Isle of Wight in Pictures

 The Isle of Wight is an island just off the southern coast of England, about in the middle of the coast line.  It is very close to the mainland, and yet, it seems like quite an escape, a whole new world.  Months ago, Stephanie and I bought a Groupon deal for a hotel on the Isle of Wight.  We knew basically nothing about it, but were eager to visit a new place.  On the ferry ride over, Stephanie picked up an Isle of Wight magazine, and that is how we planned our visit.  We made the most of the weekend, seeing some truly beautiful places and enjoying the simpler ways of life on the island!  The locals were incredibly friendly, the technology was a bit behind, many of the buildings had thatched roofs, and the roads were incredibly narrow, all signs of an easier, enjoyable way of life.

The Crab was a pub in easy walking distance from our hotel.  We ended up enjoying meals there both nights.  It was also significant because in our hanging pub sign driving game, it meant that Stephanie got to add 8 legs to her total.  Needless to say, I was never able to regain the lead.

Stephanie fell in love with Highland Coos (yes, coos not cows) when she first heard of them upon her move to the UK back in August, but despite multiple attempts, she had yet to see one in person.  We visited the Garlic Farm, a big tourist spot on the island and discovered that they had Highland Coos on the property!  This was Stephanie's reaction when she saw her beloved coos for the very first time!


The coos, just like cows back home, are very curious, but also quite timid.  They stood at the fence for a good half hour, staring at us, but not really desiring anything else.  We got a brief brush of their wet noses, but mostly enjoyed just talking to the furry guys!


  
After visiting with the coos, we wandered back to the visitor centre only to discover a few birds of prey.  After admiring them, their keepers told us that for a small donation, we could hold the bird of our choosing!  How exciting!  Stephanie chose Spooks, the year-old barn owl.  She was cute, cheerful, playful and quite energetic!

I chose to hold Wolf, who, at 23 years old was quite set in his ways.  He reminded me a lot of a cat.  He knew he was beautiful, and he knew you were trying to take photos of him, but he just couldn't be bothered with all that, and turned his head around whenever possible.  He let me stroke his chest, but showed no real pleasure in it, nor did he act like I was disturbing him.  His keeper told us that he had put himself on retirement several years ago! :)

But isn't he beautiful!

One of the other main attractions on the island is the Donkey Sanctuary where donkeys are loved and cared for.  About 150 donkeys live on this beautiful farm, all are named and well looked after.  They even had a geriatric pen for the old donkeys who got a special diet.

We stopped in the little village of Godshill to have a wander and happened upon this 16th century restaurant where we had a delicious afternoon tea complete with scones, clotted cream and jam.  Afternoon tea must be quite popular on this island, as it was advertised in many places.  For someone who doesn't like tea, I've fallen in love with afternoon tea and was quite tempted to have a second one later on in the day.


I've seen yellow fields all around England as I've driven around, but was not sure what it was.  Stephanie, being from the Pacific Northwest, has seen fields of canola and is fairly certain that's what these fields are.

Overlooking the Needles


We took a boat ride around the interesting land formation known as The Needles.




We enjoyed a quick trip around Carisbrooke Castle as it was about to close, but it was a huge castle with great walls to wander all around.


The ferry ride home after a great weekend!

"She thinks of nothing but the Isle of Wight and she calls it 'The Island' as if there were no other island in the world." - Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

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