Isle of Wight to London

Twenty minutes walk Dorset Hotel to Wightlink Terminal Ryde
Twenty minutes ferry Ryde to Portsmouth
Three hours walking around Portsmouth
Three hours thirty minutes South Western Railway Portsmouth to London Waterloo
Thirty minutes on tube London Waterloo/ Bond Street/Lancaster Gate
Five minutes walk tube station to Lancaster Gate Hotel

What a difference a day makes. From the peace and tranquillity of the Isle of Wight to the noise and frenziness of London via the historic port of Portsmouth. The ferry was a very quick pedestrian only catamaran to Portsmouth. The ferry arrives right at the railway station so you can step off the boat and on to the train in just a few metres. We had three hours to fill in so went to explore the Old Portsmouth. Portsmouth has many museums mainly relating to the sea, boats and the Royal Navy. There is Nelson’s HMS Victory, Henry VIII’s Mary Rose, The Royal Navy submarine museum, The National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, The D-Day Story, The Charles Dickins Birthplace Museum. In fact there are 85 museums and art galleries.

We were trundling our bags with us so it wasn’t really practical to go to most of the museums, as they had bag searches.  I would have liked to have visited the Victory and the Mary Rose but we didn’t have the time to do either of them justice. Instead we walked the Millenium Promenade which takes you round the historic Portsmouth waterfront including the Round Tower and the Square Tower.  The Round Tower was built about 1418 to defend the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour and prevent raids on the city by French ships. The Square tower was built in 1494 as part of the fortifications and served as a home to the Governor of Portsmouth and when he moved elsewhere it was a gunpowder store.

The waterfront also has the Spinnaker Tower, a 170 metre high observation tour with three observation levels. The tower reflects Portsmouth’s maritime history through its design and is named after a spinnaker, a type of sail that balloons outward. It was opened in 2005. From the tower you can do a freefall bungee jump into a crash net. Not for us. At the base of the tower and adjacent to the train/ferry/bus station is a huge new shopping centre, Gunwharf Quays, where we had lunch.

The train started out from Portsmouth as a five carriage train and was virtually empty. There were 16 stops and the train slowly filled up. At the half way point five more carriages were added and by Clapham Junction the train was packed. We were glad to get off at London Waterloo one of London’s large railway stations. We had been here in 2019 going to Kew Gardens so remembered the layout and how to get from the overground to the underground trains. It was a two tube line, six stop trip to Lancaster Gate and our hotel. Being a Sunday afternoon the tubes were also packed, and the usual noisy rattly swaying ride.

It was all a shock after Ryde and the Isle of Wight. Three weeks ago at the Lancaster Gate Hotel we had a nice enough room out the back at ground floor level, looking into a light well and with a very noisy air conditioning unit that switched on and off all day and night. We were hoping this time for a room on the front and at a higher level. No such luck. We are down a level in the basement with a lower view of the same light well. The air conditioner seems very quiet though.

One more day in London and then we start the long journey home.