It was a cold, wet morning in Freshwater Bay; the sea was rough and angry, so I decided not to make any serious excursions to any outside attractions.
With the weather undecided…
… I went East towards Ryde. There are a couple of attractions there but one I hadn’t visited before was the Roman Villa – an amazing building from the outside…
… inside below the huge suspended ceiling shows the remains of the Roman Villa; its a working site where the uncovering of additional remains continues all time.
From the Roman Villa, and the clearing of the skies (just a little), I drove towards Ryde; one of the larger towns on the East of the island.
The beaches are vast and golden, and seem to stretch for a miles!
Portsmouth can be seen on the horizon, the mainland isn’t that far away…
Ryde is also the home of the islands Ice Hockey team; “Wightlink Raiders”. Sadly I couldn’t hang around to watch them practice, but I took some pictures of others honing their skills.
Ryde is also the home of the Islands Hovercraft service to the mainland; by ferry is a sedate 1hr trip, by hovercraft only 10 minutes – it has to be the Concorde of the cross Solent travel; heck they even have pilots as they don’t actually touch the sea as they travel across the sea.
#1 by Rajesh Pancholi on April 10, 2009 - 12:40 pm
Haven’t been the IoW for years but you brought back some memories from my childhood. Enjoy your time.