Isle of Wight

DA decided that we should head down to the Isle of Wight on Saturday afternoon after the kids' games since it was supposed to be sunny (and we are in a panic about fitting everything in before we return to the US next summer). We learned from our York trip that we needed to make hotel reservations! but we didn't really count on the ferry needing reservations. The Isle of Wight is an island just off the coast of England, south of Portsmouth. The ferries run all day and DA thought we could just drive up, get on the next ferry and off we'd be. SORTA works that way, except (as we should have also learned on our York trip) pre-planning makes everything cheaper. The drive up fare for the ferry costs twice as much as pre-booking would. ouch. really added to the cost of the quick day trip to the beach. 89 GBP.

We will eventually buy into the "English booking" system wherein you have to pre-book everything from restaurants to movie tickets to some train tickets to FERRY tickets, but haven't really taken that lesson to heart yet!

This is a view from the garden balcony. The ocean is in the background - there are several sailboats. Hard to see in the haze of the photo, but great view in real life.

The Isle of Wight is famous for several things, but mainly for being where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had their private residence, Osborne House. The house was the only thing historical we toured and I really enjoyed it. Victoria had the ceilings of St. Paul's cathedral in London decorated, so that should tell you that she liked pretty ceilings. Well, Osborne house is no exception. Gorgeous ceilings in the whole house. They had 9 children, so it was a fairly large home with lots of rooms. They even have her bedroom where she died on the tour. The bedroom kept private for about 50 years, but Queen Elizabeth II opened it to the public. Very unsettling that Victoria had pictures of her deceased husband on his death bed standing and hanging right by the bed so she looked at his face 1st thing in the morning and last thing at night. I have no problem with the concept, but I'd rather look at a bright, smiling face than the face of a man on his death bed. Other than that, the furniture and architecture were great.

The garden was beautiful too. Here are some shots from the grounds.

My favorite food, artichokes! had to resist picking this one.

We mainly went to the Iof W for the sandy beach and had a very relaxing day hanging out in the sun. The breeze was cool, but the kids didn't mind. Dug in the sand and ran in the surf for hours. The Indian summer weekend was a hit.