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It was a glorious day. This is the view from Southsea front, looking over the Solent to the Isle of Wight.

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Spitbank Fort in the Solent. I visited there on a school trip about 20 years ago.

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A memorial to the Battle of Trafalgar.

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This one was something to do with the Indian Mutiny.

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The memorial for the two World Wars.

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Looking down onto the memorial garden.

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Not an appropriate way to treat a War memorial.

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Southsea common.

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A little way along the seafront was a small green that isn't visible from the road, which had this small bandstand right in the middle.

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Southsea Castle.

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Southsea castle history. 'Active' for 400 years, but never fired a shot.

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Southsea castle from the outside. I would later get a very different view of this area.

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Southsea rock garden.

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Southsea promenade

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South Parade Pier

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Southsea canoe lake

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The Model Village wasn't open.

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Not a real building far away, but a small building close up.

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Southsea Rose garden.

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This must be a glorious sight when the flowers are in bloom. I stopped here for a rest.

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Eastney beach, an important conservation area.

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Some vegetated shingle.

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Another internationally important conservation area.

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MOD Property Keep Out (maybe this photo is illegal?)

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Eastney promenade

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Fort Cumberland, an English Heritage site.

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Most english heritage sites don't look like this.

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Maybe all the barbed wire is something to do with the various radio etc masts, and the adjacent firing range.

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Danger!

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Langstone Harbour. The jetty to the left is where the Hayling Ferry docks. In the harbour is a Phoenix, a reinforced concrete breakwater, constructed for the Mulberry Piers used for the Normandy landings.

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The D-Day gardens.

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The D-Day Museum, home of the Overlord Embroidery, the longest such work in the world (about 10 metres longer than Bayeuax).

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A Sherman Grizzly.

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Monty.

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Inside Southsea Castle.

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They weren't joking, I would guess the tunnel was about 5ft high.

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Like all good tunnels, this had dripping walls.

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A handy hole for shooting things out of. This opens onto the area I saw earlier from the seawall side.

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Upwards and out?

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The gate was locked, how do I get out? Oh yeah, the entrance is also the exit. Without that sign I could still be trapped there now.

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Atop Southsea Castle. A big gun.

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A medium sized gun.

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A small gun.

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The woman who worked at the Castle was reading Catch 22, one of my favourite books.

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I don't think the Lighthouse is an original Tudor feature.

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The Keep

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Into the museum.

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A lamp from the Lighthouse.

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The obligatory model of the Mary Rose.

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Access to the keep roof was closed because the decorators were in.

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Meanwhile, the fun fair had arrived.

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A monument for the Crimean War (presumably)

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The other three sides were Sevastopol, Inkermann and Alma.

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Hovertravel - the world oldest commercial hovercraft service.

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Boarding the Hovercraft.

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A beached hovercraft, viewed from the bridge on Ryde Esplanade.

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Partially inflated.

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Ready for departure. A sign on the bridge warns of strong drafts from the Hovercraft - they weren't lying, I almost had my phone blown out of my hands.

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In Cowes I took the Floating Bridge.

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Day 2 - St Helens village green. This is a small part of what may be the largest such green in the UK

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My previous visit to this secondhand Bookshop was probably about 10 years ago. I spent a while browsing the shelves and purchased Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe.

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St Helens Duver was the Island's first golf course, but was donated to the National Trust

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Duver is an Isle of Wight term for an area of sand dunes.

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The beach on the St Helens duver.

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Bembridge Harbour contains several houseboats.

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This one is apparently a B&B with en-suite bathrooms.

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Some appear more House than Boat.

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I ate my lunch in the Silver Jubilee garden.

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Yaverland was a short bus journey away.

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Someone told me it's all happening at the zoo.

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Iguana.

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Chameleon. It took me a while to spot him.

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Big scorpion.

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Tarantula.

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A creep of tortoises.

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Capuchin Monkey.

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The zoo is developing Tiger enclosure based on famous Indian nature reserves.

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a very poor shot of a white tiger.

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Charlie Brown does what male lions do best.

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A big cock.

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Along the seafront, the arcade contained an old version of The Simpsons Arcade game. I put a lot of pound coins in one of these when I was younger.

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I walked from Sandown along the seafront to Shanklin.

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Hilarious beach hut signs.

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They had sold out of Jam Tarts.

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Hinks & Sons owns an Icecream stand and rents out beach huts.

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Toffee crunch.

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In Shanklin I decided to get the lift up to town.

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Looking back over where I had been.

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I don't know how this lift came to be. It seems rather unlikely.

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Back in Ryde, I saw the Dotto Train. THE END.