Wow, most of the trip is over already! Just a few days left in London, and then I'm right back into my normal life. I can't believe how well everything has worked out. I got everything done I wanted to do, no messed up reservations, no missed trains, no parking tickets; and the car rental company didn't even notice the slight scratch I added to their Mercedes.

Mind, today was a bit of a rush, since I had to return the car by 4.00 in Old Portsmouth. So I got up early: it was yet another in the long line of gleaming, golden days we've been having. I badly wanted to get out for a run along the sea front, but there wasn't time to both work-out and go running, so I opted for the former, since it has some heart action too. I've really enjoyed my work-outs during this trip, and, to be honest, I'm quite chuffed with myself that I've managed to keep it up throughout the trip. I think what's kept it going is that after working out I feel recharged and ready for life - that, a couple of protein bars, and coffee is all I need to set me up for a day of touring.

The next task was one I'd been dreading. Over the week or more that I've been traveling by car, I've accumalated a number of additional objects - gifts mostly - which had been piling up in the boot of my car, along with my other piece of luggage which I'd left in there for the whole car journey. Now I needed to somehow repack, fit everything in my two bags, and make sure that the bag which lacks wheels is by far the lighter. When I pulled open the bag that had been in my boot for a week, I was hit by the combined odor of hiking boots and cheddar cheese. I'm not sure which smell was the worst, but it was clear that Derrek's cheese, which I'd bought in Cheddar itself, was not going to make it back to San Francisco. So Brett, if you're reading, sorry about the cheese :), or the lack of it.

Everything fits - just!

I'd timed things right since it was just turned 10.00 a.m. by the time I checked out, which, not coincidentally, is the time the naval museums open in Portsmouth. The collection of historical vessels and buildings that I was interested in goes under the name of "Flagship Portsmouth", and they're all situated actually inside H.M. Naval Base in Portsmouth Harbor. Again, as I parked and walked over to the gates, I noticed how many hot, hunky men Portsmouth has - I don't recall seeing so many shirtless men with tatoos since I last went to a gay club in West Hollywood.

A naval supplies vessel undergoing refitting in H.M. Naval Base.

Two of a group of VERY cute (what I assumed to be) naval cadets.

The crown jewel of Flagship Portsmouth is H.M.S. Victory, the oldest ship still in commission, anywhere in the World. She was laid down in 1757! She is still the Flagship of the Admiral in Portsmouth Harbor, and her Admiral's cabin even saw duty as recently as the 2nd World War, as a command center when Portsmouth was bombed and its naval command buildings were damaged.

H.M.S. Victory

It's hard to overestimate the veneration in which she's held by Brits. This comes from her role in Trafalgar, where she was the flagship of Nelson, who received his mortal wound on Victory's quarterdeck, and later died below deck. To this day, senior officers of the Royal Navy meet on board once a year in a ceremony to commemorate Nelson's death.

She's a thing of astonishing, fierce beauty, to my eyes at least, and considering how many novels I've consumed set in the period of her greatness, it was completelg thrilling and satisfying to go on board and see all the bits and pieces of naval life under sail that I'd read about.

Unfortunately, you can't get on board and wander by yourself - you have to tour with a guide. And my particular guide questioned me strongly on why I was taking notes - apparently they don't allow any kind of writing based on the tour, since its copyright protected. I'm assuming that this prohibition doesn't apply to my little ol', free-of-charge web-page.

What amazed me most is that, apart from the obvious fact that she's held together by massive posts supporting her hull, she's in such fine shape. And her timbers - both inside and out - are works of art - like collosal sculptures. Warhsips like the Victory were the most complex artifacts of their time - it took 2,000 oak trees to make one, and many years. of work. Mind, even after the 70 odd years since she left her element, she still smells somewhat of a couple of centuries of sweat, rot, ooze and slime.

Victory, from head on

The other ship I wanted to see here was built a century after Victory, and she was the first big iron-hulled, screw-propelled, masted warship, built in 1860 - H.M.S. Warrior. Like the Great Britain which I visited in Bristol, she's seen a rather unhappy history - her active service lasted only ten years before she was superseded by new ideas, and in her late years she's been variously a training hulk and even an oil jetty. In 1979 she was rescued and taken up north where she underwent the most amazing refit I've seen of any historic vessel: from her masts and hull, to her pure whitewashed internal walls and every last fitting, she looks brand new.

H.M.S. Warrior

On deck, with the bowsprit behind me, flying the Union Flag

Deep inside her spotless innards. Everything has been replaced - every boarding pike, every hammock, every soup ladle: particularly amazing considering she was an empty, ruined, dismasted hulk before she was restored.

After having a look around the Royal Naval Museum, I just had time to fly up the motorway to Gosport, across Portsmouth Harbor (it turns out it would have been much quicker to take a boat, since there's no bridge), to visit the Royal Naval Submarine Museum. Their principal exhibit is a late 40s submarine, H.M.S. Alliance, which has been completely raised out of the water and now sits on enormous hydraulic stilts. You get a good, well-informed tour of the cramped torpedo rooms, main mess, and control room.

H.M.S. Alliance

There were about 15 of us all told, and the highlight was when the guide rang the dive klaxon, switched the lighting to the red that was used to help the telescope operator to adapt quickly for night vision, and played an audio tape that simulated an attack from an enemy ship. The tape was very loud, and the sound of the nearing sonar pings, followed by the woosh-woosh of a ship passing overhead, and the calamitous banging of depth-charges was quite realistic. In the noise, none of us spoke for some thirty seconds, and in the red light, we all looked at each other anxiously, almost as if it was the real thing.

In the control room of the Alliance

Back on dry land, in the sub museum, looking through the periscope taken from H.M.S. Conqueror (the sub that sunk the General Belgrano in the Falklands War.) The reason I'm looking so excited is that I just saw a massive aircraft carrier moving gingerly though the narrow passage between Gosport and Portsmouth. I was kicking myself that it hadn't happened this morning, when I was at the dockyard. (Yes, I know, I'm a big kid :)

I was cutting time short, though, and I made it to the car rental on the nose. No problem with the return, and they gave me a lift to the station, where a train was just about to pull out. Two hours later I was in London, and my big tour around England (and Edinburgh) was over. Jeez, but I've seen a lot in the last few weeks!

On the hot, rickety train back to London, writing this journal.

Like I said yesterday, I may not be able to write much until I return to San Francisco, so until then, I'll say goodbye and thanks for stringing along with me :)