Isle of Man

Day 2 - Sat 03 Mar 07

Up at 07:30, and downstairs for breakfast, at 08:30 we were heading up the coast road to Ramsey. The first stop was at Laxey, a very pretty little village on the coast. It's claim to fame is the Laxey Wheel, a huge water wheel (the Lady Isabella) that was used to pump water from the mines. We drove up a very narrow road (more like a wide footpath) to the car park at the foot of the wheel to find that it's shut until Easter. Hmm, a quick look at the gate showed a thin gap that a person could squeeze through. So both my sister and I "broke into" the Laxey Wheel to have a quick look around. There is another smaller wheel in Laxey closer to the Harbour.

Ramsey

The road into Ramsey goes down some quite steep hills, and we came across two blokes on a tandem heading down the hill, I tried to keep up with them, but they were breaking the 40mph speed limit by quite a bit! Ramsey didn't have the same sort of feel as Douglas, so we decided to skip it, and head further north to the most northerly point of the island. At Point Ayre there's a huge shingle beach with two lighthouses, and a massive fog horn. After a walk on the beach and getting blown away (it's bright day without a cloud, but a strong wind) , it was back into Ramsey and out of the TT course over Snarfel.

In the afternoon we ended up back in Douglas to do a bit of shopping, and we had a look at the ferry terminal - it's a great bit of 60's architecture - it looks like a crown. Got something to eat at an olde world tea shoppe, were we had a toasted cheese sandwich.. Then it was back to the car, and south to Port Soderick, a tiny inlet that used to have a pub, restaurant, amusements and a walkway along the cliffs. Unfortunately all of these are now closed, but it's still interesting to see the remains of it all.

In the evening we found a very good Indian restaurant right by the quayside, and then saw the eclipse of the moon that was taking place.