Wednesday 13th May 2009

This morning we slept in – first time since we have been away – didn’t wake until 7.30am – so it was have a quick shower and get down to to breakfast room for our 8.00am breakfast.
I took the camera down with me as Avril had said it would be OK for me to photograph the posters and photos in the room. I did this today because tomorrow we pack up again and head back to London – St Pancras YHA, before heading off very early on Friday morning to Lille and our tour of the Battlefields of the Somme.
It was cold and grey and looked like rain, so we decided to take the bus into East Cowes to visit Osborne House, the holiday residence of Queen Victoria.
After breakfast we caught the bus back into Newport, then changed to an East Cowes bus, and asked to be let off at Osborne House which the driver did.
The gardens are incredible, and with many beautiful trees that are very old, and very big – have a look at one of the photos I took of Deb alongside one of them.
We arrived just after 10.00am, and just as well we did, as the place filled up really quickly with visitors. As usual, you weren’t allowed to take photos inside which is a pity, but we figured we would buy the guide on the way out and hoped that it contained some good photos of the interior.
The house is quite incredible, and the Heritage Trust of UK looks after it – the house itself was given to the public by King George V, but all the contents were retained by the Crown, so the Trust has had to have replicas made, or buy furniture to furnish it. A lot of what is owned by the Crown is on display fortunately, so it was lovely to have a look at what it was like to live in the late 1800’s.
There were many portraits hanging throughout the house, and also some family trees and historical charts of the various Kings and Queens of England. It was interesting to see how Victoria had used her children to marry into the many different Royal families of Europe. She did this with the hope of unifying and creating peace in Europe, but this was not to happen given the events of WWI and WW2.
It took about 2 hours to go through the house, and then we went out to look at the gardens. Many of the spring flowers were still in bloom, so it was very beautiful. Much more formal than I had imagined, but not so formal as at Versailles. We had a look at the walled garden which was being prepared for summer, so was a bit bare, then decided to catch the bus on into East Cowes and then find our way to West Cowes by the floating bridge and have lunch and head back to Newport and our guest house.
We had a bit of a wait for the bus, but it arrived eventually, and we headed into East Cowes – which is separated from West Cowes by the harbour. After walking for a while we eventually found what the locals call the “floating bridge” but is actually a “chain ferry” which is used to transport cars, trucks and people across the harbour. This ferry has been in use for many years, and when they considered building a bridge, found that the cost would be exhorbitant, so decided to keep the chain ferry.
When we got to West Cowes, we wandered around looking for somewhere to have lunch – finally deciding on a pub as it was after 2.00pm and some of the restaurants were closing after lunch.
We had a nice lasagne and salad, then some desert and coffee, and after that headed for the bus, picking up some milk, sandwiches and fruit for tea so that we didn’t have to stop off on the way back to Castle Lodge and buy supplies.
Well, the marvellous holiday is very nearly over now – tomorrow is another packup and travel day. We don’t plan on leaving the guest house much before 10.00, and then may go up to see Carisbrooke Castle (which is just up the hill from where we are staying), before taking a taxi back to Cowes to catch the ferry to Southampton, and then the train to Paddington, and then underground to St Pancras. We spend the night at the YHA at St Pancras, and then up very early Friday morning to catch the 6.00am Eurostar train to Lille and our 3 day tour of the battlefields of the Somme.
As I am not sure whether we will have internet access after the YHA, my next blog post may be from Sydney – to wrap up the holiday and let you know how the battlefields tour went. Deb and I hope that you have enjoyed reading about our exploits as much as we have enjoyed doing them – it is hard to believe that we have been away from home for so long, but we are looking forward to getting home to our own space, and the comfort of our own home – there really is no place quite like it.