Thursday 2 May 2002

Wednesday 2 May - Brighton Pier

Today we visited Brighton and walked all the way out to the end of the famous pier.




We were away on another "£10 Sun Holiday" staying in the Portsmouth area. During the visit we travelled to  Portsmouth where we saw the rail link to the Isle of White Ferry, the Ferry and then went into Britain's most the famous navel base and went aboard "HMS Warrior" (the first ever steam fully iron warship that rendered every other warship in the world obsolete overnight -  HMS Warrior, was the first ship of the Royal Navy that deserves the name 'Battleship'. She was launched in 1860 and joined the Channel Squadron in 1861. Compared to HMS Victory her design is quite revolutionary.)

 and "The Victory" (Nelson's Flagship)

and took a boat tour of the harbour. My God...Warships are flipping enormous and I know our carriers are dwarfed by US ones so how big are they. We saw the "The Mary Rose"

(Henry VIII sunken flagship) drying out and Nat bought a ships biscuit,

among other things, from the gift shop. Nat and I also went on a number of the simulator rides where we flew planes and helicopters and the like. We had a fantastic day there and one day, when the kids are older, I'd like to visit again. Portsmouth Navel Base is Gob-Smacking.

I believe, that in the UK, only Milford Haven and Scapa Flow are bigger or deeper natural harbours.