Thursday 16 August 2007

Day Two - The Royal Marines

Still blowing my nose made for an uncomfortable night for Jon as well as myself. However, we started the day with a proper English breakfast. Cereal, juice, tea or coffee, sausage and bacon (very different from the American bacon we are used to - more almost like ham but sliced like bacon), mushrooms, tomatoes, eggs (fried, scrambled or poached) and toast with butter and jam. Needless to say you don't need to eat again until much later in the day after all of that.

Mrs. Stevens had given us several brochures all with exciting things to see and do. We let Patrick pick first and he decided on the Royal Marine Museum. So we drove down to Portsmouth.



















Patrick seemed to enjoy himself (took some pictures for his Dad while he was there) and even humored his Mother by putting on a pith helmet. I swore he was going to tell me that it was for "little kids" which I think it was but he actually added the ammunition around his chest and Jon handed him the gun. Not to look foolish by himself - he conned Jon into joining into the fun. Glad I was the one with the camera!
































We headed over to Gunwarf Quays much to Patrick's horror - shopping?!! on holiday??!!! Calm down it was only for an English SIM card for one of our cell phones so if separated, Jon and I would be in touch. I still wasn't feeling well thanks to the cold so we found a pub at the harbor for lunch. We had hoped to visit the Mary Rose and the HMS Victory in the Portsmouth dockyard but alas time and my cold did not allow. I had seen both but thought Patrick might enjoy them especially since his Dad had expressed a desire in seeing any pics if he went. By then it was late enough and jet lag was kicking in so we all decided heading back to the B&B was best.

The roads around our B&B were tiny to say the least. That is one thing that is very evident to me when I come over - the roads leave very little room for error. They have no shoulders (except for the major motorways). Although I clutched the handle on the side of the door, I have to admit that even though the speed limits are higher there the drivers as a whole are better than the US. People seem to know they have to be polite and take turns (especially when some roads are barely big enough for one car to come down let alone two). Several towns/villages have roads where your lane is blocked by cars parked. I'm utterly surprised that more car doors and wing mirrors are destroyed.

Jon and Patrick napped while took my book out into the lovely garden to hopefully dry out my sinuses (sitting in the sunshine) and soaking up the English country air. We couldn't get Patrick up so Jon and I ventured out to a local pub for dinner. Home again and after a cup of tea, some biscuits (what the English call cookies) and a nice hot bath I was ready to hit the sack. Hopefully tomorrow would go better.


2 comments:

fritzthekat said...

Yes, but did you buy any FUN stuff???

Beth said...

Afraid not. This trip was all about Patrick so I didn't get anything (although I wanted to buy the last 2 Harry Potter books so we'd have the complete set of both the English and the American cover art - hopefully Jon will remember and bring them home).