October 10th Truro

Truro Cathedral

Trafalgar Roundabout

It has been quite a long time since we last stayed around Truro to do some shopping.  We were back to square one with our hunt for a new three piece suite and so we hoped to sort something out today.  We are staying in the middle of the city and after breakfast decided to walk to our favourite furniture shop here.  We looked at alternatives and with some helpful advice now have a setup which might work and we shall make some careful measurements when we get home.  We came back to Truro centre passing the tribute to the Battle of Britain which is on Trafalgar roundabout.  We carried on into the centre which is dominated by the Cathedral and looked at another couple of furniture shops without finding anything suitable.  The rest of the day was spent general shopping and making wish lists.  It had stayed dry but overcast which was ideal for us, we now have to sort out about this furniture!

October 9th Shanklin to Truro

Old underground train on the IOWight

Sunrise in Shanklin

Today we left Shanklin and made our way by various means of transport to Truro.  It began a beautiful day and we dropped the hire car off and went to the station to join the local train.  It was then the ferry to Portsmouth (very smooth) and then to Westbury, changed for Exeter and then changed to go to Truro.  All the travelling went very well and by the end of the afternoon we had settled into our hotel and actually managed to do some shopping.  I think there will be more of that activity tomorrow!

October 8th Arreton, Carisbrooke Castle, Cowes etc

The Castle Gatehouse

The main castle hall

The weather today was the best of our days on the Isle of Wight.  It was clear blue sky and sunshine and we decided the main activity would be to visit Carisbrooke Castle which is mainly an outside venue.  So after breakfast we got on our way but first stopped at the craft workshops at Arreton. To be honest these were hardly worth the bother as there was not a lot of local produce on offer and what there was seemed overpriced.  We quickly moved on to Carisbrooke.  We parked, visited the coffee shop and then viewed the very good introductory film.  We made a plan of action: visiting the chapel, Princess Beatrice's garden and walking the castle walls before lunch.  The castle was very much a classic with a rich history including the jailing of King Charles after the royalists were defeated, and being occupied by Queen Victoria's youngest daughter Princess Beatrice after her husband had died.  We enjoyed learning about this as we toured round and then partook of some lunch at the café.  We then visited the motte keep and the wellhouse where donkeys (in our case Jack) are used to pump water from the well with a treadmill.  That part was very entertaining. 

Jack the donkey
 

Warhorse in Princess Beatrice's garden

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The motte keep

 

The main hall

We visited the main hall which is now a museum and then walked round the ramparts with their cannon stations much like Garrison walls on St. Mary's.  This concluded an excellent visit.
 
We then drove north to Cowes, had a look round this small "character" coastal town and then went across the chain ferry to East Cowes.  We then slowly made our way along the east coast until we arrived at Shanklin again.  It had been our best day on the island!
 
 
 
 






  

October 7th Needles and Yarmouth

The Needles

Alum Bay with coloured snds

Rocket testing poster

The forecast for today was dry and overcast.  We decided to head for the Needles, the iconic landmark of the Isle of Wight. We started off fairly early and Christine noticed that there was a pearl centre alongside the road on the way.  We duly stopped and while Christine browsed, I joined other men who were looking fairly forlorn.  Eventually a ring was chosen, approved and purchased so one half of us was happy!  The centre had a coffee shop and we had a coffee before carrying on.  We arrived and parked at the Needles visitor centre which did not look too inspiring.  We made our way along path to the Needles viewing platform which gave good views of the rocks and lighthouse. It was very breezy and quite cold on the exposed path and cliffs.  On the way we also had good views of the cliffs of Alum Bay with the different coloured sands.  We also visited the nearby rocket testing station which was highly secretive when used in the cold war.  We then made our way back to the visitor centre and had a snack in a café.  Most of the other stalls & shops were very touristy and the only ones we enjoyed were the coloured sand shop and the glass blowing centre.

The Gossips Cafe

Yarmouth castle

Having finished here we decided to visit nearby Yarmouth, particularly the castle.  We parked and spent some time looking at the exhibits of the small castle and then quickly had a look round the interesting "yachty" town.  It had a very applicably named coffee shop.

We then drove the 1/2 hour journey back to Shanklin, settled back in the hotel  and then had a quick walk around Shanklin's town which I must say seemed full of gift shops and restaurants/pubs.  It had stayed dry and proved to be a very satisfactory part of the holiday.  Where to tomorrow?

October 6th Shanklin & Osborne House

The Swiss Cottage

Today the weather forecast was such that the better weather was likely to be in the morning and then coming to rain.  We decided to go to Osborne House to view the grounds in the better weather and house when it rained.  After breakfast we picked up a hire car and made our way across the island to the House (the holiday residence of Queen Victoria and her family).  The grounds are extensive and we walked round the walled garden, down to the beach and along to the Swiss cottage built for the 9 children by Prince Albert.





Osborne House

Viewing shelter

Luckily after viewing the Swiss Cottage there was a courtesy bus to take us back to the main house and by this time it was beginning to rain.  We had a snack at the restaurant and then started on the journey round the house.  It was very interesting with many artefacts from the period and as usual it was difficult to retain it all.  We saw the room where Queen Victoria died in 1901.  On reflection, we both agreed the house was well worth visiting.  It was still pouring as we made our way back to the hotel for a freshen up before a good dinner.





Victoria's and Christine's bathing machine

October 5th London to Shanklin

This holiday was arranged as a 2 centre vacation.  We were off on the 1030 train from Waterloo to Shanklin in the Isle of Wight, where neither of us had been before.  The weather was pretty miserable but it did not affect us as we sped towards the south coast.  We arrived at Portsmouth Harbour station and then transferred to the ferry to Ryde.  The cataraman only took about 1/2 an hour and then we caught another train to Shanklin.  It was raining and so I did not get any train pics but the shuttle trains on the IOW are ancient London underground trains.  We duly arrived at Shanklin station and then got a taxi to our hotel.  We settled in very comfortably, had a good meal and went to bed happy.

October 4th London

Sunday turned out to be a day of mixed fortunes for us.  We had planned to go to Ruislip to view a new 3 piece suite which the brochure details said would fit perfectly in our small lounge (our existing set up has served us well but is definitely coming to the end of its days).  I had topped up our Oyster cards and off we set in time to arrive before the store opening.  We arrived in good time, found our destination and decided to look at a few more shops before the opening.  Unfortunately when we got back to the shop, there was notice saying they would not be open today because of staff illness.  We had wasted our time & money making the journey.  We returned on the tube and got off at Green Park to walk through the parks on the way back to Waterloo, so all was not wasted.


In the afternoon we had arranged to meet our friends Ruth and Ian, who duly arrived off the clipper ferry from Greenwich.  A nice reunion and then a walk along the south bank to St. Katherine's dock where we saw the Gloriana, had some refreshment, a good chinwag and the lift bridge rise to allow boats into 

The Gloriana

Christine,Ian & Ruth

the dock.

The dock bridge opening



A real treat was to follow for us.  Ian and Ruth had arranged that all of us would take the river boat to Greenwich to meet their son, Matthew, his wife Ursula and their two week old son Elijah.  It was really good for us to meet them and catch up with all the news.  We had a meal together and eventually we took the river boat back to the Eye and Waterloo where we were staying.  The ending of the day was much better than the beginning.  We packed most of our belongings ready for moving on in the morning.