Happy Easter!
I hope everyone's had a lovely Bank Holiday weekend and made the most of those lovely 4 days off work! To make sure we did, Dan and I decided (very last minute!) to head to the Isle of Wight. I hadn't been since I was 2 years old, so in reality it was my first visit, and I was excited.
We drove to Chichester on Thursday night so that we were nice and close to the ferry terminal, and stayed in the trusty Travelodge before an early start for the 8:30am ferry from Portsmouth to Fishbourne. The ferry crossing only took 45 minutes and I enjoyed standing on the deck watching the Isle get closer and closer, and lots of sailing boats passing by in the wind.
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| Bright and windy on the Solent |
As we arrived so early, we had the whole day to explore, and made sure we did! First stop was
The Needles Park where we enjoyed the views of the iconic Needles rocks, and decided to get the chair lift down to the beach at Alum Bay. Alum Bay is known for it's colourful cliffs and sand, and it was lovely to see up close the purple and yellow tinged rock and look out to sea and the Needles. The chairlift itself was a little nerve-wracking as I don't like heights, but offered great views and was good fun!
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| Yikes! It's steep... |
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| Coloured cliffs |
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| The Needles |
After filling a souvenir bottle with coloured sand in the Needles Park and trying our hand at hook-a-duck and the hoopla, we were back in the car and singing along to IoW Radio back on track with our drive around the coast. We stopped off in Freshwater Bay, before lunch in Shanklin, which was a lovely town and somewhere I'd like to see more of in the future.
Our final stop of the day was
The Garlic Farm where we were unfortunately too late for a farm tour, but still enjoyed tasting the different foodstuffs on offer, and a browse in the farm shop, where Dan picked up a garlic beer to try later!
We stayed in the
Chad Hill Hotel in Sandown, which was a lovely little B&B. Sandown itself was forgettable unfortunately - the pier was tired and there didn't seem much going on in the town itself. We headed to Newport for dinner and although it was nice to see another town on the island, Newport was much like any other English town - Pizza Express, Yate's, and so on. Next time we'll stick to Shanklin!
The next morning we were up early and after a delicious breakfast at the B&B we were headed back to the ferry, and home. It was only a whistle-stop trip, but a lovely one, and I'll definitely be making a return visit to see the things we missed out on, and revisit those we enjoyed.
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| Not exactly typical beach wear but still loving it... me on Alum Bay beach |
