Blogs from Isle of Man, Europe - page 3

I can't believe the sensation of racing motorcycles going full throttle past the grandstand down to Bray hill. Now imagine this: Stand beside your busy interstate or freeway. Not on the shoulder, but on the white line right beside traffic. But instead of vehicles traveling at 120km/h, they go by at over 300km/h! I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start with getting here. Watching them load the ferry from Liverpool is fascinating! It's a rear loading ferry with a ramp system to turn cars around so they can drive around a circuit and not have to reverse off like typical drive on ferries. They installed posts where motorcycles are lashed to, avoiding the tedious task of pull down straps to anchor the bikes to the deck. Alright, back to racing! The Ilse of Man TT ... read more

Right, so I've found a place that rivals rural Wales for its quietness on a Sunday - there is no one out and nothing is open haha. I mean the heritage places are still open, and some stores in Douglas have very limited hours, but wow is it ever quiet. I took the bus to Castletown - on the way I noticed we passed the "Old Horse Sanctuary" which I need to google when I'm back at my BnB tonight. I haven't been horseback riding in forever - I'd very much settle for an hour looking at pretty horses and feeding them. Castletown is quiet enough on a weekday lol, so there was nothing going on today. I wandered along the bay - nothing special, just a lot of Arctic terns and swans which I guess ... read more

Breakfast in a BnB is hilarious just to hear all the old people chatter... even more so considering everyone is British. I think my fav this morning was a wife trying to explain to her husband what a cassowary is - "It's a bit like an ostrich gone wrong." Well... she's not wrong. And God the jokes. Hilarious that is until they started talking about immigration, ahem. Boy do the claws come out and a lot of hatred starts getting spewed... Anyway, on to happy things. Another charming thing about Isle of Man is their heritage in regards to transportation. They still have an old steam train, an electric mountain tram and an electric railway running regular service along with horse drawn trams. Come on now. I took the steam train today - very busy since ... read more

The more I learn about the Isle of Man, the more excited I am to explore about for the next few days. Took a taxi to the dock this morning in Belfast - somehow my name turned into Nellie (which totally sounds like Julie). Which I suppose is better than my boarding pass for the ferry which simply said lol. The taxi driver was very chatty - of course we discussed weather, my next stop on the trip and what I do back home. The usual. The ferry ride was nice and smooth. I took the time to watch some shows on my laptop (Charlie Cox is adorable as Daredevil, just sayin') and just take in the scenery. Today is a splurge day, for I took a taxi from the ferry to my hotel as well ... read more

If I had it to do over again, I’d probably book a hotel room in either Castletown or Peel, which is where I spent a good bit of the past 2 days. Castletown has the tall castle, and Peel has the spread-out one. Castle Rushen in Castletown was open yesterday; Peel Castle opens after Easter. Both of these towns have a charm; some might call it character. Both are immediately endearing. They have much more scenic views, in my opinion, than Douglas. Douglas, though, has more to do than either of these towns, which is why it’s where most people stay, and indeed why the capital is here. But you can get complacent in Douglas. In Castletown and Peel, you can visit for a day, and then there’s nothing else to do but admire the scenery. ... read more