A Voyage To Portsmouth

Today, we took a train to Portsmouth on the southern coast of England--a tube and train ride of about two hours. It was an absolutely beautiful day to see the English countryside and to enjoy on the coast. Portsmouth's claim to fame is that it is the center of English naval history and tradition, with about two-thirds of the British fleet based there. More importantly, from a tourism perspective, it has several permanently moored ships, which were high on Scott's list of "must see's" for this trip. The star of the show is the HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship which led the fleet to victory at Trafalgar. Very regrettably, it allows only a limited number of visitors, and the weather brought out the tourists and we were too late in arriving to get a ticket. We did, however, get to walk through the HMS Warrior, the largest, finest ship of the British Victorian navy, and we toured the wreck of the Mary Rose--Henry VIII's pride and joy and the only intact 16th century warship in the world. It is presently being conserved having been raised from teh ocean bottom after more than 400 years along with its 19,000 artefacts (so far). It is incredibly fragile, and can only be viewed behind glass at this point, but you can easily see the outlines of the giant and impressive ship it once was. Further, much of what was recovered from the ship offers a rare glimpse into Tudor times that simply doesn't exist anywhere else. By no means did we see all of what Portsmouth has to offer. A trip through the Trafalgar Gallery, the Naval Museum and the Victory plus a Harbour Tour would have been wonderful but there simply wasn't time. If you're ever in the vicinity, this place is definitely worth the stop.