Travel to 'Isle of Wight'

Vast stretches of never ending water on one side and green and yellow farmland on the other side filled our eyes as we traveled through the country side of this serene Island - 'Isle of Wight' in Southern England. It is a world away from the bustling city crowd.

We went on a 3 day vacation from London to Isle of Wight. After a 2 hours train travel from London Waterloo to Portsmouth harbor, we took a ferry to Ryde Esplanade, one of the entry points to Isle of Wight. Though the travel was only for a short distance, the sea and coastal view from the ferry's sun deck was  a spectacular one.

Apart from its scenic beauty, Isle of wight has a number of tourist attractions ranging from theme parks, animal parks to historical places that cater to the needs of all tourists.

Our first trip was to the Needles park at Alum Bay, the most famous attraction of the island. You can get a wonderful view of the needles rocks and the sea from the chairlift that takes you down to the beach. Don't be surprised by the colorful sea near the coast. It is the reflection of the colorful sand of the coastal cliff. We were told that the coastal sand here is of 22 colors. You can take the boat ride from the beach to get a closer view of the needles rocks. After the boat ride, we went to the Needles Battery in the Island breezer open top bus. The view of the sea all around from the bus was intoxicating. If you have time and energy, you can climb to the battery from the park.

The  needles battery is an historical site and the setup was done in 1864 to protect the dockyards at Portsmouth harbor from invasion. You can as well get a breathtaking view of the needles rocks and Alum bay from the old battery. The sky and the sea blended into one and we had a tough time finding the horizon.
True! God's creations are far from man's comprehension!!!

There is also a sweet manufactory, sand shop and glass studio in the park , which we could not cover due to lack of time. Needles park is a great value day out. So, plan to spend a minimum of 4 hrs there.


The next day, we set out to 'Dinosaur Isle' in Sandown. This is basically a research lab, as there were number of Dinosaur fossils found in Isle of Wight. It is converted to an interactive museum for children and students. If you would like to learn about Dinosaurs , this is the place for you. Otherwise, you can spend a maximum of an hour here.

Why would anyone hate to dip their feet in the sea on a sunny day?
Just across  Dinosaur isle, you can see the vast stretch of bay, which is nothing but Sandown beach. It is a lovely place to spend on a sunny day. Though the water was freezing, we enjoyed dipping our feet in water and playing in the beach throwing pebbles and building sand castles. The Sandown pier has lot of fun games for children and adults. As the sun sets, the beach crowd drifts from the beach to the pier.

Would it be fair to visit Isle of wight and not visit any animal park ? Absolutely not !
The Island houses number of wildlife and adventure parks. We chose to visit 'Amazon World' in Arreton , which of course was a good choice. You can find exotic animals and birds collection there, that are normally not found in other parks. We were excited to walk in the Amazon forest environment with the birds flying and walking close to us. The huge Ant eater, Tapir, Capybara and Lemur are some of the animals that drew our attention.

The day turned out to be an adventurous one with dinosaurs, birds and animals of the amazon basin and of course a sunny dip in the beach.

To entertain our 6 year old son, we decided to go to Black Gang Chine on our last day of the trip. It is the only fantasy park in the island and suitable for children from ages 2 to 6. We enjoyed walking through the talking and moving dolls of the mini houses. To name a few, dinosaur land, crooked house, Smugglers cave, Nursery land and Fairy tale castle. But most of  the dolls were very old and hence not much attractive. But we had a good time in Snakes and ladders, water force and roller coaster rides. You can plan for around 3 to 4 hrs in this park.

The return journey in the ferry was also enjoyable, as the sun was shining bright. We reached London around 9:30 pm with hearts filled with the memories of the past 3 days.

Isle of Wight Location :
It is situated in England's South coast.

Getting there:
Travel from London is easy and takes 2.5 hours including the ferry travel.
To reach Isle of Wight from London, you can either go to Portsmouth harbor or Southampton and take the ferries to Ryde or Cowes respectively. If you plan to go in a car, most of the ferries can carry your vehicle.

Getting around:
Isle of wight is well connected by public transportation - the Southern Vectis bus service. But all the places of interest are connected only through Newport, which is in the middle of the island. If you do not have a car, the best place to stay would be Newport, as lot of time will be wasted in getting the appropriate connecting buses, if you stay in any other place. As bus frequency is anywhere between every 10 minutes to every 3 hours, you have to follow the bus timings carefully, to traverse the Island. Single day tickets, 2 day tickets and 7 day tickets are available for the bus service. Family tickets are much cost effective. For 3 days, we took 2 -day tickets  for the first 2 days and a day ticket , which turned out to be 50 pounds. But, a family ticket for 7 days is only 44 pounds. So, check with the driver before taking the ticket. All these tickets are valid in the open-top island breezer services.

Accommodation:

We stayed in Premier Inn hotel in Newport. There are lot of cottages, Bed and Breakfast and hotels available in all locations of the island.

Food:
Most of the places do not have restaurants that we Indians are familiar with, like McDonald's, Subway or Pizza Hut. So, be prepared to pack some ready to eat items. Shanklin and Newport have better restaurants compared to other locations. McDonald's, Pizza hut and Tamarind Indian Cuisine are close to Newport bus station.

Jeffrey Archer's Series of Novels

Believe it or not, I did not get a chance to read a novel until my college first year. A novel given by one of my friends triggered my novel reading craze. ‘Kane and Abel’ by Jeffrey Archer was the “culprit”. The author has a unique style of writing that lures the readers. His stories are a blend of emotions, love, business, politics, thrill and suspense, well enough to attract all kind of people.

‘Kane and Abel’ is the story of two men born on the same day but in different corners of the World. The novel revolves around their childhood and how fate brings them to the same place. Kane becomes a banker inheriting it from his father, while Abel gets into a hotel business. In a turn of event, Abel considers Kane to be his rival and pledges to take revenge against him. The rest of the story is full of plots made by Abel, which is overcome by Kane in an interesting manner. They understand each other only in their last days. The story also talks about their children but the main focus of them is in his next novel ‘Prodigal daughter’.

I loved ‘Prodigal daughter’ more than ‘Kane and Abel’. This has more family touch, emotions and of course politics. Irony in this story is Florentyna, daughter of Abel and Richard, son of Kane fall in love, without knowing about their fathers’ enmity. This has a usual movie touch, though!

The author projects Florentyna as the hero who happens to be a successful business woman and gradually enters into politics and finally achieves her childhood ambition of becoming the highest honor of US president. But Richard wins the heart of readers, especially women by being the man behind her success. ( Bet, all female readers would like their husbands to be like Richard after reading this..!!!). Their joint effort in securing their father’s business gives the readers a tough time to close the  book. The author creates a sympathy wave when Richard, who had been everything to her, does not exist to see Florentyna taking up her Presidential oath.

Inspired by the success of this novel, the author linked his successive novel ‘Shall we tell the President?’ to “Prodigal daughter”. This has less connection to it though, except that the President happens to be Florentyna.

The novel is a full thriller unlike the previous ones.

Couple of FBI agents come to know about a planned assassination of the US president. They have very less information about the people involved in the plot. With just few days left for the planned day and the only clue that a Senator is also involved, the story goes with full suspense until the culprits are captured in the last minute.

This novel is packed with information about US politics and FBI. This is another feature of Jeffrey Archer’s novels that I like.

So, what are you waiting for?? Grab of copy of his novels , if you have not read one..