After spending Thursday at sea, we woke up in Douglas, Isle of Man on Friday, August 7. I have to say that I totally enjoyed the decrease in temperature. We’re back in the 60s. The Isle of Man is an island that is about halfway between Ireland and Great Britain. It’s very picturesque and Douglas is the capital city, with a population of almost 27,000.
Since there wasn’t a dock large enough for our ship, we anchored offshore and were transported into town on the tender boats again. We’ve gotten very accustomed to “tendering”, so it’s no big deal…it just requires a little patience to wait in line to get onto a boat that goes to shore, and again to get onto a boat to return to the ship.
We had a great time exploring Douglas. One of the first things you run into after getting off the tender boat is a larger-than-life group of statues of the Bee Gees. The brothers Gibb were born and raised on the Isle of Man, so their statues are proudly on display at the port and are photographed a few hundred times a day.
A park with lovely flowers winds along the waterfront, so we followed it until we came to a small business area that had a quaint and lively coffee shop/café. We felt very European sitting at a little bistro table outside in the fresh sea air sipping our lattes. It’s interesting that being by the ocean can be relaxing and invigorating at the same time.
Our next stop was the Manx Museum. Apparently, a person born on the Isle of Man is referred to as a Manx. The museum displayed art and artifacts primarily by Manx artists. I love a good museum, and it was exactly what I hoped it would be. It was in an old historic building with many rooms to wander through. A few people were wandering around quietly enjoying the paintings and sculptures.
It also had a sweet little gift shop where I purchased some signed prints by a Manx painter. Each print depicts a whimsical scene from life on the Isle of Man: one of farm crops, one of a cow at a tea party, and the third is of a unique sheep that has two sets of horns. Each of the prints has been made into a stamp in the past.
I’m glad that we found the museum early on in our visit, because we also found a great shopping area where I could have offloaded a lot of cash if I hadn’t been already satisfied. We did manage to buy a postcard there and we even sent it from the Manx post office. It was a card for Rorik with a picture of a Manx cat. The Manx breed, with the long back legs and no tail, originated on the Isle of Man. Who knew?
We had had no idea what to expect, but Douglas turned out to be a very enjoyable stop. We sail overnight to our next stop: Belfast, Northern Ireland.