A visit to HMS Victory and the Mary Rose has long been on my “to do” list – I went to the former about 30 years ago, and it seemed like it was time for a fresh visit, and had never been to the Mary Rose, so we planned a weekend away including both of those – as well as a visit to Queen Elizabeth parkrun.
Lucy getting her “Q” for her parkrun alphabet challenge. It’s a rather hilly parkrun, with a steep downhill that was rather too steep on damp grass, and another which was steep enough to be exciting but still runnable.
Looking somewhat incomplete without topmasts and rigging, as the 15-year restoration is in its early stages
HMS Queen Elizabeth during a tour around the harbour and dockyards. The Spinnaker tower is in the background
HMS Warrior
Our feet on the glass bridge of the Spinnaker tower
It was a last minute decision to go up the Spinnaker tower, and we were running out of both time and daylight, but I’m glad we went – although rather gloomy it was still a great view. Here the Wightlink ferry departs for the Isle of Wight
From the Spinnaker tower, a look past HMS Warrior, over the almost hidden HMS Victory without her topmasts (centre right, to the left of the oval housing the Mary Rose), with HMS Queen Elizabeth on the edge of the dockyard.
Lucy looks down on Old Portsmouth
Next morning we took the fascinating tour of the Mary Rose, learning about both the ship and its eventual lifting and challenging preservation.