Travels further afield

We've been busy taking day trips in and around Oxford. On Monday we went to Portsmouth to visit the Historic Naval Dockyards. It is a most impressive place to visit. They have some very historic ships that you can explore. We toured The Warrior which was the first iron clad warship built in the world. She dates from 1861 and has been totally restored so that visitors can experience a bit of what it must have been like to have been on her in the 19th century.
The second historic ship that has been restored was Nelson's ship HMS Victory. It is an amazing ship to visit. It's the ship Admiral Nelson commanded in the Battle of Trafalgar, and where he was killed. They even have the spot marked where he was hit during the battle. It has many decks and you go up and down many, many very narrow sets of stairs as you explore each deck level. The head clearance is very low, so it's a good thing Mum and I are not tall.
The third ship is the most amazing of them all. It's the Mary Rose. Henry the VIII's naval flagship that sank in the Solent River in 1545. It settled in mud on the river bed and was rediscovered in 1971. It was finally raised from the sea bed in 1982. It has taken 34 years for it to be fully restored and it is now completely dry and you can see it clearly. It's incredible. Half of the ship was preserved as it lay submerged in the mud and that is the half that's on display. The other half rotted away as it was exposed to the sea water. They have the most amazing artefacts from the wreck on display. Gold, silver, weapons, chests, clothing, instruments, tools, ornaments, skeletons and even the ship's dog! It is the most incredible exhibition!
We've also been to the Ashmolean Museum, the Bodlean Library and some of the university colleges, as well as the Alice in Wonderland Shop. It's all been great!
Yesterday we went to the Cotswold Wildlife Park. This was once a stately home which was transformed into a Wildlife conservation park in the 1970's. It was lovely. Very well set up and easy to walk around. They had lots of interesting animals, the obvious lions, giraffes, camels, etc, but also many more unusual ones - simians, lemurs, colobus, porcupines, wolves, tapirs, capybaras and even a lawn area which had 5 rhinos. It was lovely. We had a very nice day looking at an enormous variety of creatures from snails, mice, snakes, tarantulas, bats and fish to pigs, donkeys, leopards, lions and giraffes.
More soon