Portsmouth
& Aldershot
Eventhough you can see a picture from the lawn in front of the Royal Marines Museum on the opposite side of this page, I am unfortunately unable to tell more about this museum as we were too late to see the exhibition by about half an hour. As mentioned before, it is a long walk along the seafront from the D-Day Museum and I'm afraid we underestimated a bit the time needed to span the distance - which was all the more frustrating as we bought the entrance tickets the day before...
For a third year in a row, me and my friend, called Jan #2 by my friends in England, went again to London in mid-February 2006. It was the third time, but this time London was not the final destination, but only a transfer point.

The destination this time was the port of Portsmouth in the south of England. Portsmouth is a city linked to the English naval history on several important occasions, including the sinking of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII's favourite warship, and the D-Day preparations in 1944.

Indeed, one of the must-see sights in Portsmouth is the D-Day Museum on the windy seaside of the port, in
As for the Historic Dockyard, the periods on which the exhibitions concentrate do not really fit the topic of this website, but do check the links below for more information and if you are in Portsmouth, don't miss it, it is well worth the money you spend for the entrance ticket!

As for Aldershot, our visit to this important military town was a disaster from the arrival
The Spinnaker Tower, a modern landmark of Portsmouth, looms above the Historic Dockyard, symbolizing a huge sail.
Jan #2 & Jan #1 (left to right) in front of the imposing figure of a Falklands War British Army soldier statue off the Royal Marines Museum in Portsmouth.
to our departure on the following day... We arrived on Sunday morning to a half-deserted town, with all the shops closed tight, including the 'We're open 24/7' Tesco. The accommodation reserved over the internet was a disaster and, above all, opened only after the pub downstairs opened, which wasn't at 8:00 AM...

We dragged our heavy backpacks over to the Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces Museum at the Browning Barracks, marching in a mild rain, the one that looks OK until you find out you're soaked with water. We found out that the Museum was about to open in more than an hour (my mistake, I hand the printouts from the website) - moreover it was located within a military area with nothing else around except barracks and houses, therefore we just sit there on the backpacks, eyeing the outdoor display behind the barbed wire and exchanging embarassed smiles with the soldiers at the gatehouse.

The Museum is really only a one large hall packed with an absolutely incredible number of exhibits from the entire history of the Parachute Regiment and the Airborne Forces in general. The exhibits were very interesting, however, I believe that there are much better ways how to present them in a modern way. A machine gun, under which it is just written 'Machine gun', looks peculiar in an army museum. Both of us thought that the museum looked like one of those here in the Czech Republic, with the display in the 1970's style.
Southsea - other important sights are the Royal Marines Museum (for which we recommend to take a bus or taxi as it really is a LONG walk), or the Historic Dockyard, which is really a huge theme park with loads of exhibits and information about the history of the Royal Navy.

The D-Day Museum was actually much smaller than what I imagined when we planned our visit to early this year. Even so, the museum really is worth visiting, as it displays one of the most interesting exhibitions on D-Day,  showing the so-called Overlord Embroidery, nearly 83 metres long and
showing a great deal of what the D-Day preparations, the landings and the aftermath of the invasion looked like.

It also has a multitude of both small and king-size exhibits, including a Sherman BARV (Beach Armoured Recovery Vehicle, also known as Sea Lion), an imposing machine used by the engineers units involved in the invasion. Its main advantage being the ability to wade through 2.7 metres of water.
The first evening in Portsmouth - after a tiresome journey from the local Tesco we decided to check the location of our next-day destination - the D-Day Museum.
A Churchill tank in front of the D-Day Museum.
The Aldershot Military Museum is the other military attraction in Aldershot and a contrary to the Parachute Regiment Museum. What it lacks is a larger number of exhibits, but it overflows in modern ways of presenting what they have. I must say that we did enjoy the exhibition, mainly the parts that we were both interested in, and we found the museum shop to be a very cozy harbour
A 25-pounder field gun in the Montgomery shed behind the Aldershot Military Museum.
for two rain-soaked travellers with oversize luggage. A very interesting thing was the large wooden shed behind the Museum which once belonged to Field Marshal Montgomery and was moved to the Museum after he died. It shows a few of the larger exhibits, including a 25-pounder field gun.
The BARV as shown on display in the D-Day Museum, Southsea (Portsmouth).
LINKS:

PORTSMOUTH: The D-Day Museum, Southsea -- The Royal Marines Museum -- The Historic Dockyard
ALDERSHOT: The Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces Museum -- The Aldershot Military Museum