rest of the time. I found another near the train station for around $50 a night that I will have a look at when I get to Caen. I will probably use Caen for my home base ... read more

September 1, Saturday - Today I went out to the ferry port and had a look around, and then I went by Charles Dickens birthplace, and then back to the Royal Navy Museum’s. It was a very nice cool day. The Royal Navy had some modern ships in the harbor. In the old days you could usually tell a ships function by looking at it. Nowadays they look like some kind of futuristic housing. It was interesting to note that the Navy used to issue 56 pints of beer a week (that’s 8 Pints a day) and 1/2 pint of rum. When you think about it very few people could afford to drink that much if they had to pay for it on shore…..so that may have been the best retention device the navy had !! ... read more

August 30 Thursday Portsmouth - I rode the train Yesterday (Wednesday) from Coventry thru London and on to Portsmouth. Riding the train is the most convenient way to get across the country but you really can’t see anything. All you see from the train is the sides of the railway embankment, trees, and the backs of buildings. Every now and again something comes into view but not usually. I think busses, while not being near as comfortable of quick are the best way to see a country as they usually go through some of the towns and villages. In any case when I meander my way to Coventry next week I will work around London. I will save London for a trip of its own. Right now I am looking at getting to Coventry next Wednesday ... read more

Today I ended my tour of south-east England with Portsmouth, home of the one of the most famous dockyards in the world. That dockyard was my first stop. I went straight back to the HMS Victory, which is one of the most famous of warships and the oldest still in commission. It was an amazing ship, but I definitely would not want to live on it. It was very claustrophobic and the stairs would have killed me. They were so steep and narrow. There were parts of the ship where I couldn't stand up straight. I missed the plaque on where Admiral Nelson got shot somehow and had to walk through the ship again to see it. Can't exactly miss that part of the ship. The little museums throughout the Dockyard were interesting, but not amazing. ... read more

Well we have made it the sunny part of the UK, headed south from Settle on Friday after another family dinner at my cousin's Julie's and stayed overnight with friends at Leighton Buzzard, London, (about 35miles outside of London). Quite night in general, however treated to a five star home cooked meal, thank you Jo and Graham. Departed on Saturday morning and arrived at my Cousin Stuarts in Denmead, Portsmouth for a traditional BBQ. Got to say, that the weather since leaving Settle as been nothing but sunshine. Cath and I are now just chilling out for a the day before exploring the surrounding area, so it's a quite morning, before going to Portsmouth for a meal and beers. Cath's monkey bite has now all cleared up and the doctor has told her that there should ... read more

Portsmouth and English Channel: It was a bright sunny evening when I arrived at Portsmouth to board the ferry. It was not due to dock in Le Harve until the following morning. I was to travel across the channel to land in Normandy on the 4th of June, following the journey taken almost sixty-six years earlier by the allied forces of Operation Overlord. Only my journey was on a modern ferry with a bar. As I looked out towards the channel from the deck, my contemplation of what to do on landing was more of, 'I have no accommodation or transport, a loose plan of touring Normandy for a few days and terrible French.' Rather than 'Will I survive to see my family again?' or 'What will be the fate of the man next to me?' ... read more