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Tuesday 19 Feb 2008 We left Teddington excitedly at 7am to get to Victoria Coach station for our 9:30 coach to Portsmouth. We finally met Lundi and Nikki at Victoria and our journey began. After our 2 hour coach trip we were so excited to get to the ferry terminal, only to be told it was the terminal to Spain and France and we were the only people the bus had stopped for! oops😊😊 The very kind bus driver put all our things back onto the coach before taking us to the next terminal. Here we got 2 for 1 ferry tickets to
Ryde - Ilse of Wight! As we got to Ryde Ferry Terminal the one and only train was leaving so we walked across the second longest pier in england (stopping and taking photos half way) into the city to Ryde. We found the nearest Tourist information centre, picked up hundreds of pamphlets and booked our accommodation for one night in Sandown, at the recommendation of the very kind lady at tourist information.
We took the 2 carriage train to Sandown, East Coast of IOW, and then had a long walk down to the stunning beach front
of Sandown and our B & B. We strolled around the town, which was like a ghost town as it wasn't summer... every place has 'closed for the winter' signs on them! We walked on the pier and along the beach, even braving the ice cold water😊 We had supper at Caulkhead resturant which was really lovely and then hit a lucky strike as it was CHEESY TUESDAY and the one and only open club...All the 23 year olds were asked for ID as Helen (the young one) breezed past us, but we bought plenty buy 1 get 1 free drinks and danced the night away to some great old school music!😊
Wednesday 20 Feb 2008 Early start to a delicious full english breakfast and jugs of orange juice. We decided to book ourselves in the B&B for another night so we didn't need to carry our backpacks for our day exploring the Island. We had a 2 day bus pass, £15 anybus, anytime. Even though the buses only go
'on the hour, once an hour'. We got to Newport and walked up a muddy hill to the Carisbrooke Castle, it was a long walk, but well worth
it to see the gorgeous Castle which is almost all still in-tact. We Spent about 4/5 hours walking around the casle, the museum, the oldest working well, turned by donkeys that live at the castle and around the massive double moat, a definate must see! We then caught a bus across the Island to see the famous needles in Alum Bay. We joined the crowds walking to see the needles only to be met with so much mist and just an outline of the needles! We did have a good laugh...
Having crossed the entire island in one day, we were a little tired and H and I had learnt a good lesson of always taking takkies on holiday, as we were did a lot of muddy walking! We were so excited to have sundowners on the pier but we all got asked for ID and because Helen didn't have hers they wouldn't serve her... so we tried the next place, who told Helen that she had to be out the pub at 9 when the kids leave because Scruffy Jacks 'their sister pub' had warned them about us four😊! So we had to run back to the
Hotel to fetch the ID to carry on drinking and the 'No 1 for fun' Jolly Sailor.
Thursday 21 Feb 2008 Yummy Breakfast again and then we left our bags with kind Bill and Betty and took the train down to St. Catherines lighthouse. The lighthouse itself wasn't anything amazing, white and boring BUT the land around it was stunning and we took amazing photos around the most southern tip of the Isle. It was a MAJOR walk back up to the bus stop arriving at 12:05 having just missed the 'on the hour' bus. We were freezing and sat on the pavement outside the bus stop to be sure not to miss the next one. Finally getting back to Sandown we collected our bags and headed back to Ryde.
In Ryde we went to watch the
Waltzing Waters, which is the worlds most amazing light, music and water show. After eating cold Mcdonalds as it wan't allowed in the show we got back to Ryde and caught the cute little train to the harbour, the ferry was about to leave, we ran down the ramp screaming and luckily they stopped in time for us to jump
on. We arrived in Portsmouth and with our luck we watched the coach drive away at 6:05 and the next coach was only at 8:10!!! We found a pub close by and had a beer, yummy choc pudding to cheer us up and played some cards😊! Finally on the coach we all slept until Victoria where we said our goodbyes and went our seperate ways!
A
PHENOMINAL holiday and there is a plenty more to see on the Island, we will definately be back in the summer, back for a discount at Bill and Bettys B&B!!
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