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.

East Cowes Boat Trail

Well it was a beautiful day so we decided to go for a walk. I downloaded the Cowes -East Cowes Boat Trail guide from the council website and we set off. First stop was the floating bridge; this runs across the River Medina between Cowes and East Cowes and is currently free to foot passengers. We got off in East Cowes, found the first knot sign of the trail and set off around the town. The trail led us past the site of the Grid Iron Shed, where the first seaplane was launched in 1913, then on to Trinity Wharf which used to be the dot for lighthouses and buoys. It was also Queen Victoria's choice of landing stage when she came to visit Osborne House. Next we saw the back of Columbine Yard where the hovercraft was developed. On the front of this is the world's largest Union Jack but we couldn't see that from this side of the river.

Around the corner were barracks and coastguard cottages and a giant propeller. There was also a plaque commemorating a local boy who had a fight with Prince Albert, son of Queen Victoria, and who was rewarded by the Queen in return! We didn't get a good look because there were road works and we couldn't get close.  We followed the seafront to Castle Point then had a muddy walk back through the woods, stopped off briefly at the playground (great for munchkins!), and then walked up Cambridge Road to see the shell house; this is an ordinary semi-detached house which has a mosaic on the side of a large sailing ship made entirely of cockle shells. Lovely. My daughter was tired by this time so we pottered back to the town centre hoping for a cup of tea and a sit down. We went into a cafe near the Co-op and were told that drinks were take out only. We left empty-handed and grumpy and went back to Cowes.

We ended a pleasant afternoon having a swift drink in Cowes Ale House listening to 2nd Time Around, a local folk band. We will continue the rest of the boat trail another day.

 

Distance walked: 4.5km

Spent: £2.20