U.K. - Portsmouth

After a few relaxing days in Paris.. (we played lots of Risk with my cousins) ..Bobo headed off to Wales to see some relatives.. he also headed to Spain.. but you'll have to ask him for those pics! I headed back to London on the Eurostar.. spent a night there.. then I headed to Portsmouth.

I was born in Portsmouth, back in 79.. When I was younger we used to drop by Portsmouth every other summer or so.. We used to have a fair bit of family there.. these days there arent as many. I was curious to see all sorts of things from my childhood.. and of course see some of my cousins.

Portsmouth is a coastal city in Southern England, opposite the Isle of White. It's been around a long time..





I hear that marines and special forces divers train in that tower in the distance.



There are lots of ferry services around here.. its nice to just sit and watch them go back and forth all day.



I think this is the only Catholic Church in Portsmouth



I always liked the grassy areas in Portsmouth.. they're ideal for games of football. Although, I have to admit there was a time when I didn't like crossing these green zones.. all those crazy dogs freaked me out!



One of my fondest childhood memories was of going to the fun fair!! The fries in newspaper.. the candy floss.. the roller coasters.. and of course the occasional drunk Englishman. I remember flying a cool virtual reality airplane simulator here.. back when that sort of thing first came out..





I remember losing change in this ride..



Watching the hovercraft was also a ritual of visiting Portsmouth..





You might have noticed these in some of the other pictures.. They're man-made fortress islands that the British built to defend against French naval attacks... They built a number of them.. and of course.. once they completed all the islands.. the French never attacked again!



There are lots of War monuments and lots of old people in Portsmouth..



"England expects every man to do his duty" .. aye aye!





A weird picture of me..



I believe this is called the Quebec House.. Where some of the earliest settlers of Quebec came from.. naturally.. (I guess they weren't all french)



This is where they used to have some big artillery guns.. you can see the grooves where they'd attach the guns..



Apparently King Henry the VIII.. the crazy one with all the wives.. Well.. he married one of them on top of this fort.. And right after they wed.. one of his ships sank in the harbour. He immediately blamed her for the bad luck and locked her up in this round tower.. not much of a honeymoon!



my cousin Zahra.. can you guess that she's a dentist?



Did you know the first Australian colonists arrived from Portsmouth?



I think this is the door through which they brought in the slaves.. there was a market here, as well where they'd sell them.



This rock is quite interesting..



you can read why..











I really enjoyed meeting up with my cousins from long ago.. as well as checking out the city. After a few days of relaxation.. I hopped on a plane and headed back to Canada.. My seven months or so of vacation were over... I must say I had a good time!!!

Thanks for all the comments and advice! My next post will show a few sites in Canada.. I did some travelling on my return.. and then I'll start posting pics of Amsterdam.. simply because that's where I am at the moment.. so stick around ya'll.