Day 11 - From Chichester to Porstmouth by train, around Portsmouth - Total cycling mileage 5.6
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One of the old buildings in the naval yard |
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British warships in port |
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The Victory |
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The stern of the Victory |
Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson KB and Captain James Cook are two people I hold in great esteem, both for their sailing prowess and their courage. Jeanette has done her share of sailing as well and has a great appreciation for the sea and sailing. So, even though we were feeling a little burnt out with the touristing part of the tour, our next destination, the Naval Yards at Portsmouth, excited us. Portsmouth was about thirty miles away though and if we rode the bikes, we would have had to travel through over 20 miles of fairly urban roadways. The ride would take most of the day and delay our arrival in town until the early afternoon. The Naval Yard and its museums closed at five. If we rode the bikes the whole way, we would only have an hour or so to visit.
We decided to take the train from Chichester to Portsmouth. We packed and ate another English breakfast, dining with the same two couples from the previous day. We recounted our adventures to the delight of the elderly lady who was going to make sure to tell her daughter of the cycle trail to West Dean. Finished with breakfast, we paid our bill and rode to the station, boarded the train and were in Portsmouth at the shipyard gates by 10:30.
At every previous attraction we had been able to leave our bikes and panniers in a relatively secure location while visiting but we ran into problems at the Naval Shipyard. The girl working the gate said we'd have to leave the bikes outside. We surveyed the area and decided that we would be better off taking our panniers to the B&B we had booked while in Chichester and then return to the shipyard.
The round trip took about an hour. Luckily, we found another Sustrans cycle path that took us within a block of our B&B so the riding itself was easy. Once back at the shipyard we took a harbor cruise, and then visited, "The Trafalgar Experience." We were with a group of British cadets at the start of the presentation where a quiz is offered on Nelson's life and the Battle of Trafalgar. We cringed as the cadets had such a difficult time answering questions we found easy. We finally told them the answers and we all laughed that two Americans knew more about Nelson then four British cadets. When finished we visited Henry VIII's ship, the Mary Rose Museum and walked the decks of the Victory, Lord Nelson's ship.
The time passed quickly. Before we knew it, the museum closed for the day. We had skipped lunch and decided to have an early dinner at one of the pubs directly across from the shipyard. The pubs were full of young sailors and they seemed to be having a good time. One group was singing and laughing, "No surrender to the IRA" I'm sure that two hundred years ago, other young British sailors were singing songs about Napoleon and the French.
Before we rode back to the B&B, we stopped by the ferry terminal and found out how to book the ferry for the next day's ride to the Isle of Wight.