January and the first wee blog of the year. Decided to return to Spain for Christmas and New Year and spend a bit more time looking around, cycling and 'taking the air'. Extended the time in the sun by taking the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander - removing three days of 'drive time' through France. Touristically France is kind of shut at this time of year, so not a lot lost, apart from a bit of the bank balance. Gained? A less stressful journey and time to take a few more snaps.
Among the first ones onboard, the corridor sucked us in towards our cabin.
Most ferry crossing we make across the channel are early morning so a relaxed mid-morning departure gave us time to see Portsmouth, The Spinnaker Tower and the boat itself. Portsmouth harbour is scheduled to lose most of it's boat building capability over the next couple of years so these cranes may disappear soon.
Checked out the lifeboats, but the forecast was good.
HMS Warrior was the first of her class of two armoured frigates built for the Royal Navy in 1859-61. She and her sister ship, HMS Black Prince were the first armour-plated, iron hulled warships.
The Spinnaker Tower seemed to be about to get it's windows washed as we sailed past. Not the right lens to get a good shot of the window cleaner.
Santander - warmer already.
