Today we drove to Portsmouth for a visit at the Historic Dockyard. We wanted to do this last year but didn’t have enough time. So, this year we decided to only go to Goodwood on Saturday and then to Portsmouth on Sunday.
We didn’t really know what to expect more than HMS Warrior and HMS Victory. Last year we could see HMS Warrior from the hotel room. But it turned out that Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is a huge museum that would take several days to go through.
The tickets were quite expensive, £108.50 for two adults. They are valid for one year. But that is kind of useless for us, traveling from Sweden. We decided to look at a couple of the exhibitions this time. So, we started with a visit onboard HMS Warrior. This was by far the best part of today’s visit. It’s a very well presented exhibition. It took us an hour to go through the whole ship including listening to some of the guides.
Next was a boat trip to the submarine exhibition on the other side of the harbour. The tour inside HMS Alliance was interesting with a very good guide.
The last part we managed today was a visit onboard HMS Victory. The ship is currently undergoing an extensive overhaul and is covered in plastic. Plus a lot of the ship is blocked off. But it was still interesting to visit. Hopefully it will be brought up to a similar level as HMS Warrior once finished.
Last November we visited the Maritime Museum in Greenwich and the exhibition about Lord Nelson. So, it was interesting to visit the ship that is so closely connected with him.
After four hours we went for lunch in the harbour and then drove back to the hotel. In the evening we all met up at an Italian restaurant in Arundel. Two of our little group had spent the day at Goodwood and three of us went to Portsmouth. It’s always nice to meet up in the evening and share impressions plus plan the next day.
Tomorrow we head north to Lake District. The weather forecast looks promising for the next few days.
Europe by car 