We fit quite a lot into this past weekend. Mike was at the wheel and Lynette rode shotgun. I opted for the back seat as I tend to be a bit of a back seat driver anyway! It worked out perfectly because if Mike accidentally ended up on the wrong side of the road Lynette could relax by just meditating (I need to learn this skill right away) and I couldn't really see what was happening so everyone was happy.
Saturday morning we set the GPS to Isle of Wight and away we went. We never tire of the endless string of charming towns and beautiful countryside that you come across on these road trips. Once again, we stopped by the side of the road to buy freshly picked British strawberries and rasperries. Soooo good!
We pulled into Southampton and found the Red Funnel Car Ferry. This was a new experience for us. We pulled into the queue, bought our tickets and waited to board. It was pretty convenient to be able load up the car with everything you might need and not have to worry about carrying a daypack all day. We were loaded onto the bottom deck along with other cars, motor homes and even a tour bus - amazing that this boat stayed afloat! We proceeded to the top deck to enjoy the sunny day as we cruised through the channel to the Isle of Wight for an hour.
This island has a little bit of everything from beaches and world class sailing to historic royal homes, castles and festivals. This past weekend happened to be the Isle of Wight Music Festival featuring acts such as Kanye West, Jay-Z, Paul McCartney, Pink, and lots of others I haven't heard of. We drove past the concert grounds on our way to Carisbrooke Castle and it made me think of Megan and her Country Thunder weekends because on the field was a blanket of tents and campers.
Our first destination on the island was actually Osbourne House, once the summer home of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It was an amazing retreat and so fascinating to learn about her life and her NINE children! It sounds like she and Albert had planned to unify countries by arranging marriages for their children that would build peaceful and mutually beneficial relationships between nations. It didn't quite work out that way in the end but their descendents around Europe left quite a legacy. The home itself sits on a massive estate with sprawling grounds and a beautiful and graceful summer retreat. You can just image the children running and playing here and the Queen and Prince Albert relaxing a bit away from the scrutiny that royal life brought on. We could have wandered around for several more hours here but hunger got the better of us and we sat down to tea on the terrace overlooking the grounds and beyond that the ocean. Lynette and I split tea for two complete with cucumber sandwiches, salmon sandwiches, cakes and scones while Mike ordered a antipasta plate and a glass of wine.
We relaxed for a
bit too long before realizing that we had just one hour to get over to Carisbrooke Castle if we wanted to get in and see it before closing time. We made it but only had 30 minutes to spare so it was a quick tour and lots of picture snapping from the towers! King Charles I was imprisoned here before his execution. Some of this castle is in ruins but it dates back to pre-Roman times and was then fortified several different times over the centuries. We closed the place down and they basically had to chase us out and lock the gates behind us. Time to drive on!
From here we drove back to the port town of Cowes and found a spot for dinner. Fortunately it was across the street from a pub with a big screen TV that we could see through the window since the US
was playing England in the first game of the World Cup. There was quite a bit of merriment at that pub early on but by the end I think the wind went out of their sails. The tie game was a gift! We all had a seafood dinner and then had to drive over a 'floating' bridge to get back to the ferry that would take us to the main land. To cross the floating bridge you drove onto a barge, paid them 2 pounds and then the barge floated across about 200 feet of water and let you out on the other side - it was a hoot! Once on the red funnel ferry we all slept, read or meditated our way back to the other side so we would be fresh and ready to head west toward Wells and find a place to crash for the night.
What seemed like a short one hour trip turned out to be quite a bit longer when driving down narrow winding roads in the dark. We quickly realized we would not make our destination before the inn keepers closed up for the night and we might very well be sleeping in the car on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere unless we got creative.
Our option was t
urn towards home or ask for help (very hard to make a man stop the car and do). Ultimately Mike pulled over by a lone pub in the middle of a very small town at about 10:45 p.m. and I leaned out to ask the very well-watered gentleman (ok that is a stretch) if he knew of any accomodations nearby. To our great surprise, he directed us to the top of the hill to the Cedar Hotel in Westbury. They just happened to have two rooms left that were actually quite clean and included breakfast in the morning for just 65 pounds. We are living right!
From Westbury it was just a quick trip in the morning over to Wells for a look around town and a tour of their famous Cathedral. We must be getting bleary on the Cathedrals because we worked through this one quickly and decided to push on to Cheddar Gorge for some hiking, caving and cheese tasting.
Cheddar Go
rge is actually a beautiful area with steep, limestone cliffs rising on both sides of the road. Caves throughout the area are used to age the cheddar cheese produced in this town. We opted to hike to the top of the gorge, along it's length and back on the other side. The brochure said it would take 3 hours but we were convinced we would have it licked in an hour or so - HA! It turned out to be quite a hike and as we roamed across the top through a meadow area Lynette did, at one point, start to sing "The Hills are Alive" and it kind of fit the situation.
The caves w
ere cold and damp but interesting and, in places, beautiful. Apparently they found evidence in these caves of ancient people in the area that were cannibals....hmmm. Anyway, after a well-earned ice cream we set the GPS and headed off for home.
How did we ever travel without GPS? This thing took us through a road that looked like someones driveway for miles before we ended up on anything resembling a road made for traffic. We drove past beautiful lakes, farm land, charming homes and little towns but next time I think we might type in "fastest way home" because the M4 probably would have done the trick in half the time. Kudos to Mike for all the driving. He did a GREAT job and we only had one near head on collision in the middle of the night. Who knew that wasn't a roundabout?
Cheers to my two amazing travel companions. I will go anywhere with you guys!
Saturday morning we set the GPS to Isle of Wight and away we went. We never tire of the endless string of charming towns and beautiful countryside that you come across on these road trips. Once again, we stopped by the side of the road to buy freshly picked British strawberries and rasperries. Soooo good!
We pulled into Southampton and found the Red Funnel Car Ferry. This was a new experience for us. We pulled into the queue, bought our tickets and waited to board. It was pretty convenient to be able load up the car with everything you might need and not have to worry about carrying a daypack all day. We were loaded onto the bottom deck along with other cars, motor homes and even a tour bus - amazing that this boat stayed afloat! We proceeded to the top deck to enjoy the sunny day as we cruised through the channel to the Isle of Wight for an hour.
This island has a little bit of everything from beaches and world class sailing to historic royal homes, castles and festivals. This past weekend happened to be the Isle of Wight Music Festival featuring acts such as Kanye West, Jay-Z, Paul McCartney, Pink, and lots of others I haven't heard of. We drove past the concert grounds on our way to Carisbrooke Castle and it made me think of Megan and her Country Thunder weekends because on the field was a blanket of tents and campers.
Our first destination on the island was actually Osbourne House, once the summer home of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It was an amazing retreat and so fascinating to learn about her life and her NINE children! It sounds like she and Albert had planned to unify countries by arranging marriages for their children that would build peaceful and mutually beneficial relationships between nations. It didn't quite work out that way in the end but their descendents around Europe left quite a legacy. The home itself sits on a massive estate with sprawling grounds and a beautiful and graceful summer retreat. You can just image the children running and playing here and the Queen and Prince Albert relaxing a bit away from the scrutiny that royal life brought on. We could have wandered around for several more hours here but hunger got the better of us and we sat down to tea on the terrace overlooking the grounds and beyond that the ocean. Lynette and I split tea for two complete with cucumber sandwiches, salmon sandwiches, cakes and scones while Mike ordered a antipasta plate and a glass of wine.
We relaxed for a
bit too long before realizing that we had just one hour to get over to Carisbrooke Castle if we wanted to get in and see it before closing time. We made it but only had 30 minutes to spare so it was a quick tour and lots of picture snapping from the towers! King Charles I was imprisoned here before his execution. Some of this castle is in ruins but it dates back to pre-Roman times and was then fortified several different times over the centuries. We closed the place down and they basically had to chase us out and lock the gates behind us. Time to drive on!From here we drove back to the port town of Cowes and found a spot for dinner. Fortunately it was across the street from a pub with a big screen TV that we could see through the window since the US
was playing England in the first game of the World Cup. There was quite a bit of merriment at that pub early on but by the end I think the wind went out of their sails. The tie game was a gift! We all had a seafood dinner and then had to drive over a 'floating' bridge to get back to the ferry that would take us to the main land. To cross the floating bridge you drove onto a barge, paid them 2 pounds and then the barge floated across about 200 feet of water and let you out on the other side - it was a hoot! Once on the red funnel ferry we all slept, read or meditated our way back to the other side so we would be fresh and ready to head west toward Wells and find a place to crash for the night.What seemed like a short one hour trip turned out to be quite a bit longer when driving down narrow winding roads in the dark. We quickly realized we would not make our destination before the inn keepers closed up for the night and we might very well be sleeping in the car on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere unless we got creative.
Our option was t
urn towards home or ask for help (very hard to make a man stop the car and do). Ultimately Mike pulled over by a lone pub in the middle of a very small town at about 10:45 p.m. and I leaned out to ask the very well-watered gentleman (ok that is a stretch) if he knew of any accomodations nearby. To our great surprise, he directed us to the top of the hill to the Cedar Hotel in Westbury. They just happened to have two rooms left that were actually quite clean and included breakfast in the morning for just 65 pounds. We are living right!From Westbury it was just a quick trip in the morning over to Wells for a look around town and a tour of their famous Cathedral. We must be getting bleary on the Cathedrals because we worked through this one quickly and decided to push on to Cheddar Gorge for some hiking, caving and cheese tasting.
Cheddar Go
rge is actually a beautiful area with steep, limestone cliffs rising on both sides of the road. Caves throughout the area are used to age the cheddar cheese produced in this town. We opted to hike to the top of the gorge, along it's length and back on the other side. The brochure said it would take 3 hours but we were convinced we would have it licked in an hour or so - HA! It turned out to be quite a hike and as we roamed across the top through a meadow area Lynette did, at one point, start to sing "The Hills are Alive" and it kind of fit the situation.The caves w
ere cold and damp but interesting and, in places, beautiful. Apparently they found evidence in these caves of ancient people in the area that were cannibals....hmmm. Anyway, after a well-earned ice cream we set the GPS and headed off for home.How did we ever travel without GPS? This thing took us through a road that looked like someones driveway for miles before we ended up on anything resembling a road made for traffic. We drove past beautiful lakes, farm land, charming homes and little towns but next time I think we might type in "fastest way home" because the M4 probably would have done the trick in half the time. Kudos to Mike for all the driving. He did a GREAT job and we only had one near head on collision in the middle of the night. Who knew that wasn't a roundabout?
Cheers to my two amazing travel companions. I will go anywhere with you guys!
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