Staycation Day 1

For the penultimate week of the summer holidays we have decided to be tourists at home. My daughter is organising it. The rules are simple; I shall buy each of us a weekly rover ticket for the local bus and provide picnics, and she will have a budget of £20 per day to pay for entry tickets etc. She has been advised to come in under budget each day! We will explore this beautiful Island of ours with renewed eyes hopefully.

 

Day 1: Cowes

We struggled initially to find anything to do as the local museum was closed and we didn't want to go shopping or spend the day in a pub. However, we found the 'Boat Trail' which took us from the floating bridge and through the town pointing out interesting things along the way. For instance, we started off admiring the Ratsey and Lapthorne building, noted the crane in the old shipyard, found the building where the old headmaster of Rugby school lived, saw an old jewellers, wandered past a pub where smugglers reputedly hung out, pootled past the Royal Yacht Squadron, then up the hill and up Nunnery Steps and into Northwood Park.

 

We stopped in the old putting green and had a picnic. This was pleasant as it wasn't too warm, and we were surrounded by wildflowers. There was lots of insect life too. After lunch we wandered over to St Mary's Church and searched around for a couple of geocache's and completely failed to find them! We had tried this at the floating bridge too (East Cowes side), and failed there also. To be fair we had no idea what to look for or even how to do it really. It was fun trying however.

 

In the park we bumped into some chums so the kids went and climbed trees and shrieked a lot for half an hour, then we finished the boat trail. Last on the list was St Thomas of Canterbury church, one of the earliest Catholic churches to be built after the reformation apparently. We did a little shopping then popped home for a cuppa, walked to the doctor's, then had a quick stroll in Northwood Cemetery. Very pleasant. Back home, a high speed tea then we caught the bus to Newport and watched 'Hercules' at the cinema. The storyline might make Greek mythologists wince, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Lots of action, dry humour and one or two chaps wandering around rippling their muscles!

 

Budget:
Two cinema tickets £12.20
Snacks £5.38
Change £2.42

Bus fare: two half price (I get student discount) 7 day freedom tickets at £12 each.