Day 58/59 London-Abu Dhabi-Brisbane 13-14 June 2018

All being well we arrived home early evening. The trip had almost perfect weather; we expected to have a lot more wet and cold weather.

Day 57 Portsmouth-Winchester to London 12 June 2018

Under sunny skies we leave for the Royal Naval Submarine Museum at Gosport, next to Portsmouth.

It was quite interesting and we toured a submarine. The rest of the museum was not crowded at all which made it very pleasant. 

Apparently all British submarines had a Jolly Roger and the symbols all had a different meaning.

We stopped for a quick lunch at the Withies Inn at the village of Compton. It dates from the 16^th century and it was lovely, as was their food.

Our final stop, we had a personal tour of RAF Biggin Hill Museum. Here the workshop restores and maintains actual flying Spitfires and Hurricanes from WW2. Some of the Spitfires are twin seaters and for $5,000+ you can go for a 20 minute flight.

This Spitfire below, under restoration was used in the film Battle of Britain interior shots of Spitfires.

We were so fortunate as two planes had been delayed by the weather but finally got to fly.

It was truly an awesome way to finish our Battle of Britain tour.

I think that we both feel humble that this country experienced the very real threat of invasion and we were able to soak some of that up and appreciate the sacrifice of the soldiers, airmen, sailors and civilians.  The courage, effort and dedication that these people showed is truly humbling.

We returned to London and said farewell to our tour buddies, it was all a bit sad as they were a nice group of people.

Day 56 Winchester 11 June 2018

Today under sunny skies we made our way to Portsmouth. Not the largest British naval base, that honour belongs to Plymouth. There was just too much to see at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, but a tour of the HMS Victory, Nelson’s flagship, and the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s ship, were genuine highlights. The Mary Rose exhibition is perhaps the best museum exhibition we have seen.

The Mary Rose after 34 years was lost when it capsized and was rediscovered in the mud in the 1980s. About 1/3 remains in a climate controlled environment. They bring it alive with audio-visual presentations. 

 One side is reconstructed and on the other, it's the original remains. They also projected a sound and light show onto the ship's remains.

This is the last of the fighting ships that was at Gallipoli.

We then headed off to the D-Day Museum which was quite good and featured a WW2 tapestry that was extraodinary. The tapestry featured Operation Overlord and is considered a modern equivalent of the Bayeux tapestry. There were several groups of students; the primary school  kids were quite excited about their learning and their only noise was that of excitement.

Below are some of the segments of the tapestry - boy is it big! The kids loved it.

Tonight we had a farewell dinner and the food was lovely. Tony the tour leader gave a nice speech thanking us. As a rebuttal, both Elizabeth and I thanked him for being such a wonderful tour guide. It was a lovely evening.  

Day 55 Winchester 10 June 2018

Today, again under grey skies, but luckily no rain we journey across a three minute ferry ride to Purbeck Island from Bornemouth. Not really an island but more of a peninsula attached to the mainland. We could also see Brownsea Island, where Lord Baden-Powell conducted he first scout camp that spread throughout the world.

When Queen Victoria visited the local area, they changed the name of the River Piddle because they thought it might offend her.  After she died they changed the name back.

Our first stop was Corfe Castle. This was a Norman castle built by Henry I, William’s son.

When we arrived there was a falconry display that was quite good and very informative. From our vantage point we could also see the local steam train that seemed quite popular.

One of the highlights was the Bovington Tank Museum. There were just so many armoured vehicles. Some of the highlights were the extensive Tiger collection, including an Elephant, the Australian designed Sentinal tank that never saw action and captured Soviet tanks with Finnish colours and markings.

The Australian designed tank WW2 tank, only 65 produced.

They have over 100 vehicles that are being worked on or not on display.
You can see a German WW1 A7V like Memphisto.

The car park was interesting.

Traveling along the Weymouth Black Down we stop at Admiral Hardy’s Monument, 1844, the highest point on the Dorset coast. Unfortunately the view was somewhat obscured. Just imagine it is 1912 and King George V is reviewing the fleet of dreadnoughts. Fleet Lagoon was also used by 617 Dambuster Squadron in dropping prototypes of the Barnes Wallis bomb.  

Chesil Beach there for the last 15,000 years at the end of the last Ice Age. Sea action grades the gravel of the beach. A good spot for smugglers, assisted by offshore fog.