Isle of Wight

Last weekend saw David and I going to the Isle of Wight for a weekend break.  It's just about three quarter of an hour's drive from home to Lymington to get the ferry to Yarmouth.  We stayed in Shanklin across the other side of the island.

The ferry just coming into Lymington

David said "Must take a photo of this" it looks like the car is in the water!

 Saturday we explored a couple of English Heritage sites, Carisbrooke Castle near Newport and Osborne House in East Cowes.  We were surprised about how much there was to see at Carisbrooke Castle, thinking is was a ruin, but in fact it's last occupant, Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Beatrice lived there and she created a museum and also had a garden there.  What was also fascinating was the St Nicholas Chapel. which not only had a memorial to King Charles I who was kept prisoner at the castle but also memorial to the armies that fought in the First World War, with regiments listed around the top of the walls of the chapel.

The two photos above are the outside of the castle

Memorial to King Charles I

Inscriptions on the ceiling of the chapel

The gate outside Princess Beatrice's garden

Looking towards the gate from the garden

Just had to take a photo of these poppies, they were gorgeous

A quilt opportunity - this was made in the 1980's by a group of local embroiderers (this photo is dark as I couldn't use the flash

And these are some of the drawings of the layout of the quilt

More views outside

Looking through the arches

Hungry bird looking for something to eat from the cafe

In the afternoon we then went onto Osborne House the island home of Queen Victoria, which we visited many years ago and it was a lovely setting overlooking the Solent at East Cowes.

As we arrived in the car park we saw a group of Triumph Stags, two of which are in the photo here.  We were to see them again the next day when we visited the Isle of Wight Steam Railway.  We couldn't take any photos inside the house so the following pics were taken in the gardens.

From the front, with the Italianate tower

From the gardens looking at the back of the house

View of the Solent from the garden, you can just make out the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth

Queen Vistoria's bathing machine

This was the cabin of the boat that took Queen Victoria from the Isle of Wight to the mainland for her funeral

When leaving Osborne House, we went along the coast back to Shanklin stopping at Ryde. What's at Ryde? It's the hovercraft ferry that goes between there and Portsmouth.

Before setting off

Getting ready

And away it goes!

I'll do another post tomorrow about our time at the Isle of Wight railway.