Visit to Queen Victoria's Osborne House

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We are being so very lucky with the weather. Lovely today and more blue sky as the day went on but not the intense heat of last week so really very pleasant.

We headed straight for Osborne House in East Cowes. This is English Heritage and I had prebooked and used a discount code given me by next motorhome along.. with a 2 for one offer. Worked beautifully and very definitely cheap at half the price.

An absolutely beautiful visit in every way. The house, both interior and exterior is a delight to the eyes. The rooms are wonderfully decorated, as befits a Queen's residence with fantastically ornate ceilings and paintings and exquisite ornaments and furniture. Throughout the house there are nude statues, it seems Albert was very fond of those.

Outside the gardens of the terrace are stunning and the sandy cream coloured buildings a superb backdrop with a most distinctive Italian style. The camera had so much fun.

We had lunch in the gardens and then walked down to the beach, Victoria's private beach complete with bathing cabin. A few people were swimming in the sea which was temptingly warm so I paddled. It was quite a walk down from the house and we knew that if we went downhill it was going to be uphill to get back and sure enough it was. Quite a lot further round too as we went by Swiss Cottage, which was built for Victoria and Albert's children as a super sized playhouse complete with gardens which they tended. Again delightful.

Back then to the house and the walled gardens. Always worth a visit.

Then back to Smart Arse, a quick stop at Waitrose for some food essentials and we decided we had walked quite far enough and it was time to go back to the campsite, just stopping at the way at a tempting thatched pub for a drink in the sunshine.

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