Above: HMS Warrior sits in the Historic Portsmouth Dockyard.

July 6th (Day Five): PORTSMOUTH

This day was dedicated to the ships in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. You can pick and choose what ships you want to visit and even take a harbor cruise. You could spend an entire day perusing the Mary Rose Museum or HMS Victory.  The Mary Rose Museum is a very well planned out museum with each level of the museum displaying artifacts that correspond to that level of the ship. Late in the afternoon we headed into Salisbury.

MUSINGS ABOUT DAY FIVE

  • Not every day goes well: Living in Colorado I don't get to tour many big ships. So, for me, being anywhere near large bodies of water and walking around ships is a novelty. I wasn't prepared for the heat down on the dockyards. The wind wasn't blowing like I expected. Plus, I tried to see too much. It made me grumpy. But once we got to our hotel in Salisbury and I could take a shower, my mood jumped back up again. Sometimes it is the simple things.

FIRST EVENING IN SALISBURY

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Our first view of Salisbury Cathedral. It has the highest church spire in England at 404 ft.
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Our hotel was right along the river. You can see the cathedral spire in the distance.
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A beautiful evening after a nice group dinner in town. By this point my grumpiness from Portsmouth is forgotten.

A Sketchable Moment

Art can sometimes be a social activity. I sketched this in late afternoon while sitting on the patio with tour mates. Everyone had a nice mix of being quiet and doing their own thing and also talking about snippets of their day.
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Salisbury Cathedral in distance from hotel's grounds. Watercolor and ink.
Solo Travel Tips
Slowing Down
Stepping Up
We were given the entire day to explore Portsmouth. I chose to spend this day on my own. I know I could have asked to join other tour mates, but I wanted to set my own agenda. I had researched ahead of time what ships I wanted to view first. I ran into many in the tour group at various times of the day and ate lunch with one. It is your vacation, decide what you want to see and do and go do it.
I blew it on this day. I tried to see all of the different possible ships on the harbor and do the harbor cruise. I managed it, but it caused me to get frustrated and overtired. I should have just focused on touring HMS Victory and the Mary Rose museum. I toured the Mary Rose museum quickly because I felt I "should" see the other ships. Instead that museum deserved almost all of my time on the dockyard.
Walking + Running: 4.9 miles
Steps: 12,839
Flights Climbed: 9 floors