Portsmouth

 On Thursday last, a big day out - to Portsmouth and the Mary Rose exhibition, something we have wanted to do for a long time.

The Historic dockyards are a very draughty location - and it was a cold, windy day.  Armed security guards give it a serious tone, but there is lots to see as well as the Mary Rose.

This is HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship, carrying a full freight of symbolic meaning within its hull.  It is currently being supported by huge steel rods but amazingly still open to the public.  We walked, crouched and ducked and dived below decks, easier for some of us than for others.  It is fitted with ninety cannon, so the living spaces were crammed in between them.

The view from the main cabin, incredibly lit by Georgian windows.  Imagine this in heavy seas.

The Mary Rose exhibition begins with what is now termed an "immersive" experience, but we did not expect that to be taken quite so literally as first we were addressed by a 3D image of Henry V111 and then found ourselves on a simulation of the ship as it went out to battle and then sank.  How they resisted accompanying this with authentic sound effects, given that over four hundred and fifty poor souls drowned that day, we will never know.

The wreck itself is just that: a wreck, but the thousands of artefacts recovered with it tell a really detailed story of life on board.

On the way back through the dockyards we took in M33, a small WW1 Monitor boat.  I imagine that HMS Gnat, the Yangtse River gunboat on which my father served during WW2 was somewhat similar.

Three ships from very different periods  - and a fascinating day out.