Isle of Wight

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Winchester Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It is one of the largest cathedrals in Europe, with the longest nave and greatest overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe.

Exbury Gardens is a famous 200 acre garden in Hampshire, England, which belongs to a branch of the Rothschild family. The Rothschild's house at Exbury is a neoclassical mansion which was built around an earlier structure in the 1920s. We had to have hit the gardens at its peak, as everything was gorgeous.

It worked out great, as we arrived just in time to catch a ferry to Isle of Wight with minimal waiting. We got situated at the Totland YHA, got a recommendation for our Pub dinner, and get a long hike in along coastline cliffs before dark. Tennyson Down is a grassy, whale-backed ridge of chalk which rises to 482 ft/147m above sea level. Tennyson Down is named after the poet Lord Tennyson who lived at nearby Farringford House for nearly 40 years. The poet used to walk on the down almost every day, saying that the air was worth 'sixpence a pint'. - Wiki

Isle of Wight has a fantastic bus system covering the entire island. A very reasonable two day pass allowed us to see a great deal of the island. And it runs exactly on time, so you know where you're at just by checking the schedule and time.

Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Prince Albert designed the house himself in the style of an Italian Renaissance palazzo. The builder was Thomas Cubitt, the London architect and builder whose company built the main façade of Buckingham Palace for the royal couple in 1847. - Wiki

Ventnor Botanic Garden is a botanic garden located in Ventnor, Isle of Wight. It was founded in 1970, by Sir Harold Hillier, and donated to the Isle of Wight Council.



Its collection comprises worldwide temperate and subtropical trees and shrubs organised by region. The garden's unusual climate is more akin to the Mediterranean and enables a wide variety of plants considered too tender for much of mainland Britain to be grown. These grow in the open air, and benefit from the moist and sheltered microclimate of the south-facing Undercliff landslip area on the Isle of Wight coast. - Wiki



Exbury Garden http://www.exbury.co.uk/Explore_the_Gardens.html

Totland YHA http://www.yha.org.uk/hostel/isle-wight-totland

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