Portsmouth and the Tank Museum

Our last adventure was also inspired by military history (Adam): the Tank Museum and then Historic Portsmouth. 

The Tank Museum is just that - a museum full of tanks. Lots and lots of tanks. Way out in the middle of nowhere. Just over 2 hours southwest of London and not that easy to get to. So Friday we packed up, took the tube to from Elephant and Castle to Picadilly Circus, then the Picadilly line to Heathrow, where we rented a car and drove to the Tank Museum. I don't have any pictures of it because mom and I dropped Adam off there and left. I have about five minutes attention for tanks. 

We drove due south 15 minutes to Lulworth Cove, clearly a British tourist destination - and for good reason. A cute little cove with a series of cafes, ice cream shops, and hotels. And a huge parking lot. Even on a Thursday in February it was crawling with visitors. I'm very glad we didn't visit in summer! It was a perfect way to spend a few hours while waiting for Adam.  

Then on to Portsmouth for a couple nights. Portsmouth is a town along the southern cost of England, right on the channel. It traces its history back to Roman times. It's been a home to the Royal Navy for centuries. The town got its charter in 1194. It has the world's oldest drydock. There's a bit of history - and a lot of it related to the Royal Navy. Historic Portsmouth is a part of the harbor adjacent to the current Royal Navy dockyards that has been developed with museums - like eight of them. Adam, of course, wanted to see all of them. 

The HMS Victory is being restored. She was launched in 1765, and was best known as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. Adam toured her. He also went to see the Mary Rose, Henry VIII's favourite ship, which sank nearby 1545. They've been able to recover all sorts of artifacts which are in the museum. 

The ticket to see all the museums was 40 pounds - around $45. Mom and I got the free ticket that allowed us to wander around the grounds and take pictures of the harbor gulls and black-headed gulls. We liked that a lot. 

We'd been watching a reality show called Warship: Tour of Duty about a 7 month cruise of the HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2021. So it was especially exciting to find that the warship was in her home dock and we could see her! This view is from the harbor tour we also took. 

The harbor isn't just for the navy. There are also all sorts of ferries, going across the bay to Gosport, to the Isle of Wight, and various places across the channel. This huge ferry (significantly bigger than the Northlink) was doing 4.5 hour channel crossings to France. 

Mom and I also walked along the waterfront to Spice Island - where they used to buy and sell spices. We found out that Portsmouth is a walled city, especially at the entrance to the harbor, which was heavily fortified with towers and walls and a system to literally close the harbor. I took this picture from one of the towers at the harbor mouth. 

And this one through the harbor wall to the other side of the harbor mouth, Gosport. 

That night we went out to eat in a "real" pub. The final day we got up, drove back to London, and flew home to Minnesota! What a trip.