Sunday on the Isle of Wight

Posted on 2012/08/06 23:03:41 (August 2012).

[Sunday 5th August 2012]
We woke fairly early in our hotel in Ventnor, and it is always nice when staying by the sea to open up the window and start the day with a few deep breaths of sea air. We were down for breakfast before 9, and has checked out before 10.

I decided we should visit Osborne House this morning, which meant another bus from Ventnor, changing at Newport (the "capital"), back up to the North side of the island. I was surprised by how hilly the middle bit of the Isle of Wight is.

We arrived at Osborne House just after 11, and spent an hour or so touring the inside of the house (where unfortunately photography wasn't allowed). It was interesting to learn about of Victoria and Albert's time there - it really felt like a family home rather than a formal residence (the dining room was surprisingly small for example) and it gives the impression that no-one else has lived in it sense. Which I think is more or less the case. I was also pleased to discover Thomas Cubitt had been involved in building the place - a builder I've become a bit of a fan of hving been surrounded by his handiwork in Belgravia and Pimlico the past few years.

The grounds are rather large and sweeping, and they've just recently opened up Victoria's private beach, which we wandered down to. Ventnor had felt quite remote, but here it's just a short hop across the water to the mainland, and there's a good view to be had of Portsmouth.

For the next item on our itinerary I was very keen to go for a ride on the Isle of Wight steam railway, which, in a somewhat tenuous way, would form part of our return journey to Ryde to get the ferry back to the mainland. Chie didn't seem quite as keen - she seems to only like steam trains in Japan.

We took a bus to Wooton, and had a bit of a wait at the tiny little station there for the next steam train. I initially just bought a standard (3rd class) ticket - the chap in the ticket office didn't offer anything else. However, on seeing on a poster that first class tickets were also available I naturally upgraded us - as we were only likely to be on this train once, we might as will do it in style.

So when the train eventually arrived we had our own little first class compartment, which was very nice - lovely dark wood panelled interior, very pleasant interior, and lots of fascinating little details. Although it was all in mininature - both the size of the train and the length of the run - it definitely evoked a rather wonderful atmosphere of the golden age of travel, and I couldn't help but wonder why we have to put up with such drably designed train interiors today.

We broke our journey at Haven Street, the main station of the line, where there's a little museum, shop, cafe, and there was also a Victorian fair going on. Appropriately enough, having been at Osborne House earlier, we spotted Queen Victoria with her entourage.

Another short leg on a slightly different steam train then carried us the rest of the way to Smallbrook Junction, the end of the steam railway, and where we could connect onto the little "normal' train that took us back to Ryde pier head. From there we got the ferry back to the mainland.

Return journeys are never quite as fun as outbound journeys, and it seemed to rather drag on (especially because we just missed a faster train by about 30 seconds on arrival at Portsmouth Harbour). We ended up on a slower train which surprisingly went by way of Hove, but on the plus side got us back into Victoria.

suteki na tokoro desune.
otenki nimo megumarete
kikansha mo ari yokattane!
chie no onaka mo masumau
ookiku nattene.

Posted by yoko at 2012/08/08 12:45:10.

Nice excursion.
I miss those lovely places, so British and all.

Posted by Sheri at 2012/08/20 08:20:02.

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