IOM - the first few days

During the first week of the Classic TT, the practice laps are only run in the evening, leaving us time to visit the island during the day.

Every year the village of Port Erin holds a commemorative day to honour those who fought in the two World Wars.  These  lovely ladies were singing all the old war time songs.

 Everyone watching sang along and you could see the glint of memory in the eyes of the more senior attendees.

We went back to our old haunt, The Station Pub for a bite of lunch to try out their new menu.

My chicken wings were quite good, but many were missing in action.

Ken tried their open faced club sandwich

....tasted pretty good according to him!

It has been particularly foggy over the past few days, which is not unusual for the island, but offered some interesting photo ops!

The sky also offered a pretty dramatic tableau

With practice cancelled, the only thing left to do was go back to the cottage and and give some loving to the resident kitties!

Yes, his father was Manx, so only half a tail!

 Let's hope for some better weather soon!

Good Bye Isle of Man

Two weeks fly by really quickly.

With the races, nature walks and museum visits behind us, all that was left to do was take a stroll on Port St. Mary's beach....

......and have our farewell dinner with our IOM friends, 

Barbara and Eric, owners of  West Lodge BnB.

We met up at The Station Pub in Port Erin

  After lots of laughter and hugs goodbye, 

we left the Isle of Man in rainy weather....

....and arrived in Manchester to an equally rainy day!

 The only thing that consoled me that my holiday was over, was a perfectly delicious lamb shank....

...and a warm brownie with cream sauce.

Good Bye Isle of Man....see you next year!

Will it rain or be sunny?

Our IOM friend, Neil, whose house we had dinner at last week, 

is a meteorologist.

As we are all fascinated by weather, he invited us up to the Meteorology Office at Ronaldsway Airport in Castletown

 to show us his 'tools of the trade'.

 It takes years of training to be able to understand 

what all the screens mean...

....all I see is swirling clouds.....

It isn't all pictures, though......plenty of numbers too.....

Thanks, Neil, for showing us around and patiently answering all our questions.  But I do have one more.....will it be sunny tomorrow????

Off to The Station in Port Erin for 'shrimp and chips'

Up next: a visit with the kitties at the Mann Cat Sanctuary

Isle of Man, Here we come!

It is that time of year again, for our annual pilgrimage to  

The Isle of Man to enjoy the island and spectate at 

the Classic TT and Festival of Motorcycling!

First stop, dinner at the airport before embarking on our 24 hour journey

We had to get in our last Canadian fix....poutine

 ...and a cheeseburger

We arrived to a rainy, cloudy day!

and were greeted by "Barbie' having a bath.....

....at our favourite B and B: West Lodge in Port Erin for the night.

We had a fabulous view of Bradda Head

We headed to our favourite Restaurant, The Station for dinner.  Ken had his favourite, 'The Station Stack'; chicken, bacon and pineapple all topped off with cheese

I opted for the special; linguine with seafood and garlic bread

Port Erin was a favourite holiday spot at the turn of the century

The next day we headed to the cottage we rented, in Port St. Mary.

The Bay was lively with the waves crashing up on the promenade.

We are looking forward to exploring more of the island...... 

 

Back to The Isle of Man...

It is hard to believe that it has been a year since I visited this charming island.  It is just like coming home...meeting up with old friends, eating at my favourite pubs and getting the opportunity to show the island off to my visiting Aunt.

Our first day started off with a trip down to 

the Calf of Man to take in the views.....

as well as a jaunt around Cregneash, a preserved historic village.

Sighting of the local 4 horned  Loaghtan sheep....what a handsome fella!

Since the day was starting to clear, we headed up to the top of Snaefell mountain by way of a 1865 electric railway

Such a clever design on the cappuccino.....The Three Legged Man!

As we are here for the Classic TT, we felt it was a fitting tribute to visit the statue of Joey Dunlop, 26 time TT winner who tragically was killed during a race in Estonia.

Adorning the mountain was this artist's rendition of the local sheep.

A quick visit to Laxey to meet up with Lady Isabella...

...a walk through the mines...

... and admiring the source for the waterwheel.

 First dinner out......salmon pasta at The Station in Port Erin.....yummmm

Nighty night...