A Gale in Portsmouth - Alternate Title: Day 5

Greetings from London,

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, but we ended up having a great night with our Airbnb host Dan in Portsmouth...but more on that shortly.

So on Monday morning, we made our way to Waterloo station to start our trip to Portsmouth. I was excited because I have never been anywhere south of London.

They don't pull any punches in London....lol

I was excited to check out the Mary Rose Museum because of the 16th century artefacts they found when the raised the ship from it watery grave.  It was a good train ride (about and hour and a half) for us to arrive in Portsmouth.

The very tasty chicken, bacon and cucumber sandwich
from M&S (Marks & Spenser!)

When we left London it was a beautiful sunny day, but as we got closer to Portsmouth it got cloudy and very windy. There were gale wind warnings! Now I bought the discounted tickets to the whole Portsmouth Dockyards, which included a few museums, the ability to go on a bunch of really neat ships and the Mary Rose Museum.

Portsmouth Harbour - Low tide

It is really windy!

So on our way to the Mary Rose Museum, we get to go by the HMS Victory. It is dry docked, but still has a full crew and captain! It was Nelson's flagship during the battle of Trafalgar.

Walking towards the ship.

Behind it on the way to the Mary Rose.

CANNONS!

So we get to the museum....and man there is quite a bit there. I have lots of pictures of artefacts, but I think the coolest info was about the ship itself. When they raised it out of the water, they needed a method to keep the wood intact, as the water had saturated all the cells of the wood, and if it evaporated the wood would fall apart. So for 30 years (yes 30!) they sprayed the ship with a water/wax solution. This solution would replace just the water and the wax would keep the cell structure when it dried. Preserving the ship for years to come. They finished spraying the ship in 2013, so it now begins its 4 year drying period. It will be ready in 2017.

The black tubes are pushing air to dry the ship.

Once this has been completed, the building that houses the ship, is really neat. It was built with the whole purpose of having all the walls surrounding the ship, get to be removed. So it will be open to view by the public, nothing obstructing the view of it. So cool!

There were museum staff around showing different reproduction artefacts for people to handle and I found one thing I want...it is a Tudor pepper mill...did they have it in the shop...nope. :( Sadness...they used to sell them, so the shop staff recommend looking on eBay!

The Tudor pepper-mill!

After the Mary Rose, we decided to do a Harbour tour. We love these as you always learn cool tidbits. Here we are waiting...it was really windy.

Yes, it was windy!

Despite the wind, we decided to sit above deck as it had the best view. We found out that this was a very busy week for ships in the docks for repair. Plus they were dismantling all the America's Cup buildings from the weekend. What we didn't know is that the dockyards are a fully functioning Ministry of Defence site, so there were some restrictions.

Waiting above deck...all the life boats were here! ;)

in for repairs

 To finish our day we headed back to the HMS Victory for a tour. It was really fascinating on how cramped it was for the men to get in and out of. Also some of the ceilings I needed to duck to get under, I can't imagine how gown men could move around there quickly.

HMS Victory

Me beside the front mast

Jeff beside the front mast

After our tour we decided to get some dinner and then head to our room with Dan our host. We milled about at Gunwarf Quay. It was a typical outlet mall. lol but interesting non the less. We then headed to where we were staying, but could we find how much the bus would cost to get there, nope. It is one of the most disorganized transit I have ever seen. Even the drivers didn't recognize where we needed to go. Thank goodness for google maps. lol

We get off the bus and stock up on some ciders before we get to our room. I have to say that Dan's place was AMAZING! It is one of the old town-houses in Southsea (a part of Portsmouth), the outside is meh, but when we walked in, he had completely remodelled it! It had a wonderful nautical theme throughout and a retro kitchen. We met Dan and his girlfriend Cat. We came in just as they were having dinner. We sat with them as they ate and we talked all night! It was too bad they had to work on Tuesday. It was really great to meet someone our age, with so much in common. The room was great, he even had breakfast available to us in the morning. I would stay there again for sure. He even recommended that we take the train to Chichester from the station near his place. What a time and money saver! I wish we had taken a picture as a group. It is a great memory!

Next Post...off to Singleton!

Museums...Rain and Asleep on the bus... Alternate Title: Day 2

Greetings from London....day 2.

So today started with lots of rain. Apparently they were calling for Southern England to get up to 50mm of rain. Boy did we get it. We were very lucky today to sleep in quite a bit (9am) and then start to get ready for our day. I love our Airbnb, we bought groceries last night and had breakfast here in the morning. (BTW 4 pints of semi-skim milk is only £1!) so we ate breakfast and headed into Central London (and not down-town...apparently that is a North American term). We decided to hit the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, lucky for us our bus went straight there, no changing or anything! Now I was planning a guerilla style attack of the gallery (especially since it was raining and where do all the tourists go? To the free gallery...sigh) OK...so Renaissance wing here we come. I got to see some of my favourite paintings.

A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling

We ended up going through the whole gallery! I couldn't believe it, neither did my feet! lol So we decided to head for lunch and picked a place called Byron, a nice hamburger joint. The string fries were great and they had some nice cider too. Our waiter spoke like Ali G....it was strange. LOL

Old Smokey burger

So after a filling lunch we decide to head back to the apartment. Our phones were dying (still not sure why)...so we hop back on the bus and head back, except that it is hot in the bus, which makes us very sleepy...enough to miss our stop by 2 stops. Sigh...ok well we will walk back, then the heavens opened up and well it poured...Nothing would stop this...I was soaked (even with Mel's rain coat - thanks btw) and umbrellas. We were dripping. So thank goodness we were going back anyway. So we dry off, get warm, eat some dinner (yay groceries) and head back out to the National Portrait gallery. With a whole Tudor section Woo hoo! except it was a full out bust. :( They had like 20 paintings and none of the ones I wanted to see...no Elizabeth I, no Jane Grey, nada. VERY BIG SAD FACE HERE. They had a huge exhibition back in the spring and not even a book on it. :( :( :(

M&M Super store

So we wandered around a bit and saw they had a Nickelodeon shop...so we went to go see the Bubble Guppies merchandise for Olivia...we have gifties! :) Then we went to the M&M shop...that place is crazy big. Bought too much chocolate! lol All in my favourite colours...

We then went for a small snack before heading to a movie. :) It is raining, and yucky for walking around and we have no Olivia to worry about, so 9:45pm show here we come. we saw inside out at Leicester Square's Empire theatre, opening night in the UK, 3D and the biggest IMAX screen I had ever seen! It was insane. Jeff got us some wine and beer...and we watched a good movie. Yes I cried like a baby. lol

As I write this it is 1:30am...time for bed. we have an early start, catching the train to visit the Clark's. :) So have a great night everyone, and I will try an post tomorrow, but if I don't I will on Sunday. The trip is already going too fast. :P

Night!
~Erin

Moose...Beaver...Maple Leaf... Has landed??

This post is being written in Jolly Old England! We have arrived safe and sound in London. :)

We left Ottawa at 10:40pm for our red eye on Air Canada. I was surprised that it wasn't sold out and once we were in the air, very jealous of a couple who booked single seats in the row of three chairs, as they had no one bedside them at all and they spread out to sleep.

Our plane being readied

We were also lucky as the seats ahead of us were also free, so Jeff moved up and slept there. I decided I would watch the new Cinderella live action movie. What can I say about it...well the costuming choices were interesting. Ranging from 18th century to 20th century...not sure how I felt about all those periods jumbled together in the same scenes. LOL

But I was excited to see Hayley Atwell as Ella's Mom and of course Helena Bonham Carter is always excellent. Otherwise I would give it a meh. LOL The rest of the flight was uneventful (excellent for plane travel) but I didn't get much sleep...just not too comfortable. :( The landing in London this morning was amazing!

So we managed to walk all the way from our gate to customs (I swear it was at least a kilometre walk. To wait at customs for an hour...lots of people coming into London. We picked up our SIM cards and our Oyster cards and started to make our way into London to find out Airbnb place.

We have determined that Google maps walking directions are the pits, and had us walking way longer and out of the way than necessary. But finally we found our place in the Stockwell area. We stopped at a small market and grabbed sandwiches and drinks and I found the best Kettle Chips to try... Bacon and Maple Syrup. Tastes like sweet BBQ.

mmmm...Crispy Bacon & Maple Syrup

We met Rob our host and he is fantastic! I am super happy with where we are staying. It is a very large room with a table and sitting area (in fact I think it is their living room when not being rented.) We had lots to talk about including our mutual love of Top Gear. :P

right now as I write this it is almost 5pm...we have decided to stay in today, rest up for sightseeing tomorrow. We are going to go get some groceries, have dinner and early to bed. I am tired and we walked a lot today!

We don't have many pics yet, but It has been years since I was last in Heathrow, it it amazing and I do love the people movers. :)

Well I am signing off for now, Talk to you tomorrow!

~Erin

July 20 Update

Sorry for the blog updates...it seems I didn't have the blog updating when I was updating the campaign site. Sigh...

Well so now this will be all updated for when I leave in 2 days! 2 DAYS! OMG!

I am so excited, airbnb has been booked, flights booked, travel in and around secured, visits planned and finally the basic itinerary for Hampton!

So the itinerary is like this:

July 22nd: Fly to London (red eye)
July 23rd: land - head to accomodations.
July 23rd to 25th: be london bums (lol I haven't decided which museums we will hit)
July 25-26th: visit with friends before they head back to Canada. (and an 80's bday party)
July 26-27th: back to London
July 27-28th: The Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth and Weald & Downland Open Air Museum in Singleton (Where they filmed the Tudor Monastery Farm)
July 28-August 3rd: London.
August 3rd: Fly back to Ottawa.

Lucky me I get to go to Kew Palace on the 31st for some historical cooking and then 2 days at Hampton (August 1-2).

I am so excited. Museums I want to go to while visiting: National Portrait Gallery, London Museum, British Museum, National Gallery, Westminster Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, Hampton Court Palace, Kew Palace/Gardens, Mary Rose Museum and Weald & Downland Open Air Museum.

It will be busy, but so much fun!

My goal will be to post something everyday for you!

Hampton, here I come!

~Erin

July 11 Update

The sheath has been won! YAY! See who the winner is here:

And the winner is....

~Erin