From coast to old Roman city via ancient capital

Henry VIII's Southsea castle, Portsmouth

Our stay in Warsash continued in much the same way, lots of walking, eating and fussing with Hendrix. I can’t believe I’m now on week three of couch to 5K, that’s three runs a week, and as much as Jo Wiley, my personal coach, tells me to love running, it’s not working yet!

Brian has been getting the newspaper online, courtesy of mums vouchers, so we now start off with the regular crossword, before moving on to the cryptic with our pre dinner drink. I do find I still need a pencil and a piece of paper, but it’s actually better than expected, and beginning to come together for Brian.

This is a little video of the Isle of Wight to Portsmouth hovercraft which some people may find boring but they never cease to amaze me!

We did eventually become more than just ‘staff’ to Hendrix, he’d come and go during the night for a little fuss and spent evenings in with us in the lounge. It just takes some animals a bit longer to decide we are ok. We’ve never done a sit for less than a week, for animals we’ve not met before, and don’t really think a week is long enough. Obviously we understand why there are so many short breaks this year with all the uncertainty about booking to go away, but we don’t think it’s optimal for us or the pets. So what a joy, this next one is three weeks, in St. Albans looking after Max and Tatty, a Russian blue and a Siberian, both come all the way from Australia.

We went for a walk through Hamble, the town on the other side of the Hamble river from Warsaw and this is the way across, the Pink Ferry! Have a look at our 'Relive' video of our walk and river trip: click here

Hamble town

We travelled on Thursday with a little stop off at Winchester to look at the Great Hall, with what might have been King Arthur’s Round Table on the wall (if it had been a little older, and he’d actually existed!) It was very interesting though, neither of us realising that Winchester used to be the capital of England. We got to the house, about 16.00, to have a handover as the homeowners, and baby were leaving at 10.30 the following morning, better to get it out of the way so we could keep out of their way! We spent the night at the Holiday Inn in Apsley, because there was the choice of pub or Indian restaurant within 90 seconds walk! So we had a pint, and then a curry - can’t show favouritism! They were lovely curries, mine selected for me by the waiter, he appears to do it regularly reading TripAdvisor, and he made a good choice. We had a good excuse, Brian’s Birthday being on Friday, not that we really need an excuse. We’ve got to spend his state pension somehow! We did however both wake up feeling rubbish curry or beer? Who knows. Not to worry though, we only had to pop to Aldi before letting ourselves in to the house. We did go out though to have a quick look round, found a streetfood market (but we had leftover curry) and a running route, identified where Verulamium, old Roman ruins, are and had a general potter.

This is a chapel in the Royal Victoria Country Park, which is all that remains of a huge WWI hospital. It burned down in the 1960's and was demolished. It once extended from where we are standing to as far the other side of the chapel and from the low fence halfway across that field towards the sea. A railway line and station transported injured soldiers from the port directly to the front door. A pier stretched out into Southampton Water to allow recuperating soldiers to take in the sea air 

Hendrix cat looking quite cute

Feeling much better on Saturday we had a run, went to another ‘proper’ market, went up the clock tower, the oldest town (not church) clock tower in the country. Looked in amazement at the number of restaurants and pubs there are in this city (we’ll both be the size of a house when we leave if we are not careful) and spent some time with Max and Tatty. Max, apart from sleeping a lot of the day, is fab. He’s our friend already. Tatty is a little more reticent, though I carried her down from her attic room (which she didn’t like much) last night to have her turkey mince (which she did). She soon went back upstairs though, but at bedtime came down onto the bed for strokes. She reappeared a few times during the night for more fuss which was lovely. She hasn’t been down to go outside yet (there is a litter tray in the bathroom so this isn’t actually a problem) but we are getting there!

This is Southsea Castle just south of Portsmouth, originally built by Henry VIII to protect the port. It was from here on 19th July 1545 that Henry watched the battle against a failed French invasion of 200 ships and saw his favourite ship the Mary Rose capsize and sink

This would have been Henry's view. We're looking at The Solent and the land is the Isle of Wight. French forces were massed on the left and the Mary Rose sank a little further out from where that little yacht is 

A photograph of an engraving of the scene. French forces massed on the left, English forces on the right and the two masts of the Mary Rose after sinking just visible in the centre

Southsea Castle. Have a look at our 'Relive' video of our walk along the front: click here

They were also setting up for a 3 day music festival 'Victorious' over the Bank Holiday weekend. You can see one of three stages they had erected. Madness were about the only band we recognised as performing

These people were not having a fun time. We watched them get it upright and then capsize again three times at least while we watched

Now we're in Winchester, ancient capital of England apparently. The building at the end is the Great Hall and is all that remains of Winchester castle, built by William the Conqueror in 1067 and demolished by Oliver Cromwell in the 1640's during the civil war

Hanging on the wall is this, King Arthurs Round Table, or so it is said. However, the wood used dates from about 1250 and King Arthur is supposed to have existed between about 480 and 550AD. It's not even clear whether there even was a King Arthur as nothing was written about him until 1150 and some believe it is an idealised legend from a noble, lost time. He was supposed to live in Camelot and some believe Winchester is Camelot, but there are many others who claim Camelot is elsewhere. No-one really knows, but that just adds to the legend. What is known is that Henry VIII believed the story, saw the round table and ordered it to be painted, the image of the seated king you can see is actually King Henry rather than King Arthur

This is a model of what is believed to have been Winchester castle

Winchester cathedral. I can't write that without thinking of the 1966 song of the same name performed by The New Vaudeville Band. Jackie had never heard of it so I found a copy on Youtube. Here's a link to it: click here its quite catchy, you'll end up humming it!

So we had a nice evening in a hotel near Hemel Hempstead. We had a drink on the terrace here at The Paper Mill pub then went across this bridge we're on over the Grand Union canal to the Marina Spice Indian restaurant on the other side. The Grand Union canal links London to Birmingham, it makes you think, travelling by narrow boat between the two cities stopping a pubs like this on the way, mmm!

So on to St Albans. This is Verulamium Park, site of the third largest Roman city in England. A huge number of artifacts have been found here, now in a museum which we have yet to visit. Many ruins have been excavated, but then buried again to protect them, on a few bits of wall show above ground. A lot of the stones were used to build the cathedral and clock tower

Here's a bit of the old Roman city wall in the park. Jackie looks excited!

And this is Ye Old Fighting Cocks Inn, said to be the oldest pub in England. It was a coaching inn and very popular as it was one days journey from London (about 20 miles!). It helped put St Albans on the map making it a wealthy city. We have to have a drink in here!

However, it vies with a huge number of pubs and restaurants in the town. This screenshot from Google Maps shows the huge number in a small area. How do they all survive? But more importantly, how many can we try on the three weeks we're here!

This is the clock tower in St Albans, said to be the oldest medieval clock tower in England

Nice views from the top all round St Albans. That's the cathedral, another place we have to visit while we're here

But let's not forget our charges while we're here - this is shy little Tatty cat. Isn't she gorgeous?

And, of course, if you leave any clothes on the floor they are a magnet for pussy cats

And this is Max. Incredibly friendly and wanting strokes as soon as we'd walked in (as long as he wasn't asleep!). The location of the house makes it very easy to explore the city, we can walk to the centre of town in about 3 minutes, so we don't have to leave them on their own for too long. Even Verulamium Park is less than 10 minutes walk away, not to mention the number of bars and restaurants we can reach within 5 minutes walk!

South coast of England for ten days and a trip to the Mary Rose

Sunday lunch with the family: Harry, Becky, James, Jenny & Fiona

Ted started with no worries, the new solar controller seems to be working well, and was then serviced and passed his MOT with flying colours.

Sunday lunch on Fiona’s birthday with her and James, Jenny and Becky and Harry was great fun.

Tuesday we set off
bright and early for Warsash, between Southampton and Portsmouth. Our journey time wasn’t too bad, but we were aware our hosts were heading to East Anglia. Lovely to meet them and be introduced to Hendrix cat named after Jimi not the gin. It’s lovely to be so close to the sea, we’ve done a couple of walks so far, the second of which came inland through Holly Hill and was very pretty (see our 'Relive' short video: click here). We didn’t get our timing quite right though, we ended up back at the Rising Sun, right by the harbour, an hour and a quarter too early. Not for pub opening, but for the “Straight from the Boat” fish van arriving. We could have spent that time in the pub obviously, but whether I would have than felt inspired to cook anything from the fish van is debatable, so we came back to Hendrix before popping out again.

Look at this fabulous painting Becky did for her mum's birthday

Our fabulous tapas dinner

Very glad we did, I had in mind a little tapas, satisfied with some cooked shell on prawns to which I then added moules mariner, pili pili king prawns and scallops with chorizo, a little bit of work, but with the main issue everything wanted cooking all at the same time! It was worth it though, it was yummy. Brian’s craving was satisfied last night with a bream cooked with Asian flavours and served with noodles and stir fried vegetables. He does love a whole fish.

Yesterday was spent visiting the Mary Rose at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. The Mary Rose was King Henry VIII flagship, sunk in the Solent in 1545. She was raised in 1982 and has been undergoing restoration and preservation ever since. There were so many artefacts also found, of which only a tiny portion are on display, but they do give a great view of Tudor life. Fortunately we visited the dockyard three years ago with mum and Charles and Caroline so we didn’t feel duty bound to visit anything else, which was probably just as well, as we were both ‘full’!

Here's a section of the OS map showing where we are. The water bottom left is The Solent, the sea that separates the Isle of Wight from the mainland. 

Today, Saturday, I looked for markets, events and suchlike near us, but nothing, so we had to make do with more couch to 5k and a sausage sandwich. Not to worry, the forecast is rubbish, but actually hasn’t been too bad, so far! Hendrix is pleased we are in, although we are not ‘his people’ we are OK as staff for door opening and treat giving. He did bring us a gift the other night, a slow worm (actually a lizard) which we’d have taken a photo of before putting it out, if we’d realised it was a protected species! He’s got a lovely temperament and doesn’t mind sharing his beautiful garden with at least four other cats, along with sharing our bed for short periods in the middle of the night.

This photo is taken bottom centre on the above map and looks out over The Solent. In front is the Isle of Wight, the chimney just to the right is on the mainland at Calshot, beyond which is the New Forest

Now here's an interesting fact: this is the jetty by the Rising Sun Inn at Warsash (it's shown on the OS map above on the left just above centre. There's a triangle of roads, a beer mug showing the pub and 'Jetties' marked). The notice board on the right tell us that, from this point on 5th June 1944 the British and Allied Naval and Commando units departed for the D-Day landing on Normandy

Imagine the scene here on that day, many never seeing home again

A copy of Eisenhower's letter to those taking part

The historic clock tower in Warsash

The little Pink Ferry that takes people from Warsash across the River Hamble to the town of Hamble

Old sunken boats on the mud flats along the Hamble River

Inland towards Holly Hill, you can see a short 'Relive' video of our hike by clicking here

Saw quite a few of these in the extensive salt marshes along the Hamble River. Not sure what it is

And huge quantities of these. Wish we were more knowledgeable on birds!

We're off to see the Mary Rose in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, and who should be at the entrance, King Henry VIII. He was quite happy to have his photo taken with Jackie (he was a real walking, talking King Henry VIII)

Walking through the dockyard we went past HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar. We toured that a few years ago, our target this time was the Mary Rose

Ships docked at Portsmouth. This is an aircraft carrier, but I'm sure not the Queen Elizabeth as I think that's in the South China Seas at the moment (I may be mistaken) Late news: Alan V. tells me it's HMS Prince of Wales the UK's second aircraft carrier

So this is the amazing Mary Rose, King Henry VIII's flag ship. It went into battle against the French on 19th July 1545, having been launched in 1511. It fired a broadside into French shipping, who were attempting to invade England and had advanced into The Solent. King Henry VIII was watching from Southsea and saw the Mary Rose turn sharply to re-engage the enemy. It is believed a gust of wind at that moment caused the ship to list, take on water through it's gun turrets and sink within minutes with huge loss of life. It was raised and brought ashore in 1982 after laying buried in sand on it's side. The sand helped preserve the wood due to lack of oxygen. Buried along with it were many thousands of artifacts and skeletons giving a fascinating insight into life on board a ship in Tudor England. The range of objects on display and the quality of their preservation is truly stunning. It is truly a 'must do' visit and is absolutely fascinating 

The dark brown is the section recovered, the lighter outline is what was believed to have been the full ship. Further discoveries have been made since the original raising and, it is hoped, the bow or stern section may yet be located under the sand

Here's a couple of cannons on display opposite the actual ship and placed in the mirror image position as found on board. This is a breech loaded wrought iron cannon. The stone cannon ball is loaded in, the cylinder on the floor is filled with gunpowder and placed behind in the gap and the wooden wedge shown is hammered into position. Beyond is a newer bronze cannon and King Henry had ordered a quantity of these new cannon to be installed on the Mary Rose. They were more accurate and had a longer range, but they weighed over 3 tonnes each and required the Mark Rose decks to be strengthened to support them. There were so many things on display including peoples personal possessions, medical equipment, carpentry equipment etc.

This is the section nearest the bow. See those angled lengths of wood making a triangular shape? Those were the strengthening modifications required to support the bronze cannon

Here's a few photo's of Hendrix cat, our charge for 10 days

He thinks it's his garden, but so do the other three or so other cats who visit here. He doesn't seem to mind, we haven't seen any fighting

He seemed to like the film, here he is watching it (it was 1917, a heavy but really good film, we can recommend it as long as you're not feeling too depressive!)

He hasn't done a lot of sitting on us unfortunately, he is very much his own cat

But he's a lovely natured boy. Great name too (not sure he can play the guitar like Jimi though)

Yes, you're a lovely boy!

This is the back garden of the lovely house we're staying in in Warsash. It feels like it could be somewhere tropical