Portsmouth - D-day Museum, Hovercraft & the City

My last post promised that I would update more, and I meant it. I meant to put this post up about 2 weeks ago, but unfortunately I've been away visiting friends in Scotland and therefore have been otherwise occupied! Good news is that because of my travels, I've been inspired to write many more posts. Stay tuned.

I'd also like to thank those for commenting on my last post: Do horrible comments affect your confidence in the long-term? To be a total newbie to writing, it excites me to have something to respond to! It was my first post to get any comments, so thank you, thank you and thank you again! I apologise for taking so long to reply, I honestly thought I'd replied, so hope my responses were worth the wait. Any way back to the post...

Recently I've been visiting Portsmouth to take up a volunteer opportunity, which gave me an extra insight into this city. I'd never been to Portsmouth before, and honestly can say it isn't the most exciting city I've been to. I definitely prefer Southampton to Portsmouth because I somehow feel like I'm missing something. There doesn't feel to be a "heart" to the city, like most cities I've seen from Aberdeen, Glasgow, London, Manchester, Leeds...you look and go "Well that's the centre." Maybe someone can tell me different, but I found it to be quite bleak, and I've lived in the granite city (Aberdeen).

Portsmouth seems to be misunderstood to me though. I keep asking myself what am I missing? It is after-all the birthplace to the famous author, Charles Dickens. I was saddened to hear that the museum is closed during set periods, but hope to see it one day as a lover of books. I mean my favourite characters of TV series, books or films are big readers: Matilda in Ronald Dahl's Matilda, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore in Gilmore Girls and many more.

However, as a big lover of history and someone who enjoys visiting art galleries and museums, I was excited to see the D-Day Museum. It is about a 15 minute walk from the hovercraft which gets you into Portsmouth from the island. Walking along Clarence Pier was a delight, and I took many beautiful pictures as I walked over. Here are just some of my favourites:

Somehow love these lampposts, and found myself picturing these more than Clarence Pier! 

Beautiful view out at Clarence Pier

View of some of the city including the famous "lipstick" building

Memorial

As someone with a great interest in World War 2, I was a bit underwhelmed by the D-Day museum. Not because it wasn't good; I was happy to have gone, but having visited amazing sights such as Eden Camp and Anne Frank House, it wasn't the most impressive. I also read some of the displays and realised I knew a great portion already.I enjoyed looking at displays of ration books, remembrance areas and displays of dummies (soldiers) set up how they would have been; really setting the scene.

However I didn't have a great knowledge of D-Day itself, and gave it a chance. For instance, I didn't know that D-Day was prepared and launched from the South Coast of England, which meant that Portsmouth was at the heart of the operation. It also had beautiful embroideries to look at, which gave it a lovely creative aspect to an otherwise history-focused museum. It was also interesting to see the museum combine its focus on the south coast, but also discuss how D-Day affected all the British soldiers who fought that day. 

It is a must-see, but mainly because D-Day should never be forgotten; the soldiers risked their lives and without them, we could be living a totally different life. This museum is about keeping the story of D-Day alive, and the story of WWII. There are also plans for the museum to become the national D-Day hub, and therefore I believe that this is only going to improve to engage with it's audience. The museum plans to create resources and partnerships to help individuals and communities nationally discover their wider D-Day heritage;a new website is due to be set up in time for the 75th anniversary in 2019.

Unfortunately after my little tour around the museum, I missed the hovercraft back home (Isle of Wight), but I was lucky this time; the next one was due in like 10 minutes. Many of my friends on the mainland ask how long it takes to get from the island to the mainland again, so I thought I would briefly say. Portsmouth is new to me. You have two routes to the mainland - Southampton and Portsmouth/Southsea. Getting to Portsmouth is the quickest way. Going to Portsmouth takes a meer 10 minutes, and from there you can get the hoverbus that takes you around southsea to the city centre. Going to Southampton can take about 25 minutes on the Redjet through Red Funnel, and the Quay Connect bus is free if you show them your ticket.

Goodbye and I hope it won't be long until my next post, I hope to write something about my recent travels to Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen...however I promised to not leave it so long last time, so not making promises this time! Over and out, and hope you liked my honest review of visiting Portsmouth. If anyone else has visited Portsmouth and has any recommendations of places to go, or can tell me anything they like, please let me know!

Lost in Southampton

I'm enjoying doing more blogs with a focus on the pictures, so I thought this one could mostly focus on the pictures that I took while in Southampton on Monday.

The funny part is while there, in true Planet Jodie-style I got lost! In my defense, it was only my third occasion going (once was while driving through when moving to the island, and the second was only seeing the train station as I had to go to London for an interview). Before I get told again, I used Google maps the entire way and still got lost. For anyone who hasn't come from the Isle of Wight to Southampton on the ferry, there is a connecting bus that you may get for free. It was completely full so I  tried walking. I had plenty of time to get where I needed to (a full hour to be exact) and Google said I was just over half an hour away. I didn't know the bus numbers that I had to pay, and it was a lovely day, so I thought it was perfect. Plugged my headphones in full blast, walked down the high street and wasn't getting lost for ages (great for me). Then as I got closer, I followed the correct road and then it told me that the destination was right or something but had reached a dead end. It got sorted eventually, but I was late. I hate being late and best of all, I felt gross and sweaty. I drank 2.5 litres of water that day!

However coming back, I decided to enjoy the scenery and get a look into Southampton. I didn't go too far though. My feet were sore! I'm still kind of recovering. Checking my phone, I did almost 16,000 steps before getting the ferry home. Good day for walking.

While visiting, I noticed four zebra statues around the city. Just five minutes from the ferry home, I took a look closer and read that it was for Zany Zebras. It sounds similar to when Aberdeen did the dolphins, and from looking at Facebook, it seems similar to Dundee's new Oor Wullie's Bucket Trail too.

Marwell Zoo is a world renowned charity, who are knowing for their leading work in conservation in the UK and Africa. They previously organised Go! Rhinos in 2013, and due to it's success they chose to do a similar project in the name of Zany Zebras. It is described on the zoo website as a "HUGE family, public art event", which supports their work with endangered Grevy's zebras in the process. If you want to know more about Zany Zebras, feel free to look here.

Aren't they beautiful? These are only two of the 150 zebras dotted around the city. It looks like I'm going to Southampton again next week, so hope to take more pictures and do even more exploring.

The only pictures I had were walking through one of a few parks I saw in the city. Looking around the city, I thought of how to best describe it, and thought it was best to describe it as "London meets Leeds." Not sure if it's an  accurate representation but it had similarities to both cities in my opinion. Most of all, I couldn't get over how clean the pavements were. Yes, a dull observation but couldn't get over it. It was a gorgeous city that I don't think enough people think of visiting.

I have to say my photography skills still need a little work, but I still liked the way it looked despite being out of focus...

I wish I took note of which park I visited or what the statues meant, but there is plenty of time to visit Southampton again and see more. Most of all, I want to go shopping there. It has a mile of shops (maybe longer). I also enjoyed visiting Urban Outfitters briefly. It is one of my favourite shops, and have previously only been to the ones in Edinburgh and Glasgow. I couldn't find the Primark but suspect it wasn't far.

Reading more about the city, I've learnt that it is so long as to start from Town Quay (where the ferry is) to Bargate, later expanding. As the city grew, the area got bigger to reach to the north of the Bargate, into Above Bar Street. The west of the High Street has an area now known as West Quay. It is best known for the West Quay shopping centre. When it was built in 2000, it was the largest city-centre shopping centre in Europe with around 100 shops. The thing I found most interesting was that it was owned by Hammerson, which I knew I'd heard of before. Turns out they also own Aberdeen's Union Square and Victoria Gate in Leeds. Love a bit of trivia!

Got to go now, but I can't wait to learn more about Southampton next week! I will share more pictures if anything interesting comes up.