And I had time to recover my coat, left lying around for the second time in three days, from reception. I should say that, despite remarks about their cuisine, it was a convenient and comfortable establishment which I am sure we will visit again.
Onto the pier, where we saw but were not able to reach some specialised trolleys belonging to Wightlink. Saw but were not able to reach the cranes from Chatteris noticed previously towards the end of reference 1.
A wet morning, with the rain completely deadening the noise of the hovercraft plying between the Esplanade and Southsea - ordinarily a loud drone heard, for what seems like most of the time, for miles around. There was also wind which meant that there was a modest swell, enough to make our catamaran move about a bit. Enough also for spray to be going up and over the sea walls between Portsmouth and Southsea in an impressive way. A change from the sunny, flat calm of the previous two days.
We got to Portsmouth Harbour station to find that trains to Guildford (and so Epsom) were off due to engineering works. I should have thought to check, it being a Sunday. But we were offered an immediate train to Eastleigh or a later train to Haslemere and I plumped for Eastleigh, on the grounds that it was on a main line. The good news was that the train turned out to be going to London and would be stopping at Clapham Junction; the bad news was that it was going to take getting on for an hour to get us to Eastleigh. An hour in which I found that I had completely forgotten that Porchester lay between Fareham and Portsmouth, at the back of Portsmouth Harbour. Somehow, in my mind, it was a lot nearer Portsmouth, despite having been to a wedding in the church in the middle of the castle there - although, to be fair, this was many years ago.
We were reminded that Eastleigh, while perhaps not the train spotters' paradise of yesteryear, was still a large and busy station. There were even goods trains to be seen.
Lifts aside, a good connection at Clapham Junction and we got home to find all well - except that I had managed to turn the refrigerator off as part of the leaving ritual, along with the cooker and the water. Fortunately no damage was done in the few days we had been away - apart from my being put in the dog house for a bit.
Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/10/pensioners-outing.html.
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