Trip to Portsmouth and South sea

On the day before we went to Portsmouth, I and my roomies all decided to go out for dinner and on the way back home, we were discussing about some banking terminology, this led us to talk about lending money eventually giving way to a discussion on superstition. It was a 3.5 hours discussion, I and one of my roomie argued on the topic saying a person cannot question everything to accept or reject, but he can only do it within his/her reach ( within his scope). but other roomie argued saying there is nothing such as scope and we cant just ignore our ancestors belief without knowing why they followed it.Most funniest part is the end of the discussion, we all realised it was 12 in the night and we had to get up at around 5 in the morning to go to Portsmouth thats where our journey begins.

You guessed it right, I was the last to wake up in the morning. We were all supposed to start from house by 6:15 as we had to reach the YMCA hostel by 7:45, luck was in our favor; though we had to run for it. We reached the hostel by 7:00 and all of our stomach's were singing rhymes with hunger. There was a supermarket nearby which took care of our breakfast (by the way it was sandwich and rice custard). At last bus started at 8:15 from the YMCA hostel. Its a 2.5 hours journey between London and Portsmouth.

HMS Warrior

Though most part of our journey was on sleep, here and there we did see few nice scenic places on the way. It was 11:30 by the time we reached Portsmouth or Pompey is its widely called. Weather was colder than we expected and I had to pull out my sweater and wear it. Unlike the previous one this trip wasn't informative, we decided to start with the famous dock yard in Portsmouth heading towards one of the biggest warship's built in 19th century. After a long discussion we purchased a group ticket and walked towards HMS warrior.


By the way for those who are wondering what HMS means its Her Majesty's Ship. Further historic details on HMS Warrior can be got by clicking on the link. As usual all my friends started with their camera, even before we could enjoy the grand ship.As soon as I entered the ship, first thing that came to my mind was the movie Pirates of Caribbean, and I started imagining myself as the captain of that ship Jack Sparrow.  By the time I came back to the real world,  my friends  had finished with their initial round of photographs.


One after the other, we went floor by floor we were amazed to see the amount of information that lay there for us to grasp, undoubtedly this was the best warship that I had seen ( though it was the only one that I had seen). In summary the ship was awesome. By this time all that we had eaten in the morning had got digested completely and was ready for the next course of action. Luckily organizers had prepared Paneer dish and Curd rice. Once our stomach was full, we wanted to rest a while, being conscious of time we rested in a queue for the dockyard boat trip. With a funny commentary on the boat we circled around the dock yard viewing the Spinnaker tower, HMS Victory, and many of the modern day warships, and also the passenger ships to Isle of wight and France too. This boat ride lasted for nearly an hour and was worth it.

HMS Victory

Next stop was HMS Victory tour, though this was older than the HMS warrior, we felt there were more people who were interested in viewing this ship due to its historical importance. For your information have provided the link. From there we went to a place called action station where 3 of us tried our hands on the tallest indoor climbing tower. Though we did not spend much of the time on other attractions, I felt these were modern age stuff and we can find it elsewhere too.

Action Station

Last it was the journey to south-sea which did have its ups and downs on my mood, but ended well with a calm pebble beach. Yes, we were the last to arrive back to the bus as a consequence we all had to sit with strangers. The first half of the journey back was an interesting talk on mythology with a roomie of mine which was short-lived. Second half of the journey was filled with surprise as I was involved in conversation with the stranger next to me, luckily the person was a she.

South Sea pebble beach

No doubt all our gang started teasing me as soon as we landed at the YMCA hostel and all the way back to home. Thus ended our Portsmouth and South-sea trip
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Thames path walk from Richmond to Hamptoncourt

It was a bright sunny day and crowd was starting to pull slowly to watch the boat race which was about to start in few mins. After a long walk I decided to rest a while watching a wonderful painter who was busy painting the Richmond bridge.  The painting stood as though he does not need any more advertising for his skills. This rest time also included my lunch with a beautiful view of family who had come to watch the boat race.

The younger kid in the family which was having some chips fell down and started crying. soon her mom came and picked him up and started consoling the kid, you guessed it right I went for a flashback of my own childhood which was ended by the reality of 8 more miles to finish by End of day.
Richmond is a small town with few large houses and leisurely people. I was shocked to see so many people who had come for the boat race. Continuing after my lunch, I was soon approached by a group of kids who were watching puppet show reminding me of my own childhood lesson on puppet show( ತೊಗಲುಗೊಂಬೆ ಆಟ). Spent a few minutes watching English puppet show and then started walking again. Within few mins I had to come to end of the city view and was fast approaching a path in the bushes. This path soon gives a good view of marble house on the other side of the river.

Thames is pretty quiet in this region making it the best place for residence across the river bank and how nice it would be to have a school with a view of thames. Thats exactly what is there, St. James independent school for boys across the river. There were hardly anybody else on the path and it was partly cloudy too, to add to the pain my legs started saying enough for the day, had to rest for a few mins just before the teddington lock. Beyond the lock, thames becomes even more peaceful leading way to kensington town. Just before I approached the kensington bridge, there was a beautiful tree lined park which is part of Canbury Gardens.

Kensignton is a big town with a bit of history too, especially the market place,  I had a sneek preview of the famous market house and then continued on my path. Kensignton marks the end of two sided path for thames from thames barrier. I had to change the course and start walking on the other side of the river. From then on, it was really a boring walk neither were people around nor was the thames making any sound. Continuing on my path for more than hour on this stretch I came to Hampton court palace gardens, just before the start was a beautiful house called " The pavillion". After few mins of walk I was at the entrance of Hampton court, though I wanted to explore the palace completely, my legs gave up after 16 miles of walk on the same day. I rested for a few mins in front of the hampton court and then crossing the Hampton court bridge I went to the Hampton court station. While waiting for the train, I had my favourite orange candy from a nearby stall.

Needless to say, I slept all the way back home in the train and legs were complaining all through the next whole week, but the pain was worth the beauty of the walk.

source of map and inspiration for my walk : http://www.thames-path.org.uk/