Isle of Wight

I'm suddenly on a roll with updates to the blog. I finally remembered to take my camera around to a couple of events we did this weekend, so it must get the blog juices flowing.

First, we went to the Isle of Wight this weekend. The IOW, as it is known apparently, is a small island off of the southern coast of England. Erin and I went with our friend from work, Honor Smith, the Director of Operations for Hitachi Consulting Europe. The trip involved a 1.5 hour train ride from London to Portsmouth, followed by a 15 minute ferry ride to Ryde on the Isle. We were able to find a nice little hotel in the coastal town of Shanklin. From the ferry we were able to take a "train" to Shanklin. The train was actually a retired London subway car. We were only there for about 24 hours, so we didn't do a ton while we were there. We did, however, have a fabulous meal at The Essex in Godshill. It was a small unassuming restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Not sure what type of food you would call it, maybe European Continental, but it was something to write home about (which is what I'm doing). Apparently Erin and Honor had this chocolate dessert that Erin actually had a dream about that night.

On Sunday we went to Queen Victoria's summer house, Osbourne House. It was a beautiful house on about 3oo acres with a great view of the sea. The most amazing room in the house was an "Indian" room that was a recreation of an Indian palace. It was intricately carved and decorated and very much reminded us of our time in India.

We were also able to watch the England-Ecuador match at a pub in Ryde before heading back to London. Another great chance to learn english chants and cheers as Beckham's penalty shot won the game.

We all really enjoyed the Isle of Wight and would recommend it to anyone.

Ted