We go down to the sea

Portsmouth, England This morning we took a train south to Portsmouth Harbor, encountering Nautical England.

The city boasts an historic dock containing Henry VIII’s Mary Rose and Lord Nelson’s HMS Victory, as well as the HMS Warrior, Britain’s first iron-hulled battle ship, built in 1863, powered by steam and sail.

The Mary Rose was built in 1510-11 at the start of Henry VIII’s reign and was one of his favorite ships for 34 years, until it sank in 1545, while he was watching. (Bet he wasn’t happy.) It was rediscovered in 1971 and brought to the surface in 1982. It contains the largest existing collection of Tudor artifacts, many of which are on display here. It was very difficult to see behind glass and hardly lit, but you can get an idea of how large it was and how complex.

The HMS Victory is a ship that is even more central to glories of British naval history. This was Lord Nelson’s flagship during the battle of Trafalgar in 1805 when the British defeated Napoleon and where Lord Nelson was mortally wounded during the battle.

Visiting the ship was a much more accessible experience than the Mary Rose. When it was finally agreed to maintain and preserve what was an almost decayed piece of history, the work required was massive and preservation efforts will probably never end. But in the meanwhile, we could climb around all six levels and hit our heads lots of times on the low beams. It wouldn’t have paid to be a tall sailor. A plaque on the main deck marks the spot where Nelson fell.

We saw the HMS Warrior, but a lack of energy prevented us from touring that too. Lots of other maritime museum pieces around, including a collection of original figureheads, well-restored.

So anyway, back to my little riddle. When I was approaching 64, I sent Don this song, indicating precisely where I wanted to go for my birthday. We didn’t make it then, but he didn’t forget.

Tomorrow we take a ferry to Queen Victoria’s favorite place.

Don’s Food Corner

On the way to the maritime museum, we stopped at a pub for a light lunch. I ordered a fish sandwich with some fries. Jo ordered a “small plate” serving of deep-fried fish.

We both got the same fish, except mine came between two slices of untoasted white bread. You don’t see white bread like that too often in England, especially in a pub, but here it was. In both cases, the fish was prepared as a small serving of fish-and-chips. And it was just the right amount. Crisp on the outside. Tender, juicy fish on the inside. Not greasy in any way. It’s the kind of traditional dish the Brits do best, and usually best in a seaside location. The tartar sauce was excellent as well as were the fries. With a full-blown fish-and-chips, you usually get a little serving of mushy peas. We don’t understand the appeal of mushy peas. But then again we don’t understand the obsession with baked beans and grilled tomatoes that always come with a “Full English Breakfast.” As we get closer to Scotland, we’ll start to see blood sausage on the breakfast menu which is another British staple we have never embraced.

While at the pub, we were seated next to a large table of large men, drinking a lot of beer and talking loud. Jo went over to charm them into letting her take their photo. I told her we needed some photos of natives. Later, after spending hours touring the ships, we walked past the pub again and the men were still there. How much beer was consumed?

On a more gentile note, we stopped at the Mary Rose café to sample its version of a cream tea. Each day we seem to encounter better and better versions. Today’s scone featured raisins. They were tall and not too light. I suspect they were fresher than those we’ve had over the last few days. And certainly fresher than the rock-hard scones we suffered through at Westminster Abbey. I’ve decided I was too kind with my rating of those Abbey scones, so I’m lowering their grade to C. And I’m lowering yesterday’s V&A scone to B so that I can give today’s scone a B+ because I’m sure we will encounter even better in the future.

A note about cream teas: The scone is always served with strawberry jam, usually Tiptree brand along with the clotted cream, usually the Rodda brand from a Cornish creamery. Then, there’s the controversy about whether the jam should go on the scone first before the clotted cream or if the clotted cream should go on first and then topped with the jam. Apparently, whether you do one or the other denotes what part of the country you are from. We go for clotted cream on the bottom since smearing the cream on top of the jam seems too messy.

These are important matters to consider and to ponder.