"I agree with everything Mister Gumby says", said Mr Gumby. He went on to say "I'm from the Isle of Man". I had 4 hours to discover why Monty Python used the Isle of Man to sling off at. It took 23 minutes, the rest was just killing time.

I had a 4 hour stop over on the Isle of Man on my way from Liverpool back to Gatwick (London). And thought well I'll get a bus into the capital, Douglas, and see how much I can cover.

The Isle of Man is a little place half way between mainland UK and Northern Ireland. So essentially nowhere really. It is known for its flag which is a 3 legged image, its tailless cats, a motorbike race and the tax haven of Topgear's Jeremy Clerkson amongst others I'm sure.

Me and my accompanying 20 others passengers landed at the Castletown airport on the south of the island. Just next to a church that looked like it had been converted to a prison. We toddled into the International Arrivals lounge and past the single security officer who waved us through with little interest in passports etc. I expect I was the only tourist on the plane.

After a 30 min bus ride through the countryside to Douglas, I was dropped off at the ferry terminal stop like I would be leaving already. But I crossed the road, took a photo of the Castle of Refuge and the seafront of this European capital city. Australia has larger snow ski resorts than this town. But onward and up ward I shall go into the Tourist Information centre and perhaps there is a self guided walking tour I could do for an hour. Then find a nice place for afternoon tea.

There are apparently 3 tours. Seafront, Old harbour and Seafront with Old harbour included. Well I did not want too much of a challenge so I took the Old Harbour brochure, bought a suitcase sticker, thanked the lady and made my way to the starting point of the walk. 15 mins later at the end of the walk having past a wall, a dyke (not on a bike), a few yachts and a lock I had finished the walking tour and regretted not being more adventurous and taking the challenge of the combined tour.

Ok where is the centre of town?? Followed my nose and found the only pub open full of blokes watching the soccer and decided soccer had already impacted on this weekend in more than a scary way, so found a tea house for lunch.

The Isle of Man is part of the UK, but also separate like the Channel Islands and Northern Ireland, So I paid £5 for EU internet access as according to my phone provider I was no longer in Britain. Hell I am no longer in Kansas either. But the lunch was nice and they accepted the UK currency.

Bus back to the airport without making eye contact with anyone as I think the gene pool is lacking here and I did not want to be a target for a pitch fork wealding Mr Gumby with 3 legs and a pet without a tail.

Isle of Man is an eye opener and if you ever get the chance, go there with a return ticket to get out.