Friday, 10 June 2011

ABC Tour – Castle, Countryside

WEDNESDAY

The weather here has been pretty good, but it had still been grey and breezy.  The sun finally made an appearance on Wednesday evening for a little while.  Thursday morning was once again grey.

We decided to have a day at Peel, which is on the other side of the island, and after Castletown, is our favourite town on the island.

There is a working harbour with lots of fishing boats.

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There are also lots of pleasure boats.

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The streets are crooked and narrow.

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We had a lovely lunch in a little cafe.  I had lamb cutlets and veges.  It was such a wonderful meal to find on a menu.  While we were there the sun started to come out.

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We went to have a look at the exhibition to celebrate 100 years of the Mountain Course at the House of Manannan.   You can get a multi site pass for all the main Manx tourist sites at a reduced price.  We weren’t going to worry about it this time, as we have seen most of them before.  However, we discovered that our National Trust membership gets us in, as does English Heritage membership. What a bonus.  Therefore, as it had turned into such a beautiful day we went over to Peel Castle and just had a wander around in the sun.

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It is a truly beautiful place.

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Next stop was  an ice cream, sitting by the beach, watching the world go by.  It is actually a lovely sandy beach and there were quite a few kids were having a great time playing in the sand.

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It was beautiful looking across the bay

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We ran into some friends in Peel and took them for a ride down the coast road towards the south of the island. Just gorgeous.  This was the first day that we had actually seen the sun and felt warm.  The island was looking its very best.

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Then it was time for the evening’s practice session.  Our friends hadn’t watched from a really fast spot as yet, so we took them to the bottom of Bray Hill, not far past the start line.  The bikes come flying down a steep hill then have to take a right hander and disappear up the next hill.  It is an awesome spot to watch from and amazingly fast.

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The start of practice was delayed due to a traffic accident and the sidecars came out first.  Unfortunately, during the session there was an oil spill and the rest of the evening’s practice was called off without the solo bikes even getting on the road.  This is really making it difficult for some fellows to qualify for the racing next week.

As we got home early we went for a walk around Castletown in the lovely evening weather.  These photos were all taken between 9.30 and 10.00pm.

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 MH Thursday Peel & Practice 110

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More soon.

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