Portsmouth

Hi again,
Today, we took a train to Portsmouth, a naval town, in Southern England. Allow us a moment to say that the English rail system is fantastic compared to ours. We have not used the subway yet on this trip, but the heavy trains run often and are very smooth. They seem to be heavily used by commuters from outside London. The trip took about 90 minutes, very comfortable, clean and smooth.



In Portsmouth, we met with our friends from an earlier cruise, Terry and Jan. Both are retired. Terry is one of those people who makes a friend of everyone he meets, and he meets everyone. Jan is a saint who puts up with Terry. We toured the Victory, Admiral Nelson’s ship from the battle of Trafalgar, restored of course. An amazing vehicle, much larger than we would have expected, but the ceilings were low. Only three ‘bonks’ for John, which was a victory by itself. The guide was terrific, full of information and with a very dry sense of humor.

Lunch followed at the “Slug and Lettuce”, a chain, not a little local pub as the name conjures. Crowded at 1pm, slow because of the crowds, but very good. We were both very thirsty after, so the sodium levels must have been higher than our normal.

After lunch, we went up a, oh what to call it, a tower shaped like a spinnaker. Remember, this is a naval town. There are lots of marinas with lots of sailboats. The view was very spectacular and Terry even convinced Co to, first go up, and second to go out near the window to look at the views.

Tomorrow, we are going to spend the day on a “Hop-On, Hop-Off” bus, being total tourists. We are told to expect delays, as the Pope is in town, the first papal visit to England. We want to see Notting Hill for the street market, Kensington Palace and Camden Town Market.

Later~Colleen & John