Boats and Water – a home away from home
November 14th, 2007 by Zofia
Being a Wellingtonian living in London one thing I miss a lot about my home town is the fact it is built around a harbour. You are never more than half an hour away from a beach and there is the constant to-and-fro of ships coming in and out of the harbour – and you can’t beat a good southerly sea breeze to clear your head! So I was very lucky recently to be taken by some friends on a trip to Gosport and Portsmouth in the south of the UK.
First stop was a walk on a rocky beach in Lee-on-Solent with the Isle of Wight off in the distance. The weather was freezing – I think Autumn has been bypassed in favour of going directly into Winter! But despite the cold it was still very refreshing to be breathing in the salty sea air and watching the water lapping on the shore.
We then jumped back into the car and headed for Portsmouth where we were going to visit friends. Once inside the warmth of their house we had a delicious lunch of pumpkin soup the way my mum makes it – YUM!
Next we were off to explore the area we were in. We walked down the road and towards the ferry which takes you across the harbour from Gosport to Portsmouth in a matter of minutes. Portsmouth is instantly impressive with the Spinnaker Tower dominating the landscape even from the Gosport side of the harbour.
The highlight of the visit to Portsmouth was the visit to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Here we were treated with the opportunity to walk amongst some amazing historic ships. We didn’t go onto any of them as there is a cost involved in that, but I wouldn’t mind going back some time to take a closer look at the inside of these impressive ships! We saw the HMS Warrior, and the HMS Victory (Lord Nelson’s famous ship). Also on the dock but inside a building is the infamous Mary Rose which sank in Portsmouth Harbour in 1545 right in front of King Henry VIII. It was raised in 1982 and now is undergoing conservation efforts to preserve it for all time. (As I understand it, it is a similar process to the conservation of Plimmer’s Ark in Wellington)
We also had a bit of fun along the port with silly pictures like me doing the jig!
And then there was the opportunity to contrast the old with the new! Since Portsmouth is where the Royal Navy are based there were also current Royal Navy ships in port. For example, the Ark Royal was visible from the area where the HMS Victory was.
After the historic docklands it was off to look at shops. Portsmouth has a huge shopping area full of outlet stores called Gunwharf Quays. Strolling in and out of shops was nice, and the mocha from HaHa Bar was absolutely delicious! Anything made with real chocolate can’t be bad!
We went for a stroll further around the harbour and had dinner at a lovely pub overlooking the water. Then we braved the cold again for the walk back to the ferry and then headed back to our friend’s house.
On the whole, this was a fantastic day out. Portsmouth and Gosport are gorgeous and I now know where I will be heading next time I need to breathe in the salty sea air!