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Post by tod2 on Jun 29, 2012 12:04:08 GMT
A nostalgic Journey Back in Time on The Isle Of Wight. Monday 14th May to Friday 18th. We haven't visited the Isle of Wight for over 30 years. Even though much has changed in the British Isles, somehow this quaint island has stood still in time . During the late 1960's my husband lived on the island for 6 months. This will be our third visit together. We closed our apartment door in Paris for the last time this morning and took a bus to Gare du Nord and the Eurostar to London. I thought seriously about taking a ferry across to a port on the English coast and then zipping across the Solent to the IOW. However, this would have taken much longer than via London. From St.Pancrass station we had to first tube it to Waterloo where the train to Portsmouth departs. From there it's a short 20minute ferry to Ryde Pier Head. There a little train takes you on a short 5min journey along the pier, into Ryde itself. The little station at Ryde The "wedding cake" type of hotel buildings on the seafront in Ryde. I had booked car hire from Sandown and to get there a small 2 coach old tube train trundles along from the Ryde Pier to various towns. We are met at Sandown station by the car hire company and taken back to their offices to complete the paperwork. Sandown Station The following days were a blurr of journeys across the IOW from oneside to the other. Even several times a day! Because we drove through so many little villages and towns in one day I am not going to try and remember where we were in all the photos, but I'm sure those who have been there will recognise the scenery. The road to our cottage Through into the old walled garden. Our cottage in the walled garden of Appuldurcombe Caravan Park. The famous Winkle Street More to come....
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Post by nycgirl on Jun 30, 2012 4:29:23 GMT
Those lambs are too cute!
Lovely photos, looking forward to more.
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Post by tod2 on Jun 30, 2012 5:57:21 GMT
Nycgirl, thanks so much. Getting there and leaving for our next destination took an entire day of travelling each way, so we only spent 3 full days on the island but because it's so compact, saw a lot.
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Post by tod2 on Jul 1, 2012 8:17:12 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2012 10:29:16 GMT
This is all so lovely and quirky. Well, at least it looks quirky to me, but I assume and accept that when the English come south across the Channel, they find France just as quirky. That's a very small hovercraft on the port in the very first photo. I don't think I've ever seen one so small. I have only taken the huge ones that used to link Calais to Dover as well as the ones that linked Hong Kong to Macau -- all of those were for more than 1000 passengers, it seemed to me. Those jutting windows on the high street seem to indicate that everybody wanted to be able to peer at who was coming up the street -- on that point at least, the small town English and the small town French are exactly the same.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 1, 2012 13:49:36 GMT
Oh, Tod ~~ this is wonderful, despite the fact that I now have "When I'm 64" running through my head! I had no idea it was so genuinely quaint, having an idea of a cute core with a standard messily modern everywhere else. No wonder you all wanted to go back. How did your husband come to live there for a half-year? It's hard to imagine that it's a hotbed of job opportunity. Really, this is absolutely delightful, & it doesn't look as though you all were overrun with tourists. Sorry -- guess I'm gibbering a little, but this is heady stuff for a romantic anglophile such as I.
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Post by nycgirl on Jul 1, 2012 14:26:02 GMT
This sure is a beautiful place. I love the shots of the pub, the cottages with the thatched roofs, and the gorgeous coast.
Didn't Dickens live there at one point? Did he write any stories set on the island?
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Post by mich64 on Jul 1, 2012 16:17:31 GMT
What a lovely place! It must have been so relaxing after some busy days in Paris. I can imagine myself with a book lounging in many places you show in your photos.
What are all the sheds along the ocean side? Are they some sort of cabana/change room? The all look so well cared for and I love the colors.
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Post by tod2 on Jul 1, 2012 16:26:56 GMT
Thanks for the comments everyone. Nycgirl - I don't know about Dickens, but I do know that Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote many poems there and I will show you Tennyson's Down in a photo. The other famous character who lived there was George Bernard Shaw. As a matter of interest the family friend of ours knew Shaw, and told us he thought him a bit 'mad'. One day he saw GBS in a traffic jam in a particular little town, and saw him abandoning his car, leaving it in the middle of the road and walking off in a rage!
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Post by tod2 on Jul 1, 2012 17:20:19 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2012 17:34:14 GMT
As I think I already showed in another report, the crumbling chalk cliffs are identical on both sides of the Channel. That would imply that the Channel started out as a little ravine -- and the sea did the rest of the work.
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Post by tod2 on Jul 2, 2012 11:07:53 GMT
I think that is what must have happened millions of years ago Kerouac. The island advertises itself as one of the most 'fossil' inhabited places. We tried to book a fossil hunt but it was not available at the time we were there. I did however bring back a chunk of chalky rock - I can compare it to the one I brought back from the chalk cliffs on the south coast of England. Isle of Wight Continued.... One of the reasons we made this trip back after 30 years, was to revisit the old house my husband stayed at, and that we had visited on two other occasions since, my son having celebrated his 2nd birthday there. Also to see who was living there, now that our old friend had passed away some 25 odd years ago. We drove up the lane and walked up the entrance steps. The house - one of the oldest on the Isle of Wight with a 13C window. We were met by the lady of the house who graciously gave us a tour of the internal alterations made since they moved in 22years ago. To our surprise and hers, we discovered that she was the daughter of our old friend's doctor! She and my husband met all those years ago when he had dinner at the doctor's house one evening. The Dr. is still alive and into his 80's. He has written a book (one of many) on the island and the house, called Chale Abbey. Then - My husband at 21 yrs of age. A self photograph using a tripod. And now...my husband at 66yrs, sitting on the same step. My husband lived in the house with our old friend as an extended holiday. The old gentleman returned to his home every 6 months and spent the other part of the year in South Africa. He died in South Africa at the age of 94 and his ashes flown home and scattered on his lawn at Chale Abbey. So I guess you can say - he's still there.. He never married. Was one one of 9 children and not one of them had off-spring. Stranger still, is that he was about 10yrs old before he saw the sea for the first time. Times were grim in his youth but he aspired to becoming the island's biggest road building contractor. I was fascinated by this church with a thatch roof. More rocky cliffs. One afternoon we visited a farmyard cafe` for a spot of tea & cream scones. They had three rosemary bushes:each had a different colour flower. Down on the seafront a restaurant had these 'pirates' hanging about... Across the downs. That's it for the Isle of Wight. Now to move to our time in wonderful London!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2012 14:03:49 GMT
This just keeps getting better and better. I don't see why you bother with boring old Paris (or London) when you can visit places like this.
The 'then and now' photos of your husband are great. The vanity of young men knows no limits, because we have all tried to take the perfect portrait of ourselves (with no witnesses around to call us vain) at that age. Apparently your husband succeeded.
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Post by nycgirl on Jul 2, 2012 14:07:16 GMT
Love the then and now photos of your husband. (He sure was a handsome, lanky young man.) It must nice to revisit a special place after so many years.
The landscape, from Tennyson's Down to the Needles, is lovely. Thank you for taking us on this tour.
Can't wait to see your next adventure.
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Post by bjd on Jul 2, 2012 14:25:56 GMT
Despite the falling-down cliffs, it looks like a beautiful place to walk along the coast. Has the island deliberately been maintained to look a bit old-fashioned, or is it just that it stayed that way? Were there a lot of tourists? When I was young and hitching around Europe in 1970, one of the places to go was the rock concert at the end of August. We never in fact got there, but reading about it here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Wight_Festival_1970I realize I missed something.
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Post by mich64 on Jul 2, 2012 15:37:23 GMT
I agree with Kerouac Tod, better and better. What a fabulous trip this has been so far. How wonderful that the new owner of the home invited you in for a visit.
A couple of months ago the original owners of our home stopped by to have a look with their son who was visiting from Calgary. They thought that no one was home so they came down the hill to have a peek but Jebidiah spotted them and barked to let me know someone was here. I went and introduced myself and invited them in. It meant so much to them because they had to transfer across the country for his job and were so sad to leave the house not finished and always wondered how it turned out.
What a neat picture of your husband then and now!
The church is quite different with there being a thatched roof and also no steeple.
Can not wait to see what is next!
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Post by tod2 on Jul 2, 2012 16:48:28 GMT
Mich - you asked about those brightly painted little 'sheds' - they are bathing huts - used to change into your swim costume and store your stuff for the day. I think these could be for hire, not privately owned like some are, but could be wrong on that point.
Kerouac - that photo was sent to me as a reminder of his ardour ;D We were only boyfriend and girlfriend at the time. We met on his 19th birthday and the rest is history. Married in 1970. You mentioned the Hovercraft - that had just come across from the mainland so I guess they are using smaller craft these days. I did go in a bigger one many years ago. They now have a boat called the Red Jet which crosses in 10 minutes. We took the cheaper ferry option which crossed in 20min.
bjd - Glad you are home safely - I hope it was a pleasant flight. The island is very old of course, being occupied by the Romans. There are delightful mosaic floors to be seen from that period but we didn't go there this time. Alongside ancient ruins are houses and buildings from pre-war to what looks like the 1950's. Of course there are later buildings but not many. It is also called 'The Garden Isle' and is a great holiday destination. We did notice however that the coachloads of tourists were all grey/white haired men and woman of our age and older! We were there out of the main holiday season which I think starts June/July/August. There was not much going on in the coastal towns. But then the weather was cold-ish, but we did see two men swimming one day. They have had rock festivals over many years - don't know if they still do. The Isle of Wight is also a principle garlic growing region.
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Post by htmb on Jul 2, 2012 18:28:55 GMT
I'm just skimming though this feature for the first time since getting back from Paris and your photos are stunning, Tod! I'm looking forward to spending some time reading all the information you've written. Absolutely beautiful!
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Post by lugg on Jul 2, 2012 19:56:32 GMT
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Post by patricklondon on Jul 5, 2012 5:58:31 GMT
They used to joke about announcing to new arrivals on the ferry that they should put their watches back 50 years.
And I just about remember it as it was in the 50s, when we had family caravan holidays near Sandown a couple of times, in what I recall as very hot summers, on one of which our dog insisted on dragging us further down the beach - and not long afterwards a great chunk of cliff dropped on to the beach, not far from where we had been. Of course, it suffered as badly as any other smaller seaside resort when the boom for package holidays abroad started, and like a lot of other places its tourist market tends to be towards the older, more traditionalist, and possibly less well-off; but it has a strong appeal to people who sail, who tend to be quite well-off (the annual Cowes Week regatta is part of the traditional high society "season"), and there are quite a few upmarket hotels and other facilities.
To be really old-fashioned, try reading (or re-reading) the scene in J. Meade Faulkner's Moonfleet, set in the well at Carisbrooke Castle.
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Post by joanne28 on Aug 20, 2012 2:10:29 GMT
Tod, how wonderful. I'm starting to plan next year's trip. I go to London once a year for a couple of days of meetings etc and we essentially build our holidays around my trip. This past March I spent a week in a cottage in Penzance. I adore Cornwall - it is where my heart is. I've been there three times now and each time is better than the last.
But I also have a huge soft spot for islands and have been considering the Isle of Wight for some time. It looks absolutely wonderful.
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Post by tod2 on Aug 20, 2012 12:32:53 GMT
Joanne28 - If I tell you that there are more wonderful places to see on the island than the ones I photographed - I WOULD NOT be lying! This was our third visit so never went to the main attractions(besides The Needles). Blackgang Chine, Godshill, Cowes and a huge list of other places. Please research it well, and because it is so small, one can see it all in a mater of days! If you want cheap car hire let me know - I found a good deal. They even met us at the train.
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