Some of my holiday pictures - Isle of Man

Photography

Some of my holiday pictures - Isle of Man

Postby Andere Richtingen » Mon Jun 01, 2015 6:06 pm

As promised, here are a few of the pictures I took during my recent travels around the Isle of Man. There's nothing wrong with my cameras but some of these were shot through windscreens, on the move and often in appalling weather so they're not all as crisp as I'd like!

Let's start with the leaving of Liverpool - not quite as famous as the Manhattan skyline but must run it a close second I suspect. This was a sunny morning that had just started to coud over ....
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By the time we reached Douglas, less than 3 hours later, the cloud was emptying out monsoon quantities of rain - just like it did last time I went there. This is a view of Douglas Bay, looking North from the Promenade:
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This is the Hydro Hotel, where the food is highly recommended - should you go there, take loose-fitting clothes because you'll need them by the time you come to leave! The Douglas seafront has hundreds of these Victorian Gothic hotels, many painted in icing-sugar colours and very attractive when the sun shines.
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On the Saturday morning, the sun shone!! Our Transport Trust group had a couple of reserved coaches on the mid-morning train from Douglas to Port Erin and the pilot loco carried our own head board. It's a narrow gauge (36 in) railway and is still running with the original locomotives from when it opened in 1874. We had a 'physical needs break' at Castletown station, halfway along the 15 mile journey.
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One of the lovely people we encountered during our visit was Chris Wedgewood in his steam powered car. When we visited Jurby, he was offering rides in it to all and sundry although, sadly, I never managed to be in the right place at the right time to claim one. I can say, having skipped out of its way several times, it couldn't 'alf shift!
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A little later, we came across Chris doing some running repairs - he said he was clearing a blockage but he may have been communing with his gods ...
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Here's one for Dita - the Manx Superbike on which Richard Barks broke the land-speed record in its class at Bonneville, Utah in 2012 - a mind blowing 203.37mph. I've seen the video and all I can say is - rather him than me! Richard was one of our after-dinner speakers and, together with a couple of his engineering team was very entertaining.
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The next morning, we took the electric railway to the top of Snaefell where it was, very weirdly, both foggy and windy (around 55mph). That's the second time I've been all the way up there and not been able to see anything of the fabled view.
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A couple ofhours later, the sun was breaking through. This was the view from the coast road between Laxey and Ramsey:
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Dita will probably recognise this - the TT grandstand and pits at Onchan:
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A pretty hamlet a few miles outside Douglas:
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This is Peel harbour and castle, on the western side of the island.
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And, of course, the sun shone on Douglas Bay the day we left!
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Andere Richtingen
 
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Re: Some of my holiday pictures - Isle of Man

Postby dita » Mon Jun 01, 2015 7:00 pm

Wow! those pics are beautiful Andere and I would have given anything to have a ride on that bike, its awesome, must say though the Grandstand is a bit bare hardly recognise it. Thanks so much for the memory xx
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Re: Some of my holiday pictures - Isle of Man

Postby Andere Richtingen » Mon Jun 01, 2015 7:18 pm

I think the grandstand looked so naked and folorn because, everywhere we went, preparations were under way for this year's TT season (which started today, I think) - there were cleaners and refurbishers at work around the grandstand and I imagine it looks very different now; likewise, the black-and-white curb-stones were being repainted in many places, those bags of whatever the soft-landing stuff is they fill in some of the corners with were being put into place, and so on.
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Re: Some of my holiday pictures - Isle of Man

Postby vannin » Tue Jun 02, 2015 3:10 pm

More lovely pictures, I remember the I.O.M. from a visit in 1964. We were lucky enough to get the sunshine at the top of Snaefell. But when we went strolling in beautiful Glen Helen, starting off with drizzle, it was very soon followed by fog and we could have got lost in it, had we not scarpered sharpish!

The pretty hamlet - isn't that close to The Devils Elbow?

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Re: Some of my holiday pictures - Isle of Man

Postby Andere Richtingen » Tue Jun 02, 2015 5:00 pm

vannin wrote:.......The pretty hamlet - isn't that close to The Devils Elbow?
Viv


Not too far. I''ve just checked on Google Earth because I couldn't remember exactly where I was when I took this - further from Douglas than I realised, near Ballacraine.
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Re: Some of my holiday pictures - Isle of Man

Postby ciderman_nz » Sun Jun 07, 2015 6:25 am

Thanks for those pics. I've never been to the Isle of Man and it's a bit late in life to expect to, so it's particularly interesting to me. My son went there a couple of times while he was in England running his motorcycle training school, TMT near Swindon.
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Re: Some of my holiday pictures - Isle of Man

Postby Andere Richtingen » Mon Jun 08, 2015 12:12 pm

Glad you like 'em, Ciderman. The only previous time I visited the island, in 2000 it rained solidly for the whole time I was there and I wasn't originally very keen to go back but OH and friends persuaded me. This time, the sun shone occasionally and, when it does, it's like a different place. I can't wait to go back again now. In fact, I'd happily sell up and move there next week if only my spouse would agree.
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