I've been away on holiday for the last week in my first ever trip to the Isle of Wight. It's a fantastic place and we had a great time. The holiday was split pretty much half and half between history and natural history, and there will be a couple of posts in the next few weeks focusing on some of the military history sites I visited and can recommend.
The Hoy Monument raised to commemorate The visit of tsar Alexander to Britain in 1814, later inscribed with a dedication to those that fought at Innkerman in the Crimean war.
Before we even got on the ferry we had a couple of hours to take a walk around Portsmouth (where I've been before) and as well as taking a look at the Warrior and Victory, HMS Illustrious and HMS Defender were in dock.
HMS Warrior
HMS Illustrious
HMS Defender
We then took a walk round the old walled city including the square and round towers that formed part of the defences of Portsmouth harbour. It's a really interesting place for a walk and there are a lot of old (and current of course, but they don't let you look at them!) military sites in the immediate area. I thought the sea forts out in the solent looked particulary cool.
The Round & Square Towers defending Portsmouth
Sea forts In The Solent
All that was before we'd even got on the ferry and started the holiday properly!
I even came home with a few new toys, a silly cheap plastic Mig kit from grafix and a set of Tudor pewter figures (bought at Carisbrooke castle). I've been collecting those pewter figures they sell at historic sites since I was about 5 and have a quite large collection now (see below), it's normally the same 5 romans and 5 knights at every site that they've been making my entire life, it was nice to be able to add something slightly different. The Tudors came with a basic little board game as well, we didn't get a chance to play it, but it looked like it would be playable if not overly engrossing.
New toys
Pewter Tudors
Yes, yet another collection of toy soldiers!
Sounds like you've had a great time. I've seen those pewter miniatures in gift shops myself (I even picked up the Victorians) and always wondered if they were worth painting.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how it's possible, but it never even occurred to me to paint them, I don't see why it wouldn't work.
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