Osborne House

After watching the TV series Victoria, one place I really wanted to visit was Osborne House which was Victoria and Albert's home here on the Isle of Wight. 

It's an amazing estate with it's own private beach with Victoria's bathing hut which has been fully restored.  We headed to Swiss Cottage first and then walked through the woodland down to the beach where there's a little cafe and deckchairs in a row facing the sea.  It's such a peaceful spot, so we sat enjoying the view and had an ice cream before strolling back up to the house.

The house is very impressive, my favourite room being the Durbar Room which was designed by Rudyard Kipling's father, Lockwood Kipling and master carver Bhai Ram Singh.  This room was created after Albert's death and is detailed with intricate Indian style plaster work to reflect Victoria's status as the Empress of India.  Eleven years after she became the Empress she decided to employ Indian servants, the first being Abdul Karim with whom she formed an unlikely friendship and he became her official Indian Secretary and also taught her Munshi and Urdu.  I've never seen the film Victoria and Abdul but I'd like to watch it now. Victoria died here at Osborne on 22 January 1901 and you can even see her death bed!

There are amazing views towards the sea from the upper terraces, and we spent some time there and in the walled garden looking at all the beautiful flower displays.  We even spotted a robin with it's babies and the adult wasn't bothered about me getting quite close with my camera and posed quite happily, singing away - it's interesting that juvenile robins don't have a red chest, they're speckled.

Tonight we went out for dinner to a restaurant that's in the Michelin guide and which is within walking distance of our cottage and is right on the sea front.  The food and service were excellent and we shared a nice bottle of Provence rose, then after dinner we walked down to the sea front and saw another fantastic sunset - it's certainly the right side of the island for those!