Orpington - Portsmouth

Entrance to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Had a lovely stay with Audrey and Kevin last night in Orpington. It was so nice to be in a real home again as opposed to motels etc.. Those of you who followed my last blog may remember I met with Audrey on the steps of St Martin in the Fields Church in London last time and she took me for some kultcha to the cafe at the London Opera House. :)

Audrey is fully immersed in our family history and has been researching it for years, even before the days of the Internet. So both last night and this morning we spent time sharing stories about our mutual family connections. Audrey is my 2nd cousin... our Grandmothers were sisters.

Then this morning as I prepared to go, Kevin helped me find a motel on the road near Portsmouth. It's at Ringwood (Hello Davey and Bec and kids!) It's a bit of a challenge to find one with parking in the UK!! He also helped me sort out the basics of life, like how to put petrol into my car!

So, a big thank you to my wonderful hosts. It was so nice to be among family again!

Then came the time to move on...

As Gaby Garmin was in disgrace and Kevin had so generously bought me a sim card for my phone that allowed me to use Google Maps, I was trying to use a different method of navigating.

I hooked up my phone and had it all displayed, but it was in a different position... and I hadn't fiddled with the settings so it wasn't setup right. So what I did was put Gaby Garmin back on, but turned her sound off and used my phone as well...... Sometimes life on the road can be complicated. Anyway, after my first stop I had it all sorted and it seems to be working well now. Fingers crossed!

So the next stop on my journey was Portsmouth where I wanted to see the Mary Rose and the historic ships. 

Remnants of the Mary Rose

Another lovely job Kevin did for me this morning was to find me how to access Park and Ride so I didn't have to drive in Portsmouth town. And it worked like a dream. I parked on the outskirts of Portsmouth and the bus took me directly to the historic harbour in 12 mins. It was so nice to have some down time from the stress of driving. I think I'm away from the worst of it now... but you can never really say that over here. No matter where you are, there's traffic! Hopefully as I move further away from London over the next few weeks, it will all ease off a bit.

Anyway, back to the ships! 

As I went to buy my ticket, there were 2 considerations...

1. I was able to get a peno ticket due to my age!!!

2. Each  ship had their own entry fee.

Point 2 made me reconsider my plans!!!

I opted to go to just the Mary Rose, and it was lovely... 

Just in case you don't know about the Mary Rose, it  was Henry VIII's love child!!! 

 Sadly it sank in a sea battle with France (the Battle of Solent)  and was only resurfaced in 1982.

Model of the Mary Rose

Even though I didn't go and visit the other ships, I could look at them from the outside...

HMS Warrior

More info about HMS Warrior

HMSVictory

More info about HMS Victory

So, it was about 3.30pm by the time I left the Historic Harbour. I knew the motel I had  booked with the help of Kevin was about 40 mins from Portsmouth. So I was happy to keep on the move. 

And once again the traffic accompanied me... at least it was moving today...

Booked in OK to my motel... clean and comfy that's all you can ask. And a lovely little pub on the other side of the freeway provided a lovely dinner.

And just as an aside.... thinking of my nieces again - Hello Nikki and Aims - I found a little bottle of red called Mandeville, so I was forced to buy it in honour of your both (it's the name of the school they attended in Melbourne!)

Hopefully the next few days will provide a little downtime, so I can just rest and recuperate.

It's a great adventure, but it will be nice to have a few days off for a while!