Portsmouth

We arrived at our final destination - Portsmouth - in the late afternoon and made an impulsive decision to take the kids bowling. After all, we've never been bowling as a family, why not start up in England?

Bright and early, we set out for the main attraction at Portsmouth Harbour - the HMS Victory: flagship for the English at the Battle of Trafalgar (which the English won, by the way) and commanded by Lord Admiral Nelson (see Master and Commander for the full history if you desire).

Above: a few of the more interesting parts of the HMS Victory.

In keeping with our pre-planned itinerary of mixture between historical and just plain fun, we spent the afternoon at the Royal Naval Action Centre: a maritime science museum of sorts... with a rock-climbing wall. (That little Aimster can really climb!)

But back to the historical... after a harbour tour on board the HMS Solace, we toured the HMS Warrior - the first-ever iron-hulled warship for Britain, built in the 1800s. They had on-board Halloween crafts that the girls really enjoyed. We also went on a "pumpkin hunt" inside this ship.