Portsmouth

we saw three ships a-sailing....

24.01.2010

We headed over to Portsmouth this morning, planning on doing the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, home to the HMS Victory, HMS Warrior and The Mary Rose. We booked on the first tour of the Victory, so we had a quick look round the Dockyard Apprentice display before heading over to the ship. Victory is the oldest commissioned HM Ship still in service. The tour was great, and I think the kids got something out of it. We went through the Trafalgar Museum as well, which has a great display of figureheads. There were also some interactive displays so the kids had some fun there. After a quick lunch we decided to take in the Harbour Tour. Joelin was almost beside himself about going on a boat! We saw lots of Navy ships, and headed back to the harbour entrance where we caught a glimpse of the Isle of Wight. Back to the main dockyard and we headed to the Warrior. I have to say that I think the Warrior is one of the best things about this place. You can go anywhere on this ship, and touch just about everything, Joelin even found a cannon that you could work the screw on. After the Warrior, we went to the Mary Rose museum which is filled with things that have been recovered from the site of the remains of the ship in the Solent. Unfortunately, the part of the hull that was recovered has entered a new phase in it’s restoration, and the ship hall is being rebuilt, so we couldn’t see it this time. However they have added to the museum a hands on display of some of the medical implements of the time, and they also have some of the objects that you can handle, such as rope, an arrow, cannonball and some of the wood. It was awesome to be handling things that are almost 500 years old.
We went to Action Stations after that, which is filled with hands on activities, and downstairs they have Royal Navy & Marines simulator machines. Joelin got to pilot a helicopter, and shoot a gun, and they both did the Marines climbing wall. We went to leave just after 4, but Joelin had a huge wobbly, as he wanted to go back in to Action Stations. We managed to get on the road, only to be held up for 20 minutes as the road back into Southampton was closed due to a football match ending. It wasn’t too long a wait, but I’m not sure who Southampton played or the final score. We got back to our lodgings at the same time as our hosts, and have yet to decide on what to do for dinner.

Posted by Gezzem 08:36 Archived in United Kingdom Tagged family_travel