IOW 2017 Day 6 – Steam Railway & Ryde Beach

Hilariously my alarm went off, I set up my camera to film me for a few seconds and then accidentally fell back to sleep. I had about ten minutes of footage watching me sleep. You can see a snippet of that in the opening of my video below that accompanies this blog post. 

The idea of getting myself up earlier went completely out the window but I still managed to put together a little picnic for us to take with us. We were heading off to the Isle Of Wight Steam Railway. It takes about half an hour to get from West Bay to the steam railway.

It costs £29 for a Third Class Family travel ticket. This entitles you to as many rides on the steam railway as you like during that day. There are four stations along the line, the main one being Havenstreet which is where all the action is. We got our tickets at the ticket office and headed straight to the trains.

The girls really enjoyed watching the steam train being attached to the carriages. P2 was amazed at all the steam coming from the train. We then climbed aboard into one of the authentic carriages. It wasn’t busy on the first train of the day and so we was able to have the carriage to ourselves. The girls loved it!

We went up the railway line to see the stations. There is Smallbrook, Ashey, Havenstreet and Wootton. All are the original stations. After that we got off at Havenstreet and headed round to the play area which is right next to the Cafe. The girls were obviously complaining about food once again and this was a great chance to sit in the sun and have some of our picnic. Hubby actually disappeared for a bit and came back with a delicious Sundae ice cream for us to share.

There is so much history to learn surrounding the Isle Of Wight railway. It was a much bigger track fifty years ago and it’s lovely to know that the locals helped to save it and make it what it is today. In the Havenstreet museum, Train Story, you are able to get close to the trains that are being restored. There’s one in there that made the girls shudder and they called it creepy. It honestly looks like it came out of a horror movie but it really shows you what amazing work that they are doing at Havenstreet to restore these beautiful engines.

We decided to break up the train day with a quick trip to the beach. We bundled back in the car and headed for Ryde. Hubby and I took P2 and P3 last year and went on the Swan Pedalos which was so much fun. What I didn’t realise is that there is a beach playground and thank you to Twitter for making us aware of this.

I am not going to lie it was freezing when the wind blew but the girls didn’t seem to mind just me as usual. The playground was fenced off so I made myself a little seat on the beach wall to watch the girls. Hubby took a stroll with P2 to the sea edge but just like last year she hated the little worm imprints in the sand so came back pretty quickly. We had a good hour on the beach, Ryde is such a lovely beach for children with a lot of things going on.

Hubby and I debated with each other whether we should find something different to fill our afternoon with or head back to the Isle Of Wight Steam Railway. This was one of our last full days and weirdly it still felt like we had a lot left to uncover from our time on the Isle Of Wight. The girls loved the trains though and with our all day rover ticket, we headed back to Havenstreet.

We ran so quickly to catch the next train. It was very close and we made it by about a minute. The trains were much busier this time but we still managed to get our own carriage. We did the same journey along the line just as before. This time the girls seemed super cuddly with each other and I captured some lovely photos of them, some of which will be used for my Siblings photo so watch out for those mid-September.

West Bay is a self-catering accommodation site and even though we had bought some basic foods for us to cook after our busy days, we all fancied a McDonald’s. So on our way home from the Steam Railway we stopped off for a sneaky McDonald’s. At the moment it is one of the only things I can guarantee P3 will eat properly and enough to actually fill her up, she used to be such a good eater. The girls were definitely getting a little grouchy from tiredness.

Hubby spontaneously stopped off in Yarmouth. He said that we’d drove past the pier every single day but we hadn’t actually stopped to have a look around. So we paid for some parking in the harbour car park, popped our coats on and braved the blustery weather for an evening walk. I was wearing a dress so that was a little embarrassing every time the wind blew it.

Yarmouth is actually so beautiful. Every town on the Isle Of Wight is just stunning with a real old fashioned feel to it. The pier was lovely and the girls really enjoyed watching the ferry come in. They spent ages waving at each passengers. Yarmouth has some lovely shops and brilliant pubs. One, right near the ferry terminal, was super popular and very busy. I am absolutely gutted we didn’t book a table in one of them to have dinner at some point if I’m honest.

It was bath and hair wash time when we got home. I didn’t want to break our holiday tradition. I couldn’t believe it when P3 didn’t cry at all and P2 only shouted out “help me someone” a few times. I actually really love bath times as it was a lovely bonding time for my girls and me. They had a little bit of YouTube Kids time before heading to bed. I actually think this was the first night I managed to get them to sleep at a decent time and Hubby and I could chill in bed watching some programmes on our iPads!

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.