The Osbourne House
So today is Saturday, October 17, 2009, and I’ve been here for a month and a half now. As from the other posts, we’ve been to Portsmouth where we got to clamber over the HMS Victory and HMS Warrior. It was neat to explore the old ships, despite the fact that many of us had to be careful not to bang our heads on the low beams.
And we’ve also been to The Globe, where we saw an amazing production of “As You Like It”. I never was much of a fan of Shakespeare, but after watching that, I was in awe. Especially after the scene when Orlando tackles his brother towards the beginning and later when Orlando wrestles the wrestling champion.
Recently, I believe it was last Saturday, we went to the Isle of Wight to check out the Osbourne House. It was beautiful. The hour-long ferry ride didn’t feel very long with the excitement of traveling and soon we were on the Isle. A few of us had the opportunity to take the horse-drawn carriage (thank you Dr. Franke and Gill!) to the Osbourne House which was easily within walking distance. It was a unique experience.
The Osbourne House was huge. We only went through part of it that was open to the public, including the servants’ stairwell, as well as the nursery, the private room of Queen Victoria, the billiards room, and countless others. Throughout the building there were displays of cups and platters, all brilliantly decorated, as well as busts and statues. And the floor design was spectacular, providing it wasn’t covered up with rugs.
Exploring more of the Osbourne House took us outside to check out the walled garden, the ice-house, and the little cabin/house that had been built to give the children a slightly more “normal” feel to life. My favorite part was the fort the kids had built, making their own bricks by hand. Complete with the fort were trenches and two or three play-cannons. I don’t know about Victoria’s children, but I would have spent hours playing in the trenches.
After Osbourne House we took a quick detour to the Garlic Farm. Having been to the Gilroy garlic festival in California, I thought I knew what to expect, but what I found was better. They had dozens of garlic-flavored items from sauces to dips. They even had garlic fudge and icecream. I’m not much of a garlic fan, but I tried the Chocolate Garlic & Chilli icecream. Surprisingly it wasn’t bad. It was a weird combination, since the icecream was cold, the garlic didn’t really have much flavor, and the chilli gave off a burning sensation. (Nick didn’t have the same impression, but he was eating this after he had tried the Dragon’s Breath hot sauce. You’ll have to talk to him, but apparently it was HOT.) Anyway, the icecream wasn’t bad; the garlic fudge was better.
All-in-all, the Isle of Wight was a lot of fun. And considering all that we crammed into one day, we did a lot and had a blast. (I’ll stop here for now, but there’s more still to come!)
