Travels in the United Kingdom:
November 1997
Portsmouth II
We knew we were going to go back to Portsmouth eventually, since we had purchased the season tickets that give you unlimited visits to all the attractions for two years. I guess they put both of us down under my name, since I was the one who got the special invitation to the World of 007 special event...dinner, a show and a martini during a guided tour of the James Bond exhibition! I thought it would be pretty cool, especially if we could convince anyone else to come with us.
Andy and Steve joined us, so we set off as early in the morning as we could (it takes about two hours to get to Portsmouth) so we could see all the ships before the martinis at 5:30pm. We went on the HMS Victory tour again, since Andy and Steve hadn't before, which was just as well, since we saw some parts of the ship that we didn't see last time. We also strolled around the HMS Warrior, which was one of the first iron-hulled ships ever built. This is part of the guide for strolling around the Warrior shown here...
Another of the most famous exhibits here is the Mary Rose, which you can see here, sort of....? The Mary Rose was King Henry VIII's flagship that went down off the shores of Portsmouth, but the wreckage wasn't finally discovered until the 1960's. Since they wanted to preserve it, it took until the early 1980's for them to painstakingly excavate it and bring it to the surface. The reason this picture is so hazy is that it is enclosed behind glass so they can saturate it with wax by constantly spraying it. The wax will eventually replace the water in the timbers, hopefully preserving it forever. Also, it is protected from the light, hence another problem with taking photos of it...
After all of this, we ventured into the Bond exhibit. They even had the Aston-Martin from the upcoming movie, as well as the Lotus Esprit that changes into a submarine! Pretty cool props, but for those of us who like reading all the exhibits, there wasn't enough time before we had to go in to dinner. The meal was good (I couldn't finish all my Steak and Mushroom pie cooked in Guinness), and the show was excellent as well. There were only three characters, but it was a spy mystery and romantic drama all set in World War II around Portsmouth. I don't think we got back to Didcot until after 1am, but it was a fun day...
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