Today we drove to the Isle of Wight. Normally we’d take the train to Portsmouth then hop on the passenger ferry but we decided to give the car ferry a go for once. As it turns out, when you have a car with you, a lot more stuff can be bought at the gift shop.
Brilliantly, the whole day was adventure free. It seems we’ve been having far too many adventures lately. Mind you, it was a close run thing when the ferry back docked at Portsmouth.
For reasons we’ll probably never know, there was some sort of problem behind us on the ferry. The traffic directors, looking all serious, were not keen to let anyone off.
We were in front and, after one fellow signalled that we should remain, another chap said he should let us leave. He then waved us away.
Fearing yet another adventure, we drove off before he could change his mind and out of the ferry park. No other cars followed us. Not for as long as we could see them…which was quite a while.
So a narrowly missed adventure then.
Actually we had a lovely day. We met Sophie and Tom at Osborne House and went on the ground floor tour.
The upper floors are not open in Winter and there are only guided tours. Ours was excellent. A woman dressed in Victorian servant clothes took us around, from room to room talking almost non-stop. She really was very good.
We all learned lots about Victoria and Albert and the fact that there’s no marble in the whole structure of the house. Albert didn’t like spending money unnecessarily so all the marble is fake. Brilliant.
Sophie’s favourite room was the Inside Out Wedding Cake Room better known as the Dunbar Room. I rather liked the Ganesh over the door but otherwise was not keen.
It was then off to Shanklin for a delicious lunch including possibly the best leek and potato soup I have ever tasted. This was followed by a shepherd’s pie and Victoria sponge. All very British; all very yum.
Tom showed me his virtual reality goggles. There are iPhone apps which then run through the goggles – games and just visual – giving you the feeling of being in an alternate space. The roller coaster is superb. I told him it was BTL.
Sadly I only had a glimpse of the zombie one because we had to high tail it to Fishbourne to get our ferry home.
Actually we were heaps early and because the ferries were running late, we managed to land at Portsmouth before we were due to depart Fishbourne. Superb.
