16-Feb-2022
So, as planned, we're now on the Isle of Man. We've not been here since 2018, our 2020 visit having been cancelled for reasons I'm sure you can guess. I'm really happy we've made it this time.
On Monday, we packed, and loaded up the bears:
It was a rainy trip to Preston, where we'd decided to overnight. We have been extraordinarily lucky with the weather so far this winter. Storm Arwen kept us in one day, but Barra largely passed us by, and Corrie was so imperceptible that I had to look her name up. But bearing down on us in the next couple of days are Dudley and Eunice, whose lovable names sound as though they're entirely inappropriate.
So we also used our stop in Preston to upgrade our boots and waterproofs at Go Outdoors...
Yesterday (Tuesday) morning was foul. Way too foul to want to risk your new waterproofs out there...
Fortunately, though, the sea was not too rough.
Heading onto the car ferry that takes you from Heysham to Douglas. New to us were the security checks before boarding, where you have to open your boot and engine compartment for inspection
Hardly anyone saw fit to wear masks on board, so we're crossing our fingers that we didn't carry covid away with us from the passenger lounge.
Before you exit the terminal area in Douglas, you have to show your QR code (which you get in advance, once you've submitted your vaccination certificate to the authorities) and some photo ID, and then you're off.
We had an easy ride to Lower Foxdale, where we're staying in a spacious and very well-equipped Airbnb.
It was dark when we arrived, so these pics are today's. This is the view from our Airbnb parking spot
And just behind where we park, there's a footpath that has to be explored very soon...
Today's weather was not ultra-promising either, but after two low-stepcount days we really needed to walk. So we headed for Douglas, did a lap of the promenade, and acquired some key items like a parking disc and a Manx Telecom SIM.
The little-known fourth Bee Gee, Douglas prom
The wind was barrelling into the west of the Island, so we decided we'd do our shopping in Peel, and take the opportunity to suss out the sea.
Peel, my birthplace. I love its narrow little streets
At the castle end of the promenade, near the footbridge to St Patrick's Isle and the breakwater (the footbridge that never existed when I was a kid -- the options were to walk the whole way round, via the top bridge, take the little row-boat ferry when the tide was in, or walk the rickety plank bridge when the tide was out) -- anyway, at this point, opposite the erstwhile gathering place of old men that was known locally as "spit corner", there's a little fish stall.
"Kipper baps," we exclaimed, as one. Kippers are quintessential Isle of Man fare, and no visit is complete without several. We ate them in the car, looking out over the wheeling seagulls and the streaming sea-spray. Absolutely delicious.
We've decided that henceforth shopping day will also be fish stall day... Five minutes here, and the little traditions are establishing themselves already.
And after that, we shopped, and Dudley started to rise, and our cosy sitting-room seemed a very good place to be:
The bears look out onto the storm