Back To The Fuchsia

The outing we had today was outstanding. It began in a similar fashion to a past one. On the steam train and off, but on past Castletown to the present capital of IOM, Douglas. Douglas is not particularly charming. It's a working town.But that's OK because we simply needed to get across town to the electric train. This we did by horse drawn tram.

We piled aboard and Kewin gamely hauled our substantial combined rear ends along the two miles to the electric train stop. I'm not suggesting anything, but Charles had to take over about half way.

It worked out well because we had time for a pleasant visit to a pub before the next stage in the trip clattered into the stop.








This is a single electric rail car that passes up and down the east side of the island.  If no other outing took place, this trip made our visit here worthwhile. The track rises quickly as you leave town and it follows the sea. The homes along here are beautiful and have stunning vistas.

One feature of the island that we love is the profusion of fuchsia hedges just like we saw in Ireland 3 years ago. As the train moved along, the views were regularly underlined by glorious red.

We passed through a few small villages along the way including Laxey. This was a mining town in bygone days. And part of the energy supply for the mines was the largest water wheel in the world. It's still working today.

The northern terminus for our trip was the second largest town here called Ramsay. It's a quaint little burgh with twisty streets. The Tasty Bite Cafe provided baps and the town provided tables, so we sat in the sun, and coronation chicken and local crab provided the strength to carry on. 

At this point John and Von decided to spend the time exploring the village and we decided to walk about 2 k out of town to The Groves Rural Life Museum. 

In 1839 Mr Gibbs, a successful shipping guy, happened to see a small house and some land on the island that he felt would make a pleasant summer retreat for his family from disease ridden Liverpool.  Over the next two years he added on to the original building and ended up with this.

It is not at all huge. But is a very nice home away from home. He had a largish piece of land around it and liked to be a gentleman farmer when he could. 

The furniture is original to the owner. Two of his granddaughters were asked, and agreed, not to marry, but to stay in the home and care for it. They did and the second one died in 1971 after turning the place over to the Manx Historical Association.

They were active members of the community and were enthusiastically courted by different chaps. But maintained their trust until the end.

It was a very pleasant day and we made our way back to Port Erin by bus. The colds that have been with us both are still returning at the end of each day and so we were soon to our beds.