Today was our first full day on the Isle of Wight. In the morning, we had a nice, light breakfast provided by the Ellis’. She gave us a lot of bread. Haha. First place we had on our agenda was the Osbourne House. This place was on the north part of the island and was the summer home of Queen Victoria. It is a pretty big property that goes all the way to the coast and has a main mansion and a side playhouse. That was the area that we went to first. Apparently that was where all the royal family would play, so they recreated the area to look just like it did when they were living there. Next we checked out the main house. It was decorated to be just like it was back then. It was really cool to see all the original artwork that was there. They even had the room that Queen Victoria died in, decorated just as it was, but no dead person. 😛
After that, we headed down to Ventnor. The main draw of going down there was that it is a really beautiful coastal town, with a really windy, narrow road. Haha, I remembered it from my mission and wanted to go down it again. Anyway, when there, we checked out the beach first. The beach was really unique as the sand was actually a bunch of small pebbles, which made the sound of the beach washing up against it really awesome.
The main thing that I was looking forward to in Ventnor was a place where we were going to eat proper English roast. Ang hadn’t had one yet, so I was excited for her to experience it. Oh. My. Goodness. It was soooooo good. The people there were great. The food was amazing. And because of the location being right next to the beach, the view was awesome too. Just look at the pictures.
After that, we started making our way over to the Needles on the west end of the island. While driving, we made a stop at the Isle of Wight Pearl. Basically, the place is where you can buy pearl jewelry. I think their claim to fame was making some dresses for royalty. It was cool to go there and look at all the items they had (and to guess what Ang would choose :P). We got some good chocolate there too. After that, we resumed our drive to the Needles.
By the time we got to the Needles, it was a little bit later in the day than we were hoping, but the plus side was that we didn’t have to pay for parking since it was near closing time. However, they don’t close the hike out there, so we were still able to do that mile-long hike to the point. The Needles are a set of rocks that stick out from the ocean and one even has a  lighthouse on it. There is a lot of history to that place in regards to WWII. It was the location by which the armed forces monitored the D-day launch from Portsmouth Harbor. When I went there on my mission, there is a cool museum area and outlook, but it was closed by the time we made it to there. It was also the location where the British would do top-secret missile launch tests since the location somehow kept the sound of the rockets carrying out across the ocean. The ruins of all that are still open to hike through, so we went there, admired the views, and took pictures. As an aside, there were a bunch of rabbits on that hillside, which was strange.
After that, we drove back to Newport to meet up with the Kreibergs. Alex Kreiberg served in the same area as I did in England, so it was fun to visit with him and his wife and catch up on all the memories. We also got kebabs for nostalgia’s sake. It was great seeing them again. After that, we went back to the Ellis’ home and hit the hay.
