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iguana
I got back from Hawaii in the early hours of 20 May, and decided that with the next weekend being a bank holiday, and hoping it would help fix my jetlag, I booked a holiday to the Isle of Wight with Tim. But first, I went to see Blade Runner at the Prince Charles Cinema in London; another good classic to see on the big screen.
Isle of Wight
I'd fancied visiting the Isle of Wight for some time, to see the Needles as well as use the tube trains running on the National Rail Island line there.
We got the hovercraft to Ryde from Portsmouth, and took the tube to Brading, where we did a tour of the old signal box there. There were lots of levers and I got to pull some of them.
From Brading we walked to either Bembridge where we had lunch on the pebble beach, then we walked over some hills to Sandown, stopping for ice cream at a monument on the way.
That night we stayed at Melville Hall Hotel. It's a very old-fashioned English hotel, and perhaps the first time I've stayed in something of its kind. The Isle of Wight does rather seem to live in a 1970s time warp.
The next morning we queued for breakfast (I had the veggie full english; it was terrible and great in equal proportions), then checked out. We caught the train to Brading and then intended to walk to Smallbrook Junction station, where the island train line meets the heritage train line. However, when we got near to the station according to our GPS, we couldn't work out how to get into it. I eventually checked the heritage line's website to discover that the station was not accessible by car or foot, just the Nationl Rail line. Annoying.
However this explained by the National Rail services didn't stop there until official opening time. We walked to Ryde to kill some time, then caught the train to Smallbrook, where we watched our steam train come in.
We got a first class carriage to ourselves and rode the train to Wootton Common, the terminus. After eating at the nearby pub, we caught the bus to Newport to visit Carisbrooke Castle. It's a nice place to visit, and we saw a demonstration of a donkey using the well.
We had another long walk from the Castle to Ventnor, through woodlands filled with wild garlic and a village keen on scarecrows, where we stayed in the fabulous Gothic View B&B, whose hosts were exceedingly friendly and took great pride in our breakfast the next morning, which was fantastic and set us up for the day.
We walked to the coast and then westwards towards the Needles. This was further than we expected, specially since the grassy path out to the peninsula just seemed to keep on going and going.
We reached the Needles, and did you know there is a now-defunct space rocket testing facility there? I thought Tim was joking until I saw it myself.
So, we saw the Needles and caught the bus back to Ryde via a stop at Yarmouth for food. Hovercraft back to the mainland and a good use of a long weekend!
I'd fancied visiting the Isle of Wight for some time, to see the Needles as well as use the tube trains running on the National Rail Island line there.
We got the hovercraft to Ryde from Portsmouth, and took the tube to Brading, where we did a tour of the old signal box there. There were lots of levers and I got to pull some of them.
From Brading we walked to either Bembridge where we had lunch on the pebble beach, then we walked over some hills to Sandown, stopping for ice cream at a monument on the way.
That night we stayed at Melville Hall Hotel. It's a very old-fashioned English hotel, and perhaps the first time I've stayed in something of its kind. The Isle of Wight does rather seem to live in a 1970s time warp.
The next morning we queued for breakfast (I had the veggie full english; it was terrible and great in equal proportions), then checked out. We caught the train to Brading and then intended to walk to Smallbrook Junction station, where the island train line meets the heritage train line. However, when we got near to the station according to our GPS, we couldn't work out how to get into it. I eventually checked the heritage line's website to discover that the station was not accessible by car or foot, just the Nationl Rail line. Annoying.
However this explained by the National Rail services didn't stop there until official opening time. We walked to Ryde to kill some time, then caught the train to Smallbrook, where we watched our steam train come in.
We got a first class carriage to ourselves and rode the train to Wootton Common, the terminus. After eating at the nearby pub, we caught the bus to Newport to visit Carisbrooke Castle. It's a nice place to visit, and we saw a demonstration of a donkey using the well.
We had another long walk from the Castle to Ventnor, through woodlands filled with wild garlic and a village keen on scarecrows, where we stayed in the fabulous Gothic View B&B, whose hosts were exceedingly friendly and took great pride in our breakfast the next morning, which was fantastic and set us up for the day.
We walked to the coast and then westwards towards the Needles. This was further than we expected, specially since the grassy path out to the peninsula just seemed to keep on going and going.
We reached the Needles, and did you know there is a now-defunct space rocket testing facility there? I thought Tim was joking until I saw it myself.
So, we saw the Needles and caught the bus back to Ryde via a stop at Yarmouth for food. Hovercraft back to the mainland and a good use of a long weekend!
