Where For Once The Oddball “Never Heard Of It And Would Never Think To Visit There” Cruise Port Is A Winner
We didn’t have anything booked for the morning, so we had a leisurely breakfast, followed by a quick lunch 2 hours later (second time it’s happened), and then onto a tender to the Isle of Man cruise ship terminal.
I can say I’ve heard of the Isle of Man, and I knew it was known for the Manx cat (a large domestic cat with a stumpy tail). I had no idea it’s where the BeeGees were born. And also apparently a motorcycle race called the “TT”.
This Isle of Man is an independent British dependency. It has it’s own parliament (the oldest in the world), post office, national anthem, and money. This is the Isle Man flag:
Per Wikipedia: “The triskele (or triskelion) is an ancient symbol originating in pre-Christian Europe. The symbol consists of three curved or jointed segments spiraling from a common center. One version of the triskele, with three human legs, has been used in the coat of arms for the Isle of Man and the Kingdom of Naples.”
“All the early examples of the Manx “Legs” show them running clockwise towards the sun. The Three Legs of Mann motto has been associated with the symbol since about 1300 A.D. “Quocunque Jeceris Stabit” literally translates to “Whithersoever you throw it, it will stand.”
I dunno, I find this image a bit disturbing. Some variation of it is everywhere and on everything.
The original itinerary had us going to Liverpool, but the Isle of Man was swapped in at some point in the last few months. No explanation was given, but the scuttlebutt on FaceBook is that this is International Beatles Week – ergo, Liverpool is already a crowded zoo, and Viking avoids ports that are already crazy busy.
In any case, the Isle of Man seemed like a bit of a consolation prize. But for once, we were pleasantly surprised – the Isle of Man is beautiful and delightful!
The Isle of Man is a tender port, which means we took a little boat from the ship over to the island’s cruise terminal. From there we found our bus and tour guide. What a great bus! It was low to the ground, the seats wide apart, a double-decker for those who have knees capable of climbing up to the domed upper level, and big picture windows. The best bus we’ve had so far!
Our first stop was Tynwald. Not exactly sure why we stopped there, but it was a cute little town with an old church.
At some point, a bunch of people spilled out of the church, which is when I remembered that today is Sunday. {When you’re on a cruise, it’s almost impossible to keep track of the days of the week}.
Back on the bus, we were on our way to Peele. Andy was able to snap a photo of the countryside, which is quite beautiful.
In Peele we encountered our first castle. Andy walked around it in our 20 minute time allocation. This castle is from the Viking era (I think).
It was misting on and off, but the locals didn’t seem to notice. Apparently this is what the weather is like all the time – not too hot, not too cold, random sun and rain throughout the day.
The next stop was Castletown, the original capital of the Isle. Another castle ruin – you might notice the clock has only the hour hand.
There were two choices of things to see – the castle or the oldest building on the island. We split up – Andy took the castle and I took the old building.
This building originally was a chapel, which was turned into a school house. It’s several hundred years old; definitely looks like a school house.
After the school house, Susan was eager to get back to the bus, but she offered to take the group to see something else. She also said just tracing our footsteps was a shorter way back towards the bus, so I went that way. Except once I was back in the town square, I realized I didn’t remember how to get back to the parking lot! Fortunately, a flood of Viking tourists flowed into the square – I followed the crowd upstream until I found the parking lot and then the bus. It was precisely 3:00. But there was no Andy.
Meanwhile, Andy was looking at the castle:
When he came back to the town square, he had no idea where we had gone. Somehow the other Viking tour guides in the square didn’t seem to know where the parking lot was? Eventually he found the parking lot and our tour guide flagged him down.
We were now running just a few minutes late. Apparently this was enough to encourage the bus driver to put the pedal to the metal – we were zooming back to Douglas at break neck speeds on wet, winding roads.
Once back in Douglas at the cruise terminal, we said good-bye to Susand and decided to stay in Douglas for a bit.
We did the ultimate tourist thing in the Isle of Man – we had our photo taken with the Bee Gees.
Then we did a little shopping. I made the mistake of going in a bookstore. The books were so cheap! Close to 50% less than in the US! And they were on sale!
One last look out at the harbor, before we boarded the tender:
Around 7:00, a WWII Spitfire plane flew overhead for about 10 minutes. I managed to get exactly one photo:
That was the end of our Isle of Man adventure for the day.
Tomorrow: Dublin
Maryland Meshugas 