Sunday 19 June 2011

Salads were the order of the day last night but we did polish off a nice bottle of red with our meals also. We ate at the Crab, the local hotel and our meals were excellent! We dawdled over dinner enjoying the family atmosphere at the pub. Lots of families out dining with children of all ages it was really buzzing. We think we will go back there tonight because they have Sunday roast and 2 meals for £9.99 – pretty good value.

Rang Mum tonight – lovely to speak with her. Mum its great to know you are following our trip!

So, today we decided not to go to Ventnor but headed for Cowes instead. Pretty straight forward trip, simply due North on the only road going that way! Top speed on the roads here is 40mph with 30mph being imposed quite often. Roads are extremely narrow – glad I’m not driving. There is only just enough room for two cars to pass and in some places cars are parked on the side of the road so we have to stop and let the oncoming cars through first!

The weather seemed much brighter although once we were out of the car we found the wind very cold. Cowes is a town that as you will probably know, pretty much revolves around the water– The Solent - is where there have been many famous boat races, including the America’s cup which was held there many years ago. There were boats everywhere enjoying the blustery conditions, sail boats and power boats and hundreds of people watching them. Yacht races started whilst we were watching with a mighty bang from a cannon – how loud was that! We found a park and wandered through the pretty little winding streets that line the seafront. The majority of the shops sported sailing gear – clothing and shoes with a wide range of goods available.

We followed a sign that said “floating bridge” and arrived at a ferry that links the west and east of Cowes across the River Medina. The river is the entrance to a long boating channel that travels deep into the island as far as Newport. Back to the floating bridge – it is actually a ferry which is a chain driven vessel that is pulled between the two banks of the river with the assistance of some huge chains. We were able to walk on and make the trip for free with the cost for a car being £2. There were cyclists crossing with us and the journey seems to be very much part of daily life here - it took about 5 minutes. There are lots of cyclists around and we saw signs that there had been an around the island race on yesterday.

There are other ferries that run from Cowes to various places including Portsmouth (where we came across), Southampton and Lymington (where we will exit the island). As well as car ferries there are fast passenger ferries and the terminals were doing a busy trade. It is a busy place and we found it very interesting.

A black rain cloud came over so we decided to hit the road once more and head for Carisbrooke Castle at – you guessed it – Carisbrooke! Carisbrooke is a delightful little village with a magnificent old castle perched on the top of a hill guarding it. The castle dates back to Queen Isabella in 1057. It was also the place where Charles 1 was kept imprisoned prior to being beheaded. In later years Queen Victoria stayed there and her daughter Beatrice made it her home after her mother died. Kev wandered around the top of the castle wall and I explored at a more sensible level – ground! Very interesting historical place.

Tomorrow we’ll be off to Ventnor I think.