20240517 Friday, May 17, 2024; Portland, Weymouth, Athelhampton House and Gardens, Cerner Giant
When we pulled the curtains aside this morning, we found ourselves already tied up to the cruise ship pier in Portland Harbor.
Portland Harbor is a Navy facility so a shuttle bus is used to ferry passengers from the ship into the nearby port city of Weymouth.
The shuttle also stops by the Portland Castle, which was built by Henry VIII to protect the south coast of England from Catholic raiders from France and Spain. Apparently they took issue with Henry VIII bulldozing Catholic monasteries and killing Catholic priests so that he could divorce his first wife.
Portland is on the Jurassic Coast, renowned for its famous dinosaur fossil beds which have been eroding out of the limestone cliffs by action of the sea. Portland is also where Portland cement is from. This basic building product which is the basis of concrete developed in the mid 18th century and named for its resemblance to Portland stone, quarried on the Isle of Portland Dorset, England. It was exported to the US until the late 1800’s when American made Portland cement displaced imports.
There is a D-Day Memorial museum right next to the Portland Castle with an Allied forces Sherman tank out front. Portland and Weymouth were the launching point for tens of thousands of Allied soldiers for the D-Day invasion.
On our way to the meeting area for our excursion, we stopped by the Crown Grill to check out a clue for the Princess Duck hunt, and actually found a Princess Ducky in a floral arrangement at the head waiter's desk. This made Janet very happy.
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We took the shuttle into Weymouth bypassing the Castle and D-Day museum because they wouldn’t open until later in the morning.
The Weymouth harbor is quite scenic, with similarities to parts of Copenhagen’s waterfront, but there also an adjacent ultra-fine limestone sand beach which forms the heart of a beach resort. Weymouth has a population just under 60,000, but has a bustling and vibrant waterfront and shopping district.
Ben was able to find a couple of Cellular Provider stores on the main drag (Vodaphone and O2) and was able to purchase and install a SIM card to allow UK voice calls, text and 30GB data, as well as data in France and 50 minutes of international calling. This will be essential for our self drive UK tour and subsequent rail tour of France. Janet got to pick up some shells on the beach which was as fine as powdered sugar, but light tan in color.
We returned to the ship after venturing into town and had lunch on the ship before boarding our tour in the afternoon. This took us about 90 minutes into Dorset county of Southwestern England. Our destination was Athelhampton House and Gardens. This is a 15th century manor house with grand fireplaces, secret passages and restored furnishings and displays. The gardens are extensive and beautiful, although some of the blossoms like the wisteria were past their prime, and only a fraction of the original gardens has been fully restored and currently maintained. We had a spot of tea with shortbread tea biscuits, and then toured the house and gardens.
Before returning to the ship, we took a slight detour to see the Cerne Giant, which is an enigmatic hillside macro glyph of an 180 foot tall naked man wielding a huge club and 36’ long erection. Nobody knows for sure how long he has been on that hillside or who was responsible for him, but the most recent scholarly study suggests he dates to the beginning of the 10th century. He is constructed by backfilling shallow trenches with chalk which is naturally abundant in Dorset county. There is at least one other similar macro glyph in England, and both are owned and protected by the National Trust.
After returning to the ship, the ship sailed out into the English Channel where the water was now smooth as a duck pond, through a Victorian fortification at the harbor entrance.
The Princess Theater featured an Adele tribute Becky Porter, who put on a powerful show interlaced with a little humor and humility entirely suitable for an Adele tribute.
Tomorrow, we arrive in Le Havre France which is our last port of call before we disembark in Southampton. We’ll have to move our clocks forward an hour to go to Le Havre, and then turn them back an hour on our return to Southampton.
