The day in Portsmouth.....

THE DAY IN PORTSMOUTH

I finally got hold of Sharon, Liz’s sister, who lives in Portsmouth and she most wonderfully bent over backwards, really wanted me to come down to see her or for her to come up to London to see me and, as I’d planned a day out of London (I was going to pretend to be learned and go to Cambridge or Oxford) I thought – Portsmouth, why not. It turned out to be one of those things where, in hindsight, you realise you totally made the right decision. Up, to railway station, train to Waterloo, ticket office, chat chat with a Russian women, pushed through thousands of people (I seriously mean we have no idea in little ol’ Wellington about people, congestion and peak hour!) and then the train. It’s a 24pound return trip (23 I think one way – go figure) and the trains basically go every half hour – it’s a commuter thing really. So, on the train, clacky-te-clack and watching the English countryside (with some rain) go by. The very nice man with his cart came by and took some money off me (money – please, it’s like water over here, it just flows, flows, flows, through your fingers) and gave me coffee and a snack. The coffee was interesting as it consisted of a paper cup full of hot water – but no coffee. Hmmmm goes Cookie. Hmmm back goes the cup of hot water. Hmmm goes Cookie, that’s a cute boy (ok, that’s really just to see how’s actually reading this). Uhuh, this funny silver tag, if Cookie pulls it, then up from the bottom of the cup will bubble the liquid coffee which will make a cuppa coffee. All very good really.  So, into Portsmouth I arrived and it was raining, had a chat with a very nice police woman, found the Information Centre, got hold of Sharon who said she’d be in shortly, started looking around the old docks, the sun started shining, had a look through a museum and Sharon arrived. We went for a walk to the new shopping centre (oh, the shopping….), stopped for a coffee, lots of gossip (yes, just like Deborah, I think you had to be there), reconfirmed that it’s not possible to get a flatwhite in England and the people serving, whilst polite, aren’t particularly friendly and then we found the French market. By this stage the sun had come out, it had turned into a beautiful day and I discovered that French stall holders came over to Portsmouth; it was just wonderful. Wandering along, have a look. Then it was up the Spinnaker. You’ll have to ask to see the photos – and yes, Liz, your sister did stand on the glass. It’s this amazing tower that was supposed to be open for the millennium but it was a little late – ie it only opened about 18 months ago, it’s shaped like a spinnaker and it’s rather just stunning. The exterior lift unfortunately doesn’t work – apparently it never has – so up the internal one we went. The views from the 3 viewing decks are just amazing – and it was helped so much by being a stunningly sunny day. We stood on glass looking straightdown (no shoes please!), looked over the naval base, the Isle Of Wight, saw a channel ferry come in, got shown all the sites around and about. Just beautiful. Like I said (or is that wrote), there are three levels with the third one being open air – it’s so worth it and something that the people of Portsmouth can be really proud of. After the spinnaker, Sharon and I headed back to the docks so that we could do a boat trip around the harbour. I’ll just note that there were some people who had a kid in a wheelchair and they weren’t allowed to take her on the boat – not good people. The boat trip itself was really cool, it had started to cool off a bit but we sat outside and wandered past an aircraft carrier – it didn’t seem as big as I thought they would be but the people on it waved back (he he – guess who waved first!!) and one of them was in camouflage and touting a automatic rifle looking thing – yep, it was a working ship of war…. We carried on around the harbour and saw lots of frigates/things/whatever they were – all grey so I could imagine that at sea they just completely merge into the sea. More armed guards (soldiers? seamen?). We saw the ferry which we’d seen come in earlier – it looked bigger than the aircraft carrier! Then there was the ships ghostyard where naval ships go before it’s decided what to do with them – sold/scrapped or whatever. Past the old submarine base (it’s no longer based there) and to the entrance of the harbour – where some nutty yachtees who didn’t know what they were doing but were trying to tango with out bigger boat were being rather “OMG, are we going to crash” (which is kind’ve what our captain was saying!). We docked and got off in the shopping precent (rather than where we started) and Sharon most stunningly wonderfully took me to lunch at Café Rouge, which is a lovely French restaurant. I thought that it was an independent – but it transpires that they are everywhere. Apparently, most restaurants you see around the UK, particularly in the tourist areas are chains – rather than independents. Notwithstanding that, Sharon and I had a wonderful wonderful lunch and it was a great way to top off an excellent day. It seems that my fortieth was being celebrated over a rather long period! After that, it was on the train back to London. Yah!

In terms of Portsmouth, what a gem it turned out to be – go everyone go!! I had a magical time, perhaps especially because I had a local guide who so kindly, wonderfully and yummily showed me around and pointed out all the little bits and pieces!