An Easter return to the Isle of Man COMPLETED 5/10 About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

That was quite a view, but I can only imagine how cold it would be.

Very!

You had a full day already - I'd bet most people would need a nap!

I wish I was the sort of person who can nap, but I can't, so I usually just manage and carry on through...

[chezp]

Friday 3 April – part seven: having a great L’Experience!

Mark headed up to fill up the car just before 7:00pm. We’d put £10 ($15) in when we arrived, but that seemed to have quickly gone, what with going up and down hills all day, so he wanted to get some more for the rest of the weekend. He asked his parents if they wanted anything for dinner, and went to get a couple of items for them.

When he got back, we headed out to our dinner, getting some photos of the hotel as we left…



… and then driving along the promenade in Douglas, which looked beautiful in the twilight. The clocks only went forward a week ago, and already it’s making a huge difference at night. It makes the days feel so much longer.



We quickly found the restaurant, and then a parking space, so we got out, and I got a few photos of the coastline…



… before we headed in here…



I know it doesn’t look like much from the outside, but my goodness, appearances can be deceptive when it comes to this place. Carole was already waiting for us, and it was a lovely place with a lot of atmosphere to it. They’d done a good job of making it feel very French, but in a subtle way.



We were too busy chatting away to even look at the menu, and I think they asked us twice if we were ready to order, before we turned our attention to what to actually eat. I didn’t need to worry about what to drink, as Carole had already ordered a litre of rose wine (just over the size of a bottle of wine) and I was happy to help her out with that.

Our server very kindly offered to take a photo of all of us, and I happily agreed:



I was immediately attracted to the specials menu, which was packed with seafood dishes, but Carole complicated things by telling me that the onion soup here was the best she’s ever had. She’s travelled a lot in her life, like us, and enjoys her food, like us, so when she says it’s that good, I really listen, and I changed my plan and went with that for appetiser. It’s actually the soupe a l’oignon, served topped with Gruyere and Manx cheese. I have to say she was spot on. It was exceptionally rich, and the broth was beautifully flavoured, and the cheese on top had lots of flavour to it. The whole dish was beautiful, and it was certainly the best onion soup I’ve ever had as well too.



Mark went for les crevettes a la Marie Rose, delicate prawns, Manx double prawns with Marie rose sauce, cucumber, and drizzled with citrus dressing. It looked amazing on the plate when it arrived, and I thought there was a lot to it, but Mark said it was sadly just a few mouthfuls, and it was gone, which was a bit of a shame.



Now I was going to have the Manx crab, prawns and lobster with lime mayo and petit salad from the specials board, but obviously once I decided to have the onion soup, that threw that idea out. Well, I’ll have it for entrée instead, and they were happy to provide an entrée size version for me. Oh wow, this was again just superb. The fish was all absolutely beautiful, and considering it hadn’t been cooked, there was nothing to hide behind, if you know what I mean, and these stood up to the test, and were top quality ingredients.



Mark went for the bassescote de boeuf, 21 day aged and dry hung rib eye steak, grilled to your liking and served with a béarnaise sauce. I couldn’t believe the size of it when it turned up!



When the dessert menu showed up, I must admit I wasn’t sure I could eat anything else, as I was comfortably full, but I figured if I found something light, then maybe I could do it. I was immediately taken by the oranges au Grand Marnier, oranges drizzled in Grand Marnier syrup and served with ice cream. Well, all I can say is that the oranges weren’t “drizzled”, they were pretty much “drowned” in Grand Marnier – and that was fine by me. Mark took a couple, but said he had to stop there, as otherwise he’d be over the drink drive limit! It was an absolutely beautiful dessert, another dish where everything was perfect with it.



Mark got the crème brulee, and sadly as seemed to be the theme with his dinner, he said there wasn’t nearly enough of it, and I have to say it did look like a small serving…



By the time we were done, it was 9:30pm, and we’d been there two hours. It had been a nice, relaxed, and well paced dinner, and although it had been quiet when we arrived, by the time we left, the place was packed. Despite that, it didn’t feel that busy, and it wasn’t loud either, which was nice.

The check came to £159 ($239) for the three of us, including the wine and tip, so it certainly wasn’t a cheap meal, but my goodness, it was a good one. I was actually glad we hadn’t bought Mark’s parents here, as I could’ve seen his dad having heart failure over the bill – there is no way he’d ever pay that much for a meal.

L’Experience

Appetiser 10 8
Entrée 9½ 9½
Dessert 10 9
Service 9½ 9
Atmosphere 9½ 9
Value for money 9 9

Average score: 9.42

We said we’d drop Carole back, saving her getting a cab, and we sadly said our farewells to her. I’m so glad we’ve got to see her twice in less than a year, after leaving it more than 20 years since I last saw her. She’s such good company, and I’m so glad we stayed in touch.

We headed back to the hotel, and straight to bed, as it had been a very long, albeit enjoyable, day.

The weather today was a real mixture, with fog, some rain and drizzle, cloud, some sun, and a lot of wind and temperatures in the low 40s.
The best thing today was dinner.
The worst thing today was the low cloud, fog and, in some places, the wind.
Today we tried going to L’Experience with Carole
And the result was it was absolutely superb.
The most magical moment today was finally being able to photograph one of the seals off the Sound.

Next: are we going to get our tickets in time?

[disney_duke]

Wow, that was a good looking dinner. Everything! Cute little place too. And so glad you could see Carole again!

[mpwife153]

The view from "up top" was breath taking Truly a lovely view!

Dinner looked superb! I really should know better than to read your TR between meals by now

[lauriep]

What a treat, to have a first-class meal with a good friend. But what am I missing-- Did you say the lobster, and crab and prawn were not cooked??

[chezp]

Originally Posted by mpwife153

The view from "up top" was breath taking Truly a lovely view!

Dinner looked superb! I really should know better than to read your TR between meals by now

You should!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by lauriep

What a treat, to have a first-class meal with a good friend. But what am I missing-- Did you say the lobster, and crab and prawn were not cooked??

What I meant by that is that they didn't turn up steaming hot, they were cold. Sorry that's what I was trying to say, not very well obviously.

[lauriep]

Originally Posted by chezp

What I meant by that is that they didn't turn up steaming hot, they were cold. Sorry that's what I was trying to say, not very well obviously.

Ah, thank you.... I'm relieved!

[Cam22]

Dinner sounded and looked divine!

[chezp]

Saturday 4 April – part one: are we going to get our tickets in time?

I woke up just before 7:00am, having had a very good night’s sleep, and considering that we went to bed at 10:00pm, that was also a nice long night’s sleep too. Mind you, after a long day yesterday, I guess we needed it.

We were due to head down for breakfast at 8:15am with Mark’s parents, and we knocked on their door at the appointed time. They were ready to go, and had also had a good night’s sleep, so I think it’s fair to say we were all much refreshed this morning.

We were the first ones down there…



… and we helped ourselves to the cereal there, although pretty much everything else had to be provided for us. We rang the bell once for the owners, and got no response, so Mark tried again a couple of minutes later, and he was immediately on hand, getting us tea and coffee, then toast, and then our cooked meals.

I went for the vegetarian breakfast, but after discovering the vegetarian sausage was Quorn, which I’m allergic to, I passed on that, and the baked beans, so mine didn’t look like much:



However, the owner said he could happily get me mushrooms for tomorrow morning, he just needed 24 hours’ notice, which was good, so I’ll have a bit more in the morning.

Everyone else went for the cooked breakfast, and seemed to enjoy it.



We were stunned at how many people kept coming down for breakfast, commenting that this hotel is like a TARDIS – there are more people staying than you’d first think. Thank goodness I said that Barb couldn’t do stairs very well, as I dread to think how many stairs some of these people have to go up and down to get to their room. Considering we’re on the first floor, we had more than enough, and I wouldn’t want to add anymore in.

We headed back to finish getting ready, and my goodness, Mark’s parents were quicker than us, knocking on the door to say they were ready. We told them we’d meet them down at the car, giving them the key, which at least meant Barb could take her time.

We set off, heading for the Manx Electric Railway, which is located along the promenade…


We were very glad to be there early, as there was already quite a line for tickets. We managed to park nearby, in spaces that allowed a 12 hour stay, provided you didn’t return within 36 hours. Well, that works for us!

Dave and Barb got on board, while I waited to get tickets. In the end, we got our tickets about 9:35am, five minutes before the train was due to depart, although we did hear one member of staff say that the timetable had gone out of the window – something to do with the fact that people were still waiting to buy tickets. As Dave said, they’re hardly going to go while people are willing to spend money. The tickets cost us £14 ($22) each, which I thought was great value, considering what we got for it. I’ll come back to that later in the day.


Look how long the line was for tickets!

Looking up to where we’d parked yesterday to get the stunning views over Douglas

Inside our railway carriage


Next: is this supposed to happen?

[disney_duke]

Sounds like you were just ahead of the crowds for breakfast, nice! I guess more people came out of the TARDIS for the train tickets too....

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

Sounds like you were just ahead of the crowds for breakfast, nice! I guess more people came out of the TARDIS for the train tickets too....

Very good!

[Cam22]

That ticket line was incredibly long!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Cam22

That ticket line was incredibly long!

It was.

[chezp]

Saturday 4 April – part two: is this supposed to happen?

Finally, we started out on the Manx Electric Railway, but we must’ve only got halfway up the first hill, a matter of a few hundred yards, when we ground to a halt. We looked at each other, wondering if this was supposed to happen. It wasn’t, as one of the members of staff (who incidentally looked just like the husband of one of Mark’s cousins – we all commented on it! ) came to say that there was a problem with the power. In his words “it’s like when it trips out at home”. Ok… I must admit at this point I was wondering if this was a good idea, and whether this would constantly be happening all day, but maybe it was to do with us being the first tram of the day, as we had no further issues all day – thank goodness. While we were stranded there, I took the opportunity to get a few shots…



Soon we were moving along again, and heading upwards, and out of Douglas, giving us some great views of the town and its coastline.



We saw the fronts of some of those lovely bungalows we’d seen yesterday…



The sun was already streaming down on the water, and it looked beautiful.


Now by now you may have realised that we were in an open air carriage, which made photo taking very easy. Remember this for later too…

Eventually, we were out of Douglas, and passing by some stunning coastline…



Then we were out into the countryside…



As you can see, we were running parallel to one of the island’s roads…



Soon I had my first bovine sighting of the day, so life was good!



Occasionally, we’d pass these little shacks…


In fact, they were stops along the line, although if you wanted to get off anywhere en route, apart from Laxey, which is a huge station, you had to tell the staff. If no-one wanted to get off, they’d only stop for someone standing there. That happened at the first stop, when a lovely woman got on our row, who was very pleasant. We’d lucked out, and despite how busy the train was, it was only Dave and Barb in one row, and the two of us in front. It turned out the reason this train was so busy is because they were doing a behind the scenes tour of one of the vehicle sheds. Easter is actually a four day celebration of the island’s railways, and you could book a whole special vacation to do all those things, so I had to pick which days to do which railways very carefully.

Soon we were back along the coastal route again…



Then we were approaching Laxey – as I mentioned earlier, the main station along the route, as from here you can walk over to the Laxey Wheel, which we visited on our last trip here, and you can also catch the Snaefell Mountain Railway up to the summit of the island’s tallest mountain. I figured we’d do this on the way back, although my goodness, we lost most people at this point, and many of them headed over to the Mountain Railway, so it’s obviously very popular.


Next: cold, but beautiful…