High Up

After our visit to Bosham, we headed to Portsmouth, parked up and went to explore. We soon found ourselves at the Gunwharf Quays area, looking up at the Spinnaker Tower.

The tower was originally a Millennium Commission project, approved in 1995 but because of political, financial and construction delays, it wasn't until November 2001 that construction began. It eventually opened in 2005.

We joined the more than 2,500,000 visitors who have been up the tower, paid our entrance fee and took the lift up to the first observation deck, looking out at the view from 100 metres up.

From here, we got to see the 40-gun, steam-powered HMS Warrior, Britain's first Iron Hulled warship.

A little further over, Nelson's flagship HMS Victory was visible peeping over the rooftops of the Historic Dockyard. The big, black building next to the Victory is the new Mary Rose Museum building.

There were also a few modern-day equivalents to these warships, moored at the dockside. The ship in the foreground, numbered D35 is HMS Dragon, a type 45 air-defence destroyer, commissioned in 2012. The other, marked D37 is HMS Duncan, another type 45, commissioned a year later.

Changing views for a moment, the observation deck is equipped with a glass floor and for those with nerve enough to stand on it, looking straight down, past your feet at the ground over 300ft below, is quite an experience.

From these dizzying heights, that's enough for today I think!