Isle Of Wight - Day 1

I with my wife Bhagirathi landed up in London to spend a few months with my son Anand and his wife Mallika. Anand is working in a company and he is based in London. Mallika also is working with an Insurance firm. They have a flat on hire in an area known as the Docklands. It is a beautiful apartment on the banks of the Thames and there is a good view of the Thames from their front room Balcony.(Foto of view from Balcony as alongside).

Anand and Mallika took a few days off combined with their Eater holidays so that we could have some time together. We decided to go to The Isle of Wight, an Island to the South of England and a part of the United Kingdom.

Anand browsed the net and came up with a four day plan from March 31, 2007 to April 4, 2007. He booked two rooms for Bed & Breakfast at a hotel named “The Esplanade” on the Sea front in a place named Shanklin in the Isle of Wight.

Anand’s house is near a station named “Gallions Reach” on the Docklands Light Railway System a driverless train which operates between Bekton and Tower Gateway to connect the docklands to Central London.

We were to take the DLR train to Canning Town and change over to the Jubilee Line on the London Underground from there to reach London Waterloo. From there we were to board a train to Portsmouth Harbour. A ferry was to take us across the sea to the island “The Isle Of Wight”

We took the DLR to Canning Town and changed to Jubilee Line as planned. However when we Reached and boarded the train to Portsmouth Harbour we were told that due to major engineering work along the tracks we were to get down at a station named Guildford from where a bus will take us to Haselmeyer. From Haselmeyer another train was to take us to Fratton and from ultimately take us to our destination Portsmouth Harbour.

*** Jubilee Line Train ***

D L R Train

Inside a Jubilee Train

Hearing this I started wondering whether we will reach our destination properly and how all this changeover was to be managed. However to my utter surprise I found that the changeovers were organized wonderfully well and there was a courteous guide to lead us to the next changeover at each place we were to change and we reached in time in spite of the unscheduled changeovers. The co-ordination between the bus and the train service providers has to be seen to be believed.

We duly reached Portsmouth Harbour and took a ferry from there to The Island and landed at a place called Ryde.

From Ryde we took another Train to Shanklin where our hotel was situated along the Esplande. I was surprised at the quietness of the beachfront. However due to the fact that it was off season the beach was not crowded. It was also spotlessly clean.

The seafront at Shanklin

We arrived at the hotel at around four in the afternoon and we were allotted our rooms. Myself and Bhagi were allotted a room on the second floor and Anand and Mallika were on the first floor. The hotel owner Kevin told us that these rooms were only for that day and the next day morning we would be moved to rooms directly across having the sea view as per our request.

We unpacked and started planning our activity for the rest of the evening. The weather was very good with a chill in the atmosphere. There was a cold wind blowing which made us to wear our jackets in addition to the sweaters we had put on. However coming from the ever hot Mumbai it was a welcome change for me and my wife.

After unpacking our luggage and having had a hot cup of Tea we decided to take a stroll along the excellent sea front. We went around to have a look at the various shops, gaming houses, gardens, mini golf courses for the children to amuse themselves etc along the beautiful Esplanade. As the sun set we went in to the Shanklin town which was on a higher level in search of a good vegetarian hotel preferably serving Indian cuisine.

Luck was on our side and we located Jasmine, a Bangladeshi hotel. Anand was however was very suspicious about the food there since he has had some bad experiences at Bangladeshi restaurants in the UK. However we were in for a great surprise when we were served the food to find that it was very tasty food. We had an excellent dinner and returned to the hotel via the steps leading down to the beach from the town.

Link to the Photos taken on the First day

http://picasaweb.google.com/venkatraman.anand/IsleOfWightDay1LondonToPortsmouth?authkey=fN07rli5lqM

Day 2 Blog Follows