Go to the Isle of Wight - but take your own tea
I have a problem with the Isle of Wight. Actually that's not strictly true, I have three problems with the Isle of Wight!
Firstly, there's too much to see and do in a day. So not a bad problem I admit, just putting the thought out there. Secondly, it closes at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Honestly it does. Thirdly there is a distinct lack of cafes, or we drove on a route from Alum Bay to East Cowes that is just devoid of cafes. Therefore I suggest that you take a nice big flask with you or a camping stove so you can brew up when you want.
Anyway, moan over and on to the point of today's Blog. We went to the Isle of Wight yesterday (bet you hadn't figured that out had you dear reader?). It was my mum's birthday last week and my wife's birthday on Monday so we had a birthday outing to the Island.
We started at Osborne House as it's one of those places we had all wanted to visit and as we now get free entry to English Heritage sites (god bless my wife for being a Civil Servant!) it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. Just in case you are wondering it's magnificent,
and there is an incredibly camp statue of Prince Albert in the house as well - #justsayin!
After tooling around the house and gardens we headed for Busy Bee Garden Centre for lunch - this had come as two recommendations; one as a good garden centre. It's massive, a real must if you have any interest in gardening. Second recommendation, it's a great place to eat. Reasonable prices, good food, decent portions and nice quick service. It sounds an odd place to recommend for lunch but it was great!
Anyway, onward and upwards on our IOW road trip! Next stop was the Garlic Farm. I had heard about this place for years and as we were close by we decided to stop and check it out. The first thing we noticed was the brilliant garlic statue out the front of the shop and the very pretty black pigeons that live there.
Just because I like to be contrary I went to the Garlic Farm and bought some stone ground flour instead of garlic!
I did learn that there is something called a Boswell Scale though; it's like the Scoville Unit Scale that is used to measure the heat of chillies but it's for garlic!
Whilst we were pootling around being Grockles we had been trying to remember the name of a very pretty road that we used to visit many moons ago when we used to holiday on the island and then out of the blue mum goes "Winkle Street!". Yes that was it! Anyway we were on our way over to Tennyson Down after the Garlic Farm and we saw a sign for, you guessed it, Winkle Street. It was meant to be - Detour! We parked up and bimbled on down and it was as pretty as we had remembered; beautiful little cottages (including one named after yours truly) and a babbling brook and some very lovely ducks. I don't care who you are or what you do but you can't be unhappy with ducks about.
So after a mass of photo taking including one of me bestriding the Sheep Wash like a Mighty Colossus (or going here are my testicles, please kick them) we resumed our journey to Tennyson Down.
The reason we were heading for Tennyson Down was that it seemed like a good place to find some rabbit activity as we had noticed a real decline recently of rabbits and hares due to a new strain of myxomatosis. Whilst we didn't see any there I did manage to spot a hare in one of the fields on the journey back to the ferry. We also saw a very good number of buzzards as well so that seemed a fairly good indicator of a food source.
So now it was time to head back to the ferry and this brings us full circle to where this Blog started. I wanted a cup of tea, and nothing could be found. I even thought about stopping of at Osborne House and getting one in the restaurant there, but as I mentioned earlier the island shuts at 4pm. We droves around East Cowes (doesn't take long, a Co-op, a Waitrose and the ferry terminal).In the end we went in to the terminal building where there was a vending machine shining out of the darkness like the Holy Grail! I went and bagged a table whilst the ladies brought forth the cup of life sustaining goodness. Wrong! I think the machine had been filled up with something that a dog had drunk and then passed out and it had then been siphoned in to the vending machine. It was rank!
All in all we had a brilliant day. Just remember the Isle of Wight closes at 4 o'clock and to take your own flask or stove so you can have a cuppa when you want one!
Firstly, there's too much to see and do in a day. So not a bad problem I admit, just putting the thought out there. Secondly, it closes at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Honestly it does. Thirdly there is a distinct lack of cafes, or we drove on a route from Alum Bay to East Cowes that is just devoid of cafes. Therefore I suggest that you take a nice big flask with you or a camping stove so you can brew up when you want.
Anyway, moan over and on to the point of today's Blog. We went to the Isle of Wight yesterday (bet you hadn't figured that out had you dear reader?). It was my mum's birthday last week and my wife's birthday on Monday so we had a birthday outing to the Island.
We started at Osborne House as it's one of those places we had all wanted to visit and as we now get free entry to English Heritage sites (god bless my wife for being a Civil Servant!) it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. Just in case you are wondering it's magnificent,
After tooling around the house and gardens we headed for Busy Bee Garden Centre for lunch - this had come as two recommendations; one as a good garden centre. It's massive, a real must if you have any interest in gardening. Second recommendation, it's a great place to eat. Reasonable prices, good food, decent portions and nice quick service. It sounds an odd place to recommend for lunch but it was great!
Anyway, onward and upwards on our IOW road trip! Next stop was the Garlic Farm. I had heard about this place for years and as we were close by we decided to stop and check it out. The first thing we noticed was the brilliant garlic statue out the front of the shop and the very pretty black pigeons that live there.
Whilst we were pootling around being Grockles we had been trying to remember the name of a very pretty road that we used to visit many moons ago when we used to holiday on the island and then out of the blue mum goes "Winkle Street!". Yes that was it! Anyway we were on our way over to Tennyson Down after the Garlic Farm and we saw a sign for, you guessed it, Winkle Street. It was meant to be - Detour! We parked up and bimbled on down and it was as pretty as we had remembered; beautiful little cottages (including one named after yours truly) and a babbling brook and some very lovely ducks. I don't care who you are or what you do but you can't be unhappy with ducks about.
So after a mass of photo taking including one of me bestriding the Sheep Wash like a Mighty Colossus (or going here are my testicles, please kick them) we resumed our journey to Tennyson Down.
So now it was time to head back to the ferry and this brings us full circle to where this Blog started. I wanted a cup of tea, and nothing could be found. I even thought about stopping of at Osborne House and getting one in the restaurant there, but as I mentioned earlier the island shuts at 4pm. We droves around East Cowes (doesn't take long, a Co-op, a Waitrose and the ferry terminal).In the end we went in to the terminal building where there was a vending machine shining out of the darkness like the Holy Grail! I went and bagged a table whilst the ladies brought forth the cup of life sustaining goodness. Wrong! I think the machine had been filled up with something that a dog had drunk and then passed out and it had then been siphoned in to the vending machine. It was rank!
All in all we had a brilliant day. Just remember the Isle of Wight closes at 4 o'clock and to take your own flask or stove so you can have a cuppa when you want one!
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