Portsmouth

The next day Mark and I headed out to Portsmouth, he the driver and tour guide and me the giddey tourist! He knowing my LOVE for books stopped off in this village called Petersfeild and took me to this amazing bookshop! I couldn't believe my eyes. It was one of those bookshops that make biblophiles drool, madly caress the spines of books and have an insane desire to spend countless hours just looking! I think two hours later (maybe not quite that long) I was able to tear myself away. I made a purchase of four books, and 6 illustration plates and ONLY spent 6 pounds! I was VERY impressed and SO happy!

Headed back to where he had parked the car and there was this little market SO, being the tourist I draged him through it! However, he ended up buying 4 belgian bun (kind of like a cinnamon roll only has rasians, currents in it with a much thincker layer of icing on the top! Also these things were HUGE. They had the diameter of a small plate! By the end of the day they were all gone. I only had one and 1/4 where the other 2 and 3/4 buns went I'll leave up to your imagination!

WE reached Portsmouth and had a bit of a wander about the "docks" we bought tickets for admission to the HMS Victory! Hooray for student discount. There were preparations all around for the Nelson/Trafalagar celcbrations to occur the next day. Which made things a bit more hectic. But still is was really neat to be walking in the dock area of an Old port where some pretty amazing expeditions set out from. As we turned to gain entrance to the HMS Victory the gentleman looked up at Mark and said,
"You been here before sir?"
"Yes, when I was ten"
"Well I have bad news...you've grown but the boat hasn't, so please be careful"

As you can see from the pictures the doorways weren't very tall (Mark is 6'5") inside it the ceilings were even lower! Even I was bent over at the waist! It was amazing to think that people really were this short! I mean a tall man would have been pushing 5'!! It was really neat to walk the various decks and see how the sailors lived and died. It was a bit disapointed as there were no guided tours SO there was very little information that was given out. But I found out the origin of the saying "square meals". Their dinner came on square trays! A few of the guys that were posted around the boat to answer questions were quite helpful BUT not the same as a guided tour. Oh well. The top deck was stunning the amount of lines and rigging was baffleing! And the cannon balls were terribley heavy! It is really astounding how spoiled we are with technology!

When we finished that tour we began to wander through the Naval Musem and the gift shop! By the time it was closing we were ready to be done. We headed over to the recently opened (second day) Spinnaker tower with full intention to take a ride up it...BUT by the time we got there it was closed :( So we shopped for a bit before climbing into the car and heading Back to Mark's Parents place. Just in time for Supper and another great night of chatting with them infront of the fire after another good homemade English meal.