Last night I trawled through the tourist guides to see if I could plan my island hopping a bit more; fat chance! but at least I have a list of places I want to visit.
First trip on my list was back to Yarmouth to visit the Tourist Information Centre;
I picked up a tourist parking permit; so I don’t have to deal with the pay & display’s any more.. also just missed one of the many pheasants that live on the island – phew!
From Yarmouth, I travelled back to Fort Victoria in Norton; <bah>. The converted fort has a number of attraction built into the brick arches; a Marine Aquarium, Underwater Archaeology Centre and even a Planetarium!
The aquarium is one of my favourite places; check out these characters I found;
Outside there are great views of the Solent; first pictures show Fort Victoria’s Pier and Yarmouth Pier in the distance.
The Solent has all number of yachts and ships passing the way.
From Fort Victoria I travelled east to Carisbrooke. At almost the centre of the island you can find Carisbrooke Castle, which has linked to a number of royals; it was King Charles prison, Princess Elizabeth to mention a few; but the last royal to live there was Princess Beatrice (Queen Victoria’s youngest daughter) in the late 1890’s
An eventful day to say the least; leaving Carisbrooke, I dropped into Brighstone Village Museum, a small exhibition but a quick break before heading back to the hotel.
… tomorrow Dad is visiting the island for a couple of days… see what happens then..
