Portsmouth to Bournemouth

Wednesday morning we drove into the heart of Portsmouth to the Historic Dockyards with Len still feeling poorly after a rather sleepless night with stomach pains and feeling intermittently hot. We're pretty sure we can blame the chicken!
We decided not to go onto the historic ships such as the HMS Victory and the Mary Rose but we had a good external view of HMS Warrior 1860 which was the first iron hulled armoured warship and a worry to the French.One of the "tame"

HMS Warrior

We went to the top of the Spinnaker tower for a great view of Portsmouth harbour, the boating marinas, the dockyards and the harbour entrance with the Isle of Wight beyond.

From Portsmouth we headed west again to coastal Lymington bypassing Southampton and striking a half hour delay through the New Forest on the way. Lymington is a cute town, bustling at this time of the year on a hot summer's day with lots of families down at the cobbled harbour fishing for crabs as at Littlehampton. We had a soup at the busy Kings Head Pub before driving through Christchurch which is twinned with Christchurch in NZ. It looked like a nice town. Just along the road is Bournemouth where we had booked to stay the night at the Dursley Dean Hotel for 60 pounds, before we read the reviews, so we were prepared for the worst!

One of the many "tame" squirrels in the park!

OK, the hotel is old and tired with very creaky floorboards and a "boing" of the pronounced mattress springs everytime one rolls over, especially on my side! But the positives were that it didn't stop Len sleeping well after his bad night in Portsmouth, the bedroom was spacious, the ensuite was enormous and we were just a few yards from the excellent, long sandy beach with its promenade lined by what seemed like hundreds of those quaint English beach huts.

Len needed a lie-down when we arrived about 4.30 so I had a good leg stretch down the steps leading from the top of the cliff to the beach and then along the long promenade to the pier area where there were all the usual amusements/ penny arcades plus a land train, an outdoor theatre, palms that you could pay to climb, food stalls etc. There were crowds of people about, both on the promenade and on the beach. From there I wandered through the central park to the shopping area where I only visited the Tesco express for some fruit and yoghurt before backtracking towatds the beach, this time taking the high cliff path back to the Hotel instead of the beach promenade.

Bournemouth is a really nice spot and I can see why it is a popular family holiday destination although for me it is a little too busy at this time of the year. It really makes me appreciate the more accessible beaches we have in NZ without all the traffic hold-ups to get there!