Tuesday 10 May 2016

Visiting Ryde

Last Sunday on the Bank Holiday weekend Martin and I decided to go to Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth as it's just a 15 minute drive up the motorway and we ended up taking an impromptu trip to Ryde on the Isle of Wight! I'd been to the Isle of Wight tonnes of time before, but never to Ryde and it was seriously so beautiful and so much fun.

We caught the Catamaran which was roughly a 20 minute journey across the water and it cost us £26.80 (with a network rail card) for a return journey and tickets for the pier train if we wanted to use it. (we didnt, we walked which only took about 8 minutes!)

The Isle of Wight tends to get slated quite a lot by people that live on the mainland as being 'old fashioned and behind the times' etc, but you know what? I really liked it. It was nice walking along through the streets on a Sunday and having the majority of the shops closed and I really liked using cash for things instead of just swiping a card! The internet was also pretty shocking which was fine for me, cos as a work widow it was nice to spend quality time with Martin without him constantly getting distracted by emails! ;)

Anyway I thought I'd take you along in a sort of picture diary of our day type thing!
We were super lucky with the weather so decided to walk along the pier, and the view was amazing. I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't this! I'm sure you'll agree it just looks so quaint and pretty and I was actually pretty darn excited to be there! We turned left at the end of the pier which took us to the road to the beach. Even that was pretty and everyone that walked/cycled past us just seemed so chilled out and happy.

Along the beach front, were the typical tourist type shops that sell a load of tat (I still love them though), an amusements arcade and a bit further down was crazy golf, bumper boats, water zorbing and some other things like that including loads of little restaurants, cafes and the cutest little icecream shop.
We walked even further along, just following the road which took us past the most beautiful lake with some gorgeous houses the other side... I didn't hang around here too long though cos there were too many ducks for my liking! Oh, and I also found Rapunzels Tower... Well, it wasn't actually her tower it belonged to some spiritual healing centre, but I liked to pretend it was. We'll also pretend I didn't run up to it shouting 'babe, I've found my way home!'  There wasn't much to do the other side of the tower, just a little restaurant/cafe, so we headed back the other way and by that point, we'd walked about 2 miles and my feet were killing me because some idiot wore shoes that were too small. Good one Soph!
Lunch was just a quick pit stop in the Harbour Deli Cafe right by the beach! I had a tuna wrap with salad and Martin had a crab wrap with salad. They were ok, nothing sensational and when the cook came out with dirt under his fingernails I did cringe a little. I'd like to think it was an internal cringe but I'm not sure it was ;)

After lunch we decided to stop and play a quick game of crazy golf which was absolutely hilarious! I was beyond rubbish and we took so long, that a little boy actually over took us on the course. My hand eye coordination was shocking and Martin beat me by 10 points. Still, I laughed so much.

As if we hadn't already walked enough, we walked up into the town which was about a 10 minute walk from the crazy golf and amusement arcade. As I said before there was hardly anything open but that was totally cool with me. The town is full of cute little boutique style shops and funky little cafes and in one shop I found my dream wedding dress (hint hint) ;) after that we just made our way back to the boat terminal to go home! 

I absolutely loved my afternoon in Ryde and we've already made plans to go back with the kids cos they would love it there! Next time though we will be more prepared and take cash with us because finding a cash point along the front is near on impossible! 

Have you been to Ryde? What other cute places can we visit this summer?

Love
Sophie x


1 comment:

  1. That ice-cream parlour is the cutest! Great photos! x

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