It’s good to be Queen

Isle of Wight When Queen Victoria wanted to get away, her favorite escape was to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. It had a swimming beach, acres of natural beauty, miles of privacy, and a home renovated by dear Prince Albert.

In addition, it was a great place to raise a large family.

The interior contains endless halls stocked with statues, bronzes, and family portraits. The rooms are filled with the family’s furnishings, which are on loan from the Crown, though the building was given over to the English Heritage trust, who runs it.

There is a room with quotes from Victoria’s diaries, which must have occupied most of her days. We know we have Prince Albert to thank for importing the custom of the Christmas tree. But he also seems to deserve credit for the concept of the birthday present, a table full of which greeted the queen on her special days at Osborne House.

The rooms were not excessively grand, except for the Durbar dining room, celebrating the queen as also Empress of India.

Her bedroom is furnished as it was when she died there. Nice to know she also had her own personal elevator.

The gardens are quite formal and must cost a fortune to maintain.

But when things got too formal, the queen could go swimming in her personal bathing house on the beach, or walk in the grounds which went on for miles. (We know, we walked them.) A path led to Swiss Cottage, the playhouse designed by Prince Albert for the children. He wanted to them to learn practical skills like cooking, growing vegetables, woodworking, etc.

All in all, it was an idyllic spot and a happy place until Prince Albert died at the age of 42, and Queen Victoria went into deep mourning for the remainder of her life.

We got to the Isle of Wight from Portsmouth by Hovercraft, a super fast mode of transport. Highly recommend!

All in all, it was a good day, filling in a blank I was always curious about.

Don’s Food Corner

We had another pub meal today. Jo had her sights set on a steak-and-ale pie. I had a far less ambitious goal — a steak sandwich.

The steak-and-ale pie came in a traditional fully enclosed pastry. It was impressive to look at and took some doing to break into. Inside was the usual meat and mostly dissolved vegetables. But the best part was the gravy. Rich and layered. A little pitcher of this yummy gravy came in a pitcher to pour over the mashed potatoes and the broken-up pastry. It was a decent version of this dish.

My steak sandwich was a little skimpy on the steak. I was served between two pieces of white bread, which was kind of boring, But the fries were good.

We did not encounter any scones today. Because of transportation timing issues, we didn’t have time to taste the offerings at the café at Osborne House, which was a bummer. It would have been the ideal place to try not only a scone but Victoria sponge cake. We can only imagine.