The Day We Hit The Coast: Portsmouth

After dinner on the Isle of Wight at a Malaysian Restuarant we caught the hovercraft back to Portsmouth.

Portsmouth is a port city which is fun to visit because of the walls and towers defending the city and because of the big dry dock with lots of old ships. The city centre is easily walkable but if you would like to take public transit this is the link: http://myjourneyportsmouth.com/bus

Back in Portsmouth we all walked along the water front towards the train station and watched the sun set.

We really like to visit the ocean every once and awhile. One thing that we lack living in Birmingham is a waterfront area unless you count the canal.

We could see Spitbank Fort out there which is apparently a place you can visit.

We walked along the sea wall. Portsmouth is heavily fortified being a port city. The wall makes for a great place to go for a walk.

An art gallery moved in to these spaces called Hotwalls Studios. This happened awhile after this visit.

There were some areas of the fortified wall that we were able to go inside.

The Round Tower started out as a wooden one back in 1426 in the time of King Henry V and then a stone tower was created later on. Changes were made over the years such as improvements during the Napoleonic Wars.

We got a little bit lost trying to make it back to the train station. Eventually we found our way.  We did find a lot of boats in the harbour.

 We dropped my Uncle off at the train station then walked to the Airbnb we booked.

We used Airbnb for our stay in Portsmouth. We looked and found that hotels in Portsmouth were expensive at least for the days we needed. We use Airbnb in these sorts of situations when we are only staying a couple nights.

For those of you who don't know what airbnb is, its a website for people all over the world to list their bedrooms, sofa beds, cottages, flats, houses, caravans etc. out to people who want to rent them. It's a really cool concept, you can view their property and reviews on the website. If you like what you see you book online, they don't get paid until after your stay.

We booked a private double bedroom. We shared the bathroom and living space with the couples who owned the house. They were nice people and we spent a few hours getting to know them. To view their Airbnb go here. If you ever find yourself in Portsmouth, check and see if their place is available to stay in.

The next morning we had tea with our hosts at the Airbnb and got to know them a little more. Then we walked to Gunwharf Quays.

We walked through the city centre area which had some nice buildings like the Portsmouth Guildhall.

Gunwharf Quays is a nice shopping area that we had fun walking around.

Of course they had a red telephone booth as it wouldn't be England without them.

Spinnaker 

One of the attractions of Portsmouth is the Spinnaker Tower which you can go up.

There is a lot of boats to see in the Portsmouth harbour.

HMS Warrior

 We had lunch in the harbour and then walked over to Portsmouth's Historical Dockyard

There were old ships in the dockyard which were quite cool to see. Some of the ships you were able to go on board.

HMS Victory

 We went and sat along the sea wall and watched the boats until our bus was scheduled to leave.

 We went back to Portsmouth's harbour and boarded our Mega Bus back to Birmingham.

This was a really great weekend.I would definitely recommend visiting the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth. It felt like we saw quite a bit in a pretty short amount of time.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this post and want to see more seaside towns, check out our post on "Behind the Walls of Southampton"