Gosport. Enough said.

Which place would not be full to bursting over a Bank Holiday weekend around the Solent? Yes, you've guessed it, Gosport. That well known centre of culture and sophistication.

Still, a walk around Portsmouth and into Southsea reminded us of how nice the seafront area is and how different the Southsea / Portsmouth housing stock is too!

They are clearly trying to "do up" Portsmouth:

Or perhaps the blue stuff is an artistic wrap job like the Berlin parliament building art job from a few years ago. We think Berlin had a bigger budget though:

Talking of culture and sophistication, we had taken a trip into Wickham for lunch earlier on and witnessed the wedding party arriving by tractor and trailer - kind of cute:

However, the countryside theme was taken a bit too far with the bridesmaid's footwear:

The non matching shades of yellow were just a bit too jarring. The bride also wore wellies by the way. Don't ask how we know.....

The view aft from our mooring in Haslar marina was good - towards the 170m tall Spinnaker tower. Sadly the wild force 8/9 winds and overcast skies meant this was but a fleeting sunny view on the day that we left:

In car you are wondering about the blue and yellow sunken thing in the foreground - it is the boat lift which we mentioned in our blog last year after Stephen (the sailing, shooting and trolley shopper expert) had used it. Here is a yacht being cleaned up in the lift:

And for those of you who complain when you are asked to park your car or moor your boat in a tight space, how is this for back to back parking - the pilot boats in Gosport:

Impressed? Well, we had been given a similarly challenging berth when we arrived in Haslar that involved somehow shrinking the boat and turning it on the spot to slither into a tiny berth. The nice marina folks (they are actually very nice in Haslar)  gave  us a bigger one on request, but we had to get out too - tricky stuff. Memo to self - never take a berth on E pontoon unless the number is 66 or higher.