Isle of Man
11:28 p.m.
On Thursday, July 26, the first morning of the lockout of all unionized employees of the university which sometimes employs me, my husband and I joined the march on campus to show our solidarity with our colleagues. It was a beautiful day. Then we proceeded to get the hell out of there, which was probably the best move of all. With our son we flew to the UK aboard Air Trans@, an airline where anything can go wrong and does. Our flight was delayed by almost two hours, which mean that we missed our connecting flight the next morning from Gatwick to Isle of Man, necessitating the expenditure of an extra $400+ to get us to our destination. We were not amused.
We were met at the airport by darkomen. He somehow managed to get all three of us plus our luggage (it was a tight and possibly illegal fit) into his Ford Ka, and took us to our B&B where we discovered that our hostess was in bed with a bad back and her husband was holding the fort as best he could singlehandedly.
The following three days were fabulous. Omen took us around the island, showing us his favourite haunts. We did a lot of hiking, saw several waterfalls, visited a museum and the remains of a castle, ate and drank and generally enjoyed being guests--paying guests, but guests nonetheless.
Rainbow from Port Erin
Groudle Glen
Limpets at Dhoon Glen
The Chasms
Viking Cross at St. Adamnan’s church
Purple Heather
Milner’s Tower
Waterfall at Glen Maye
Peel Castle
Sea cave at low tide
Calf of Man
As you can see, the weather was perfect. We had warm sunshine for the whole time we were there, totally bizarre for that island. We were assured repeatedly that it was never like that, and Omen told me that after we left the skies turned wet and gray.
More tomorrow as we continue our adventure in the British Isles.
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