Saturday, 30th April 2002

With a heavy but filled heart, we came out of the woods and proceeded by bus to another town called 'Castle Town'. Once upon a time, Castle Town was the capital of Isle of Man and the seat of Tynwald, the Island's parliament. Much like the country, the town itself is very small and on entering the town, it was very much obvious that the imposing castle, to which the town owes its name is the centrepiece of the town. We had to roam around the streets of Castle Town to locate a restaurant and have our lunch.

The castle is known as 'Castle Rushen'. It is being claimed as Europe's finely preserved medieval castles and was developed by successive rulers of Mann between the 13th and 16th centuries. Its towering limestone walls would have been visible over much of southern Mann - a continual reminder to the local population of the dominance of the Kings and Lords of Mann. The tour around the castle was very nicely conducted and although, we avoid visiting castles, palaces & museums during our trips, we enjoyed this one well. After spending more than 2 hours at Castle Rushen, we boarded the bus towards Douglas, the capital of Isle of Man. As it was Saturday, most business establishments had downed their shutters and the streets were deserted.

lOn the way back to the Douglas from Castle Town was the only airport of the country. 'Manx Airlines' was the national airline of Isle of Man. Looking at the security conditions, it should be very much possible for one to get into any of the aircrafts there with as much ease, as one would have to get into a bus. We did manage to locate one good Indian restuaurant and had our dinner there.

Sunday, 31st March 2002

Easter Sunday weather was not as bright as it was in the previous day. We had planned to take a day long bus tour round the island. We started the bus tour from Douglas at around 10 AM with the aged driver doubling up as the guide. There were one another group of Indian software engineers who were part of the tour. The bus proceeded to Laxey via a little town called Onchan.

The beauty of the island is that despite the fact that the island itself is small, 60% of the island remains uninhabitated. That leaves with lot of vast, green lands & gardens all around the island. It was a visual treat to any one who visits the place. No wonder the nation thrives on tourism for its survival.

lWe reached the town called Laxey. It is being said that thousands of visitors from every corner of the globe have been flocking to Laxey to gaze at the giant Laxey Wheel, the world's largest working waterwheel and truly one of the marvels of industrial archaeology in the British Isles. The bus was stopped at a good vantage point to enable us click photographs of the wheel. The 147 year old wonder wheel used to pump up 250 gallons of water a minute from the workings 2000 ft. below in which miners toiled round the clock to extract the lead, silver, copper and zinc.

lIsle of Man is quite famous for one of the World's oldest Steam Railways still in existence. At the time of our visit, the Steam Railway's tracks are being renovated and we were unlucky to miss it. But, we were compensated with the century old Manx Electric Railway. The funniest thing with this railway is that the track runs along the road with no fence or barrier between them. While we were on the way from Laxey to a coastal town called Ramsey, a train was running parallel to the bus, which was a good sight to see.

Our next destination Royal Ramsey, owes its name to the Queen Victoria, who docked here in the royal yacht. This is the second biggest town of the country after Douglas. Building fishing vessels, commercial shipping are the main activities of the coastal town and it is said to be the busiest port of Isle of Man. The bus stopped for an hour or so at this place but as it happened to be a holiday, there was nothing much we could do but to stand at the pier and watch the sea. (.......to be continued)