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Last week, I wrote about Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee Year that began on the 6th — and about Fortnum & Mason’s Pudding Competition as part of the celebration.

The Isle of Wight seems a romantic place to visit, so I thought I’d spend the rest of the Valentine month there. Well, in my imagination.

The main reason that I associate the Isle of Wight with romance is because it’s where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert went when they wanted a break from the politics and responsibilities in London. Osborne House on the Isle of Wight was where they could be a couple and a family with their nine children.

My starting point to learn about Osborne House is Mike’s post on A Bit About Britain.

When I visited the English Heritage website, I learned that there are holiday cottages available at Osborne House. Two in the gate house (No 1 Sovereign’s Gate and No 2 Sovereign’s Gate) and a third (Pavilion Cottage) in a later addition to the property, a former cricket pavilion. My favorite part about these cottages is that guests have access to the Osborne House grounds, including the beach, even during the hours when those are closed to other visitors.

Pavilion Cottage, one of three cottage accommodations available on the grounds of Osborne House

So, let’s plan a romantic week on the Isle of Wight. To keep these posts from becoming unwieldy, I’ll split them across three British Isles Friday posts, for the rest of February.

Arrival Day

To get to the Isle of Wight from London, we’ll take a train from Waterloo station to the port city of Southampton. A short bus ride will take us to the ferry for a boat ride across The Solent to West Cowes on the Isle of Wight. All of that is covered by one through-ticket from South Western Railway and will take two and half hours, or less.

We’ll have already downloaded the app for the island’s bus service, Southern Vectis, and purchased a £25 ticket that will allow us to ride all week without having to worry about purchasing tickets for each journey. The bus ride to Osborne House will take about an hour, with a change in Newport. We’ll be traveling around the River Medina, so this journey will be a good introduction to the part of the island where we’ll be staying.

This photo is from the Isle of Wight Tourism Website — a terrific resource.

Once we’ve settled into our cottage, let’s take a wander about the Osborne House grounds, with the terraced gardens and a parkland filled with historic trees. I also want to walk along the beach.

The beach where Queen Victoria bathed and her nine children learned to swim.

Day 1

We’ll devote our first day to Osborne House because A Bit About Britain says that “you need a day to do it full justice.” Since Mike already wrote an excellent post about a real visit, I’ll let you read that instead of going into details myself.

Tune in next week for more adventures on the Isle of Wight.