What I did on my summer holidays.....

 There were several real life matters which meant we were not going abroad this year and as we made our mind up to get away late we did not have much choice in where we went, we ended up with a cottage in North Norfolk for a week followed by a weekend with No.1 son in Rickmansworth and then a trip to Portsmouth to visit Evelyn's sister and have a look at the Naval Museum and ships before stopping in on Richard III in Leicester on our way back.

Norfolk was very nice but pretty much empty, the weather was very kind to us. We visited several seaside towns which would not have been out of place fifty or more years ago, the larger towns had not handled the lockdowns well with empty shops and a tired, defeated look about them. We did some walks along the cliffs and the coastal path, a local village called Burnham Market had a hotel in which Nelson recruited men for the Royal Navy, he had been born in nearby Burnham Thorpe. A trip to Sandringham wrapped up our stay, not recommended, the tour of the house took 25 minutes and the gardens were simply woodland, the service in the cafe/restuarant was abysmal.

Searching for fossils.

Sandringham.

Holste Hotel, Nelson's recruiting station.

On the way to Graham's we stopped off at Sutton Hoo, I was not expecting much as wokery has overtaken history in many of our institutions. I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the visit, the craftsmanship of many of the objects is just astounding.

Beautiful, there are 13 creatures on this buckle.

One of the main points of our trip as far as Evelyn was concerned was a visit to Windsor Castle we did this while staying at my son's. Windsor was extremely busy both the town and the castle, we had a bit of a wait to get in as despite having our ticket barcodes on the phone you also need a paper ticket, so we had to queue to get one while those who had a paper copy walked right in. Windsor is a very modern castle and I did not really get a sense of the place as a fortress, however if you are a fan of the Royals the State Apartments will be right up your alley, Evelyn loved it and you get more bang for your buck than Sandringham. My highlight was the small amount of tournament armour on show (Henry VIII) and two equestrian mock ups of armoured men-at-arms. A day later and we were off to Pompey and a trip down memory lane.

Windsor.

Ditto.

As we approached Portsmouth the old familiar names started to appear, Petersfield, Liss, Horndean, Havant etc. We stayed at the Royal Maritime Club which had been something different back in the early '70's where Jack on a run ashore got a cheap room with a simple bed and a wardrobe for the weekend before returning to the ship. The place had been refurbished but you did not need much imagination to remember the old days, the rooms thankfully were different. It was also five minutes from the main gate into the dockyard. I had visions of running into some old shipmates also on a nostalgic trip but I suppose now we are all old men and probably would walk past each other oblivious.

We started our tour of the dockyard the next day and kicked off with the Mary Rose, this exhibit alone is worth the entrance fee, a beautiful museum built with care and thought for the visitors, we spent a long time in there. We had seen the ship not long after it was raised and being sprayed to keep it from rotting, but now, although only a part of her was salvaged she is magnificent. You also get an idea of the size of the ship and how they managed to cram 500 men on to her is hard to imagine, 35 survived the sinking. My last ship HMS Sheraton was a bit longer (though not nearly as tall) and she had a crew of 33.

HMS Warrior.

The Queen Elizabeth.

Fired first shell in WWI.

Still got it.

Next up was HMS Warrior, I was particularly interested in this ship as we had tied up alongside her once when we refueled as she was being used as an oil jetty. That hulk is now long gone and the mighty warship she once was has been lovingly restored, she is beautiful and impressive, a crew of around 700 and although she is much larger than the Mary Rose it must still have been a squeeze. Tartar and Nubian which were a tad smaller had 253 men.

We finished the day in the Museum building and the Nelson room was especially impressive, they had a section which was very modern and it was simply a mish mash of 'stuff' with no coherent story, but maybe that's just me. We had planned the next day to visit the Submarine Museum and the Explosives Museum on the opposite side of the harbour but they close on a Monday and Tuesday, so maybe next time, I hope so. We also took a harbour tour which was very interesting, the whole area having been dug out by French prisoners-of-war, a monumental task by hand. Sadly however the ships of the modern navy were all in for repairs/refits, taking two or three years, a sad state of affairs, made even worse by sailing past the hulk of the once lovely HMS Bristol, I had really wanted a draft to that ship.

Lovely ship.

A sad end.

And to top things off Leicester Cathedral is closed until the Autumn so we couldn't pop in to pay my respects to one of my heroes.

And there you have it, we had planned to pop over to Europe later but have decided against it and to get the Post Office done first and save for our big holiday next year.