Euro tour day 11 Portsmouth

Euro tour day 11

Today I am heading to Portsmouth overnight. I could have stayed in London an extra night and spent the day here, but I didn’t want to be rushed as soon as it became dark. Also this gets me out of the city and longer to look around without worrying about how long it takes. I did find the Victoria station does have 19 or more platforms and it is never fun trying to find the far ones. I think I should just be a battering ram for those who wander across my path when I am loaded up.

The train stopped at Three bridges and I had two minutes to get to the other platform and that was not easy and then to find out the train splits at certain points and half goes one way and the other half goes another. I was in carriage 5 and had to bolt to number 4 as that one splits and heads to Portsmouth. Different when only 4 carriages goes that way and the rest goes elsewhere. I did find a seat and found oh, you have to move as they are first class and here I was thinking I smelt funny. I told the conductor that I will jump.

I seem to have this uncanny luck in walking the wrong way. I actually walked in the wrong direction from the train station although heavy bags were annoying. Luckily I asked a lady before I crossed the road and she told me which way to go. I found that I was on the right path and also walking out of different exits does not help either. The Ibis which I decided to stay in was not that far anyway and I did find a short cut later on.

I was able to check in early and get on my way towards where the Mary Rose was located. There were several ships that I wanted to see in person along with HMS Victory which was where Nelson was killed during the battle of Trafalgar. The ship at the time is going under a 10 year restoration project and it is also in dry dock where it cant move at all. A german bomb did damage the ship during the war. The Mary Rose museum is still being built and wont be ready until next year although I got to see the rest of the artifacts that were in the ship. I spent most of the afternoon at the museum around where some of the important ships were and just before dark I found Charles Dickens birthplace.

An interesting fact about the HMS Victory tour is that you are not allowed to take pictures as it is still a commissioned vessel and they do not want  you to sell the design secrets to other countries.