A Few Days in England

We are leaving England tomorrow, crossing the English Channel by ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg in France. Here's what we have been up to over the past few days....


On Saturday we headed East to Margate to see hubby's aunty and his parents too even though they live 30 mins away from us in Perth they are in England too...

Hubby captured this photo of me laughing down on the promenade at Margate, we were heading to the cafe for fish and chips for lunch...

 

On Sunday we had a family barbecue, Cousin Roger has a great BBQ and Cousin Anne is a great cook so we were very happy.

On Monday we headed South and stopped at Lindfield for morning tea, then at Midhurst for lunch and a wander around some Norman fortress ruins and Cowdray Castle.  Then through the tree lined roads of the South Downs to Bognor Regis which is on the coast.

This is me in my new bike touring jacket, all rugged up whilst the British are wearing shorts and singlets because even though the sun was out the wind was very chilly.

Today, Tuesday, we went with our friends Brian and Sue, whom we are staying with to Portsmouth to the Spinnaker Tower, it was a beautiful sunny day so we had great views.  There was a glass floor so I walked on it and it reminded me of my trip to the CN Tower in Toronto last September.

We then went to the Mary Rose Museum which was opened last Thursday. This ship sunk in 1545 and was salvaged 30 years ago and there are thousands of artifacts, it was amazing and very interesting.  The museum is very well set out and you can see the ship being dried out (the black tubes) through portal windows but it is very dark to preserve the artifacts and therefore not good for photographing.

"The Mary Rose is a Tudor ship, built in 1510.In service for 34 years. Sank in 1545. Discovered in 1971.Raised in 1982. Now in the final stages of conservation,she now takes her place in a stunning and unique museum. "

"The Mary Rose was a carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. After serving for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany and after being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her last action on 19 July 1545. While leading the attack on the galleys of a French invasion fleet, she sank in the Solent, the straits north of the Isle of Wight. The wreck of the Mary Rose was rediscovered in 1971 and salvaged in 1982 by the Mary Rose Trust in one of the most complex and expensive projects in the history of maritime archaeology. The surviving section of the ship and thousands of recovered artefacts are of immeasurable value as a Tudor-era time capsule."

 We've had a great time in England catching up with family and friends and getting our bike ready for our journey.  My suitcase is a small backpack that fits in the top box behind where I sit on the bike, in it I have enough clothes for 3 months, I hope!

 See you when we get to France!  Au revoir!