Doing the Isle of Man touristy thing

Visiting a new location, we wanted to take time to see the sights and get a feel for the island. We are not into this “OK, tomorrow we must head for x” kind of cruising. Peel seemed a bit like Northern Ireland when we arrived: the nice lady from the Seaward 35 (website – proper chunky sea-going boat) astern of us chatted and gave us the low down on local shopping, places to eat, best way to get around on the island etc etc. Then whilst sitting in the aft cockpit enjoying the evening sun and sights, a couple pitched up who had previously owned 2 Nordhavn boats (big ones!)  and chatted. This is starting to feel like a sticky place, very Bangor like.

We decided to do all the touristy stuff so got a bus / train weekly ticket and headed off. The island has plenty of old style transport, from horse drawn trams to steam engines to electric trains. Most of them are from the late 1800’s and still in use today. Have a look at Isle of man transport for proper background info.

The trip to the summit of Snaefell (highest spot on the island) used a bus, horse drawn tram, electric tramway:

and then mountain railway:

Sadly the visibility meant we could only see Scotland and a hint of Northern Ireland. On good days you get England, Wales and Ireland too. The mountain train from Laxey station is suitably antique with stunning views across the island and sea. You also get a bird’s eye view of the TT motorcycle race roads. For the non UK readers who are not into bikes, the Isle of Man hosts a completely wild motorcycle road race each year (the Tourist Trophy) which is pretty famous - look at Wikipedia.

What else do tourists do here. Well, they drink coffee, eat chocolate twists in coffee shops (see, we can resist carrot cake sometimes) and take the narrow gauge steam train to Port Erin. It is the oldest narrow gauge steam railway that has been in continuous use and still has the original engines and carriages. For any trainspotter readers, here are a couple of them:

Loch, seen here at Port Erin, was built in 1874:

Port Erin itself is set in a beautiful bay that we had passed en route to Peel by boat. It looked good from the sea and was equally lovely from the shore:

For people who know the Isle of Wight but not the Isle of Man, this place is like the IoW but on steroids and with much more money……