The breakfast was every bit as good as we remembered from our first visit. The breakfast room was rather full due to the wedding guests from the day before. Thankfully the kids had worn themselves out and were quiet during breakfast.
We set off to Portsmouth to visit the Mary Rose Museum. The journey went smoothly but there was a bit of a saga when we tried to purchase the admission tickets. There were clearly only three of us but we were sold four tickets!! There was then a delay whilst someone (in fact two someones) came to sort out the problem and refund the money. Eventually we got past the ticket desk and had our bags searched as we entered the dockyard. We were surprised to see HMS Victory had changed colour and we wondered if she was in the middle of being repainted and what we were seeing was the undercoat. It was only when we came out of the Mary Rose museum that I noticed a sign that explained what we saw was her new paint scheme. During conservation work in 2013-14 up to 72 layers of paint had been removed to reveal that the paint scheme that she had been wearing for years was not the one she had worn at Trafalgar; the new one is.
The Mary Rose is now completely unwrapped and there are no drying pipes or screens obscuring the view giving a full view the ship. The exhibition blew me away. The ship is alternately illuminated to reveal the ship and then darkened to show living displays to various areas that bring ship to life. On arrival at the top level of the exhibition we found that the view of the ship was completely open without even the Perspex.
We had lunch in one of the dockyard cafes before moving on to Hinton Ampner which is a National Trust property that on our last visit had been only partially open due the roof being damaged in gales. We thought we might enjoy the gardens first but we soon changed our mind when it started to rain leading us to proceed into the house. The upstairs is very much a work in progress as repairs continue but it was good to see the upstairs rooms which had been closed on our previous visit. By the time we had finished our tour of the house the sun had come out and we toured the gardens in glorious sunshine with the colours enhanced by the rain. We took time to enjoy the gardens before returning to the hotel to chill out before dining in La Place. Whilst we were ordering our meal the French waiter told Mr C he was a lucky man to be dining with two beautiful ladies.
We stopped briefly in the Old Gaolhouse (A Weatherspoons pub, what were you thinking…) before returning to the hotel for the night.
Very interesting about the Victory colour scheme. I am amazed this was not discovered years ago
We found the information fascinating!
it sounded like a wonderful day Cherie except the experience with the tickets to the museum…
you photo of the HMS Victory just made my day….peter:)
There are more photos of the Victory to come in due course
Oh I’ve been there too but I think the one in Chatham is more impressive.
I think we have had this conversation before Portsmouth has different things to offer including ships that are still in service.
amazing what you mentioned about the paint job, CP. and amusing about the quiet kids
The paint job was a surprise. I did wonder about the parents of the ‘quiet kids’
iT’s always interesting to read of places that I think I know quite well and learn new facts for visitors! I’ve not seen the Mary Rose exhibition and I’ve not been on the Victory since I was about 14 – I think it was still fairly new then
I would recommend a visit to the Mary Rose. LOL about the Victory
Very interesting post – we went to the dockyards a few year’s back when on the Isle of Wight (we caught the hovercraft!). Fascinating to read about the change of colour of HMS Victory and to learn that you can finally see so much more of the Mary Rose Hopefully, will return there one day. Makes a superb day out!
I am glad you enjoyed the post. Travelling to Portsmouth by hovercraft sounds fun
I was very interested to read about these Portsmouth attractions now. I haven’t been there for over 20 years, and so there has been some changes. The Mary Rose was sprayed when I last saw and of course there is much better viewing now. The Mary Rose and the Victory are well worth a visit.
The Mary Rose looks a bit different now to the day she was brought up out of the waters.