isle of wight

so last month we took a trip to the isle of wight, a little island off of the uk, near the france border. my parents had been many times but this was our first trip. after 4 days in london, we took a taxi then a train then a bus then a hoovercraft to the island. it went easier than you would think and picked up a car to use for the week. the neat thing about the island is you can get just about anywhere in less than an hour and most places in about 15 minutes. it is a wonderful mix of coastline and rolling hills dotted with sheep and cows. the weather is usually milder and we enjoyed a mix of sun and rain, sometimes a little of both.

we really hustled on all the trains we took this trip, never had to wait more than a few minutes, never missed a train
quick hoovercraft ride
we stayed in a converted barn, thick walls made it perfect for kids, the neighbors said they couldn't hear us at all

the "house" that the "barn" goes with (gorgeous!!)
so chris was the superstar driver, but i must say it was like mr toads wild ride the whole time. whenever i said slow down, he'd say "sorry sorry!" and my mom would mutter, "i'm not saying a thing" in the back seat. it was hilarious and i seriously had to co-pilot the whole time saying, remember to stay left, stay left!!! he even drove a left handed stick shift! flippen incredible!
inside our barn
perfect for the girls
the best fish n chips on the trip
views around the farm
"our boys"
the cottage said it was a five minute walk to the beach, in reality there had been erosion of the beach trail turning it into an indiana jones adventure that took more like an hour. many scrapes and head bonks and hearts beating out of chests later, we arrived at this amazing beach

there are many thatched roofed houses around the area we were at (shanklin)

we spent many hours watching the cows and walking through their pasture. i'll post more about some of the places we visited, like a real castle and the palace queen victoria lived in.

the REAL roald dahl museum post

ok, so here are the pictures of the actual museum! yay!

enter between these two funny buildings



there is a really cool cafe to the right (i had a fantastic "jacket potato")



inside shots are a bit fuzzy, phone and camera are crappy in poor light and it was raining that day... several museum type rooms with fun and creative stations for the kids



i think liz and emily were the perfect age for this museum



this was the shadow puppet theatre and there were stations to stamp a book you got at the beginning of the tour






characters from the movie fantastic mr. fox (and chris, clowning around)



while the girls colored in this fun coloring room, i walked around to see what other kids had done. there were lots of stations designed to help with story telling and story writing. i thought the combinations were neat (and some naughty, just like roald dahl)









the mother of all coloring rooms, unlimited supplies



there were school children there (dressed in suit and tie, both boys and girls) so we could not hear the story telling session (bummer) but we had fun watching them play. the girls were too intrigued to notice



classic:






view to the courtyard, so nice and clean



surprisingly not much about chocolate, but still a very nice collection of his work. the gift shop was to die for (still pining for a book i didnt buy) and lunch at the cafe "twit"and then a walk through town to the cemetery made a perfect day trip.



hope you enjoyed the tour!!

Roald Dahl museum

so i stumbled onto the roald dahl museum while doing research for our london trip. it had 5 star and 1 star reviews (i hate that!!) so i just took the chance and we went. Wow! so glad i did. just a 40 minute train ride out of london and about 30 bucks for the family ticket and we were in. i understand some of the complaints (we didnt get a to have a visit with the storyteller because school children were visiting, bummer) but the museum itself is really well done. we also spent the day walking around Great Missenden, which was a real treat as well.

talk about a quaint little town!

after the museum visit, we strolled around town and took a walk up to where roald dahl is buried. adjacent to the cemetery was this church that looked like a castle, so many interesting things to stumble on in england. i have never had a dull day trip ever from london. it doesn't take much to amaze me though. this is emily's real true reaction to the castle church.

the houses around town had me daydreaming of my own cottage in a country setting





emily tested out her waterproof shoes (we all had new shoes and they really came in handy for the rainy weather and hiking we did this trip)
perfect name for a house here... i will post more photos of the museum (inside) soon, i had to download photos to our house computer, my portable computer is overloaded and acting strange so stay tuned for much more of our trip!!

london

this was our last day in london...

the pink pelicans at st. james park near buckingham palace. we spent our last day traveling on the tube to see as many of the sights as we could. i loved watching the girls traveling on the trains and buses, especially the double decker buses... how quickly they adjusted to it.












so the isle of wight is next!!

i'm back!!

stay tuned for uk pictures! just settling back in to the daily grind