Travel Blog August 15 to August 16 2012

Travel Blog August 15 to August 16,   2012

The conference is over, and Rees Hall is all but deserted. Today (Wednesday 15) we took the hovercraft across the Solent to Ryde on the Isle of Wight. We just missed the number 4 bus for Osborne House, so had a coffee in Ryde, which was the best coffee by far that we have had since leaving Dover—-well worth missing the bus for!

Osborne House is a very Italianate house, largely designed by Prince Albert, and based on villas he had seen on his “grand tour”.

Apparently it was by far the most favourite of all the places that Queen Victoria used, with sweeping grounds spreading down to the sea, where she would dip in the water in the privacy of her “bathing machine”. I thought that tables, sideboards and the like looked cluttered with too many knick-knacks, and assumed that the Trust had put as many items as possible on display. However, an attendant told us that on the contrary, Queen Victoria had much more clutter around her all the time, and the Trust had removed the vast majority!

A walk along the Ryde pier, a pint of local ale, and second-rate fish and chips on the esplanade finished the day before we caught the hovercraft ferry back to Portsmouth.

I have just discovered that the Rees Hall was once a first class hotel, and used by Queen Victoria on her way to Osborne House. However, when it was purchased by the University of Portsmouth, they demolished it, and rebuilt it reproducing the original design of the facia, and increasing the number of rooms from the original 100 to 227 for student accommodation.

Rees Hall

View from bedroom window

There are a few very low intelligent people in the Rees Hall now, who appear to be incapable of living without a flickering television and the most banal of programmes. They are extremely rude and arrogant, and seem to always get their own way, through their thuggishness. Unfortunately the management is on their side, giving no thought to the rights of those who simply want some peace and quiet. They have come in since the Dickensians left, and have lowered the tone of the place considerably. I could not recommend that anyone stay here, other than in the company of intelligent people!

Today I went on a long walk along the esplanade of Southsea. It is very clean, with the sea on one side, and extensive parks on the other. There are park benches at about 10 meter intervals for a kilometre or more—in fact, many more seats than bottoms willing to sit on them today. Many seats are in sheltered positions, but even more are on the sea side, offering people the opportunity to enjoy the howling breeze sweeping in past the Isle of Wight, across the Solent to the mainland. The walk went past ‘Southsea Castle”, built as part of the Napoleonic defences, and which is open to the public, but not, apparently, today.

Ann’s bridesmaid Sue came to visit, and we had a very pleasant walk, through the Catherdral, to the old harbour area, where there was an excellent selection of fresh fish for sale. It was interesting to note that the only customers were of SE Asian origin, even though they are a very, very small minority of the population here. We walked on to the Gunwarf development where we had an excellent lunch at Jamie Oliver’s “Portsmouth Italian” restaurant—without doubt one of the best lunches we have had in this part of the world.

Whilst not depending on tourism to the extent of places such as Margate, the ‘fun fare, candy floss and kiss-me-quick hats’ part of the economy is suffering. It appears that those with money, who would not use the fun-fares anyway, are enjoying visiting castles, museums, restaurants etc, and are living quite nicely, and that part of the economy is going well. For example, the Gunwarf development was a hive of activity, with every café and restaurant doing very nicely. We had to wait for a table, which for a Thursday lunch-time we would not have expected. However, those who would perhaps of gone to the fun-fares and ‘penny’ (now pound!) slot machines, no longer have any money to spare at all, and so that part of the economy is suffering a bit.

Tomorrow we leave England and head across the Channel to France. From here on we shall have our own self-catering accommodation, and will not have to put up with people who insist on their ‘right’ to watch television and thereby interfering with the rights of those who do not! OK, so I am a grumpy old fart!

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