The great thing about the Easter break here is that it is a real break. Both Friday and Monday are holidays, one ends up with a four-day weekend. All rather civilized. As the weekend had two different themes, I’m going to break it up into two blogs. Here then is part two. Part one will follow later.

With a long weekend spread out before us, we had to plan something other than watching Scrubs on our 12” telly in our 18” flat. Where better than the seaside? I had been to Portsmouth for the day on business and although it had been a little raw and cold, it seemed quite picturesque. Our day trip back was on a warm sunny spring day.

As this was a long weekend, we didn’t get up too early and left Waterloo station at reasonable o’clock. As for being civilized, I would like to cast my vote for a ride on the train with a cup of coffee and a Sunday paper. There are three rail stations in Portsmouth. The last one on the line lets you out right by the Historic Naval Dockyards.

We bought the all-inclusive pass to the Dockyards and wandered in to look around. As at was still fairly early by tourist attraction standards, there was only a few seniors milling about. The first attraction was the catamaran tour of the harbour. (Mum keep reading – it was a smooth ride). Nobody had lined up for the first tour of the day, so off we went.

The harbour in Portsmouth is a main base for the Royal Navy. We were quite lucky that weekend as a large portion of the fleet was in port, so there were many Naval ships to see. There were three aircraft carriers, some destroyers that had served in the Falklands and a training ship.

We toured around the Warrior. It was the finest and most formidable warship of its time. It was launched in 1860. It had a steel plated hull that was impervious to the armaments of the day. The Warrior also featured both steam and sail power. This was a first and allowed a speed of 17.5 knots. It was restored at fabulous cost and is a very interesting tour. The guides on board, in period costume, are very knowledgeable and help you imagine what it was like living and working on the ship.

The newest attraction is the Portsmouth Tower. It was recently opened and boasts the world’s fifth largest glass floor. Two questions; does that include the new balcony over the Grand Canyon and who keeps track of this stuff anyway? It does cut an impressive figure over the harbour, shaped like a spinnaker sail.

We stopped in for lunch in a little pub near the mouth of the harbour. It was located on a little spit of land called Spice Island, because that is where the Spice Girls are from. No – actually it is called that because it is where the spice ships used to unload. Lunch was lovely and we watched the ferries pass back and forth on their way to the Isle of Wight.

After lunch, we walked along the Millennium Parade that has been recently completed. It follows the coast and gives a great view of the Isle of Wight. We carried on and walked along the Clarence Parade that was a favourite of the Victorians. It has a great carnival atmosphere. We dodged the kids on the bouncy stilts and wandered along through the portly crowd. There is a fun fair with cheesy rides, win-a-teddy games and every kind of food you can imagine but deep fried.

Along the Clarence Parade is the Southsea Castle. It was originally built by Henry VIII in the early 1500’s to defend England from the French. It was enlarged in the 1700’s. After going to some glitzy attractions with slickly produced presentations, Southsea Castle was, in a way, refreshing. It has the most ghetto “walk through history” area featuring mouldy old mannequins, bad lighting and, at one point, a smoke machine. So bad it was good. The castle itself was interesting and afforded great views of the harbour. As it was kind of late in the day, we had it to ourselves almost.


We walked up from the sea shore through the town centre. We arrived at a different train station than the one at which we arrived. Handy to have the choice.