House of Manannan

Tom the Viking

Ewwwww, what a nasty and horrible day!  Luckily we knew it was going to be horrible, but we didn't realise it was going to be this horrible: freezing cold with a strong wind and lashings of rain.  We didn't rush to get up!  We did have a plan in place.  After extensive research into all the activities and museums on the isle, we discovered that there are only 2 museums open at this time of year and pretty much no activities.

Oh hum.  One of the museums is quite close to us, in Peel, so we headed over.  It was a museum about Manx Heritage and we were expecting lots of boxes with things in, but no we were wrong, very wrong.  It was in fact one of the best museums I've been in for a long time.  Basically it took you through early human settlement to fisherman fleets of the early 1900s.  Started off with Celtic man, then Christians, then Vikings (who were made out to be friendly?).  We got to sit in a Round house, see a Christian burial, learnt about Celtic crosses, dressed up as Vikings, saw a Viking replica boat that was sailed from Norway to Isle of Man in 1979, made some fish to leave in a net, got to explore a fishing village, complete with sound, kippers smoking etc and then got to see the various ferries that have sailed between the Isle and the UK.

Dressed to kill

In addition to that, there was a Lego trail going on, where little figures had been hidden amongst the exhibits to find.  We were in there for a good 2 hours if not longer.  Well worth the £10 entry fee.   Matt went into shopping mode when he entered the shop and came away with 2 posters, a flag and a pin badge.  We then dashed back to the car to unload our wares, get extra clothing as it was very very cold and find somewhere for lunch.  We ended up in a pub called The Creek which didn't look much from the outside, but we entered to find the whole of Peel in it, we luckily got the last table and sat down for a hot lunch just to warm up: burger made from the local Manx breed of sheep Loaghtan which was very lamby, lasagne for the boy and veggie Thai curry for me.  It was good food and a nice atmosphere.  We sat opposite a window watching the rain lash down across the port, it really was a terrible weather day!



After lunch we togged up in all our outdoors gear and headed into the town.  There wasn't much going on. Not many shops were open, but we found a small supermarket to get the essentials and then headed back to the car.  We went past a museum of crime which was closed, but there was some info on the outside all about birching which carried on until the 1970s, the Isle of Man was the last territory in Europe to ban it.  However, did you know the Isle of Man was the first place to give women the vote?  Progressive and non progressive at the same time.

Longboat

We then drove home, Tom almost fell asleep in the car so went for a rest whilst Matt and I caught up on work emails etc.  Then a hot bath to warm up again - this cottage doesn't warm up very well, I guess we are very spoilt with our house in Ingleton, we are used to all consuming heat 24/7 whilst here the radiators are trying to banish the cold, but it is only warm if you are on top of the radiators.

We won't be going far the rest of the day, across the road to the pub for tea most likely.  Weather looks better for tomorrow, we are planning to go down to Port Erin to visit Uncle Geoff.