For our second week in England, we were staying in Lymington, on the south coast. James and Lavinia had kindly let us use their English house, which is a lovely three storey townhouse right on the waterfront, and appropriately named The Sail Loft. Lymington is a pretty coastal town, with cobbled streets and lots of interesting shops and pubs.
There's a very active harbour, so there's always something to watch while sitting outside the pub, whether its the local branch of the Lambretta scooter club, or the children catching crabs in their nets. This is the view from the pub garden...
And this is what you see entering Lymington...
Mum and dad came down on the second day, and we took the ferry over to the Isle of Wight - very easy. We turned up with the car 40 minutes before our sailing, and were pushed onto the earlier boat, leaving immediately! 30 minutes later we're on the island.
The place we all wanted to see was Osborne House, which was Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's summer residence, so we went straight there, arriving as the doors opened at 10am. Well, I've seen many National Trust historic houses in my life, but this was far and away the most interesting, stunning, beautiful, and all the other superlative words you can think of.
We learnt a huge amount about their lives from the very informative guides in each room. Most of them stand quietly in a corner, available for anyone to ask questions, but not actually offering any information un-asked. Lew soon cottoned on to the best approach - enter the room, go and park yourself down next to the guide, and say "so, what can you tell me about this room then?"!! I'm sure by the end of the day when the guides get together for their de-brief, the conversation would have been about the Kiwi bloke who asked the most questions!
I think one of the reasons why we enjoyed the house so much was because it was all so personal. Unlike most historic houses that have been handed down through generations, with many differing tastes and styles, additions and demolitions, this house was built for V and A, was furnished and decorated by them, used by them for 50 years, and then passed on to the Government when Vicky died, about forty years after Bert. So everything had a story, a clear history, and gave a great insight into their lives.
So now I've got you interested, bring on the photos..............sorry, no photos allowed inside!
However, here are a couple I've pinched from the internet!
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| The drawing room - not sure about all the yellow? |
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| The Durbar room - check out the ceiling! |
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| The Bird's Eye view |
The grounds were fully of ornaments and sculptures, with a particularly friendly looking wild boar....
And the frequently seen sight of a naked toddler wrestling with a goose..........obviously Victorian children found different ways of entertaining themselves in those days!
Having worked our way around the house, formal gardens, walled garden, ice house, the children's replica Swiss log cabin, and the museum of their collections, plus the private beach complete with bathing machine....it was 3pm. Five hours in an historic property is certainly a record for me, but enjoyed it all, and recommend it highly.
James and Lavinia said we could use their bikes, so after much pumping up of tyres, and raising of seats and handlebars to the max, we pedalled off on the Solent Way which runs along the coastline towards Bournemouth. Quite strange riding without a helmet on, as it's not required in England, but it was all flat walkway or country roads, so soon got used to the wind in our hair!
During our ferry across to the Isle of Wight we had views of Hurst Castle just off the coast.
This was built by King Henry VIII, to protect the coast of England from invaders sneaking up the Solent. It is built on a spit a bit like the Nelson boulder bank, with a stony track leading out to the castle in one direction.....
and back to Milford on Sea in the other direction.
We gamely tried to get out to the castle on the town and country bikes, but had to abandon them about 1/4 of the way out as they weren't up to the challenge.
The castle has obviously been hacked around a bit over the years during various World Wars, so isn't a great example, but the lighthouse was beautifully maintained.
It was very calm on the harbour side, with plenty of small craft anchored up, or coming and going.
Lymington is part of a National Park called The New Forest, but it seems like a bit of a misnomer - the surrounding country was very open and flat, with lots of gorse, which seems to be regarded as an attractive addition to the landscape.....Lew kept saying "they need to get a good spraying programme going here"! However, as always in England, there were plenty of pretty villages with thatched cottages - we stopped at this one to get a closer look at the wildlife on the roof.
A fox and a squirrel, both made out of thatch!
The main "attraction" of the New Forest are the wild ponies, which roam freely anywhere they want, including across the road at inopportune moments...(poor photo, taken from inside the car!)
They are supposedly owned by "commoners" who live in the New Forest, and are rounded up and counted every now and then, but as far as Lew and I were concerned, they looked like a nuisance more than anything else! We saw them scratching on someone's car in the car-park, causing traffic hold-ups on the roads, and leaving large piles of fertiliser outside many garden gates and driveways! However, they've been there for about 2000 years, and as tradition counts for everything in the UK, I'm sure they'll be there for another 2000.
So, after a very enjoyable two weeks, we are now back in Le Thoronet, where it's 36 degrees in the shade every day, and our increase in use of the pool is exponential. We are managing to get work done but only in the mornings, the afternoons are for hiding inside with shutters closed, the fan on, and I have even found that lying on the stone bathroom tiles is the best place for reading my book! Long may it last!
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