Greetings Family and Friends,
Southsea, the southern suburb of Portsmouth, is quite simply meant for strolling. The beach is of the shingle variety as was Brighton to the east from my last trip to the southern coast of England. What the beach may lack in sand, the promenade along it makes up for in length – it just goes on and on. And if one gets tired of taking in the English Channel, cross the street and stroll through the Southsea Common. Check out the photo gallery for the scenes of the greenery throughout the Common.
South Parade Pier
The Airbnb I rented for my time in Portsmouth, was in a charming old building in Southsea, just across the street and a half-block up from the South Parade pier as pictured on the left. While the pier isn’t quite as big as the Brighton Palace pier, it does have the requisite amusement rides as well as eateries. One particular place of interest to me within the Common was the Southsea Tennis Club with its pool, tennis courts, and even volleyball sand courts. See the photo gallery for pictures of its facilities.
To the west of the pier along the promenade is the Southsea Castle as pictured to the right. The fortification was built in 1544 under King Henry VIII. The castle has seen quite a bit of history through the centuries and was even in use during the two world wars. Now its duties reside solely in the tourism sector and entry is free. Slightly inland from the castle is the D-Day Story – a museum dedicated to D-Day. The museum consists of exhibits within the building and the boat LCT 7074 outside as pictured below. The boat is the last surviving LCT from the D-Day landings.
Southsea Castle
LCT 7074
Onboard the boat are a Sherman tank (American) and Churchill tank (British). See the photo gallery for pictures of them and other parts of the LCT. The Sherman has the covered tread on top whereas the Churchill has the uncovered tread on top. Within the museum are other vehicles and equipment from D-Day as well as information on all five landing sites – Utah (American), Omaha (American), Gold (British), Juno (Canadian), and Sword (British). Going into Portsmouth I was aware of the dockyards, but not this museum – quite the excellent surprise.
That’s it for now. As always, feel free to share this link with anyone who expresses an interest. Please have a look at the gallery below for full-size versions of the photos above as well as additional photos of Southsea. Next dispatch will be from the now familiar but always beautiful Basque country.
Until later,
Papi
I like the picture of the toilet.
Very good! What does your brother think of the two tanks?