Off to Osborne House today. Both the house and grounds are incredibly beautiful and very impressive. Queen Victoria bought the estate in 1845 as a country residence and retreat. Prince Albert supervised the building of the present house and the architecture was influenced by his love of Italy.
There are some impressive tree specimens in the grounds.
And there are statues dotted everywhere
First of all a visit to the walled fruit and flower garden. When we last visited we left this to last and only had time for a quick walk round so I wanted to make sure I spent some time wandering around this peaceful garden today.
Next a walk round the interior of the house - an impressive boar standing guard marks the visitor entrance
Photos are not allowed in the house (not even without flash!) but the interior is sumptuous with beautifully carved and painted ceilings not to mention the paintings! Its well worth a visit if you are ever on the Isle of Wight as you could easily spend a whole day here there is that much to see and do.
The Terraces
View from the Upper Terrace towards the Solent
I couldn't resist taking a photo of this yucca in flower. We have one in the garden at home and it has only ever flowered once.
There wasn't time today to visit Swiss Cottage, the Museum, Barracks and Ice House as David wanted to visit Ventnor.
Parking was problematic in Ventnor so we ended up at the Botanic Gardens for a cream tea!
This is the Mediterranean Garden which has a population of lizards - none were to be seen today but the sun had disappeared behind the clouds so it wasn't really basking weather.
It was Brian's birthday today so in the evening we returned to the Buddle Inn, Niton, for another meal.
4 comments:
less people at Osborne than when i was there. nice selection.
DON'T GET ME ON PARKING AT VENTNOR!!!
Thanks Pete - Osborne was quieter than when we went last time too although I think it was probably in the school holidays! Actually, the whole island seemed much less busy than usual.
Glad we weren't the only ones with parking problems :D!!!!!
Great pictures of lovely places Caroline :D An island best visited out of the popular times IMHO. Those trees are really magnificent and it sounds as though you really needed much more time ;)
Thank you Tricia. I would like to visit in early Spring or autumn to see if its quieter then. I couldn't believe how busy its always been in June once we were able to go out of school holiday times as I had expected it to be fairly quiet!!
I could easily have spent the day there but everyone else had had enough of gardens and houses :D.
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