fenchurch | Monday on the Isle of Man

We woke up bright and early to the sounds of cows mooing nearby... it reminded me of visits to my grandparents' place (and to my dad's place, nowadays). In fact, the old farmhouse brought to mind the place my grandparents lived when I was a kid... I suspect a lot of the fixtures were from the same era, but there's also something about the smell of an old farmhouse that brings it all back. We had a delicious breakfast of Manx kippers, poached eggs, broiled tomatoes fresh from the garden and toast before heading southward for the day.

First up, was a visit to St. John's to see Tynwald Hill and to read a bit about the history of the Isle of Man (Curiouswombat was right, though, the Hill does look a bit like a giant grass-covered wedding cake), followed by a drive down to Peel and the really cool castle ruins there. We parked at the other end of the town and walked along the waterfront down the castle... they had a really good audioguide tour (informative, but not long-winded) and we learned quite a bit about the history of the place and the evolution of the castle defenses with the changes in methods of warfare. After that we drove down to the southern end of the island to Castletown where we picked up some lunch at a small bakery just around the corner from Castle Rushen, though we gave up on the idea of eating lunch on one of the benches right next to the castle grounds (it was way too windy) and sat in the car (which is what everyone else seemed to be doing, too).

Castle Rushen is apparently the most well-preserved Medieval castle in Europe... I suspect that's because it's been in use, for much of its history, either as a castle, a prison or a courthouse (as parts of it still are today). The audioguide tour took us all around the castle... we got to see the rooms above the entry (where they could drop rocks or shoot arrows down on unwanted visitors trapped in the room below by a portcullis on either side), go on several of the wall walks, see the old banquet hall, the tower room with the old clockworks and walk around the grounds afterward. I really do need to track down some good books on the English Civil War when we get home... we've gotten quite a bit of it from all the places we've stopped and have had fun piecing things together, but I think I'd like to get some of the gaps filled in. One of the really interesting things about Castle Rushen was that it was the last castle to fall to Parliamentary forces (and it had been held, until that point, by a woman -- the wife of the Lord who had gone off to fight in the war).

We drove back up to the north end of the island (finally starting to get the hang of the roads), although we once again missed our turnoff. The night before, there'd been a road crew set up just before the turn, with a light controlling the one open lane... it had apparently been a lot more temporary than it looked! So, our landmark was gone. Fortunately, we were fairly well-acquainted with the wrong road and realized we'd missed the turn... We relaxed at the farmhouse for a bit before heading back south, searching for some place to get dinner. And searching. And searching. We found a few Chinese take-away places, which didn't sound very appealing, but that was about it! We hit the far end of Douglas and turned back, figuring we'd stop back by Speaker and Curiouswombat's place to see if they had any recommendations (since we obviously were just missing all the restaurants for some reason). They'd already eaten, but Curiouswombat very kindly drove us down to a fish & chips takeaway place, then back to her house where we finally able to have some dinner (fish and chips, with mushy peas and curry sauce), quickly checked our email and chatted some more before heading back to the B&B for an early night (since we had to get up around 6:00am in order to be ready for the drive down the Douglas to catch the ferry).