Paris Day One

We took the train into London the night before we flew to Paris to meet up with two Canadians who were joining us on our fancy French weekend getaway. After having  what seemed like a short nap we headed to the airport to catch a ridiculously early flight.
We stayed at Le Regent Montmarte near Sacre-Coeur which was the first among many stops after lunch. We hiked up all the steps to Sacre-Coeur and at the very top of the hill I gracefully sprained my ankle on some cobblestone. Luckily I didn't break anything and managed to make it through the rest of the trip without any further injury.
We spent the better part of our evening wandering through the city, passing by the famous Moulin Rouge, the Eiffel Tower,the Arch de Triumphe, and the Parisian Opera (we didn't see any Phantom of the Opera though).

 View from our hotel room

Sacre- Coeur (french for break your foot)

View from up above the city

Moulin Rouge dinner show

Tour Eiffel, built in 1889 is still the tallest building in Paris, we unfortunately didn't get to go up since one of the lifts was being repaired (the lifts and mechanisms are still original from 1899)

Getting absolutely drenched while seeing the sights

Arc de Triomphe comissioned by Napoleon after a large military victory

Opera

The Last Six Weeks

We have had an incredibly busy last six weeks....so busy I haven't had a chance to update this blog since before I went to Paris! I was lucky enough to get to dash to the city of love for a long weekend and it was amazing! We met up with a couple of girlfriends and had a blast seeing the sights, drinking wine, and of course eating some french cheese. The weekend after our time away we ventured once again to Stratford -upon-Avon with our German and Swiss friends who had come up for a long weekend to visit in Birmingham. This past week we were off from school and decided to do a little island hopping. We popped over to Ireland were we hit up Dublin, the Cliffs of Moher, and Donegal and headed to Scotland to check out Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Newport & Carisbrooke Castle

Our third day on the Isle we decided to head inland to Newport and the village of Carisbrooke, I had read in one of the pamphlets that there was a castle there that was supposed to be pretty nifty. We took the bus into Newport and wandered around town. It was so cute and still had many of it's original narrow roads and large squares.

After wandering around Newport for an hour or two we decided to walk over to Carisbrooke to check out the castle. From a distance we could only see the Motte (a large tower built up on an artificial hill), because of this I assumed that the castle was in ruins. Turns out I was wrong about that! The castle was originally built by the Normans around 1100 and gradually built up and improved upon throughout the years and lived in all the was up until 1944. Charles the first was famously imprisoned here in the 1600s and Princess Beatrice (daughter of Queen Victoria) made the castle her home until her death in 1944. The castle was massive and once reaching the top walls and the top of the Motte we had the most amazing views of the countryside!

View of the castle from afar (the motte in the background and the military fortifications built up on the sides)

Up on top of the castle walls!

View back into the innards of the castle (the biggest building to the left is the manor house of Princess Beatrice)

Stairs of death up to the Motte

The Gatehouse and entrance to the castle

I had an amazing time and definitely suggest that anyone heading to England check out the south...especially the Isle of Wight! I'm heading back to work on Monday....but stay tuned, I have a long weekend off in May and am heading to Paris!

The headland

It was just slightly windy up there...

The old coastguard cottages

Tennyson Downs

Alum Bay

Headon Warren - a protected area covered in heather...so pretty!

The New Battery

The New Battery was built further up the cliff in the 1890s with the fear that the new and heavier guns would cause the chalk cliffs to collapse at the Old Battery. It was mostly used for ammunition storage as well as administrative purposes until the end of the second world war.
From 1956 until the 1970s it was used as a testing site for rockets. Until I visited the headland I had absolutely no idea that Britain had even taken part in the space race. Apparently (according to this place anyways) at one point they were ahead of Russia and the United States. The site was used to test the Black Arrow and Black Knight rockets before they were shipped to Australia for launch. It was a very secretive project which is why it took place in such an isolated area. It all came to an end when the British government decided that there was "no future" for launching satellites into space and the project was scrapped.

The old control room (in a former ammo store room)

The old rocket testing sites along the south side of the headland (so all the stink and fumes would blow towards France! HAHA!)

The Old Battery

At the very tip of the headland there is a battery (an armed area with large guns, smaller then a fort). The one on the very tip is known as the Old Battery and looks out over the Needles (huge chunks of chalk jutting out of the ocean, and the Needles Lighthouse....which wasn't automated until 1994). The Old Battery was originally used to protect the Solent (area of the English Channel between the Isle of Wight and the mainland) from the French and was built in the early 1860s. The Old Battery was used to protect England all the way up until the end of the Second World War. Soldiers were stationed here throughout both world wars to spot e-boats with a spotlight (added in 1899) and help to spot coming air raids. It was a bit of a terrifying time being stationed at the Old Battery and they were very isolated from the rest of the isle. While visiting we heard a terrifying story of two young guards on watch whose job it was to walk around the outer areas of the Battery who happened to not show up for the guard switch. It turns out they had been swept off the side of the cliff by a gust of wind and sucked out to sea (this made the idea of walking back down the coastal trail even more terrifying).

Guns on parade at the Old Battery

The stairs heading to the tunnel that leads to the spotlight.

The Original Searchlight (a little corroded from being exposed to the salty air)

The Needles and the Needles Lighthouse (not automated until 1994, the lighthouse keepers would be stuck out here for 2 months straight!)

Views of the cliffs from the North Lookout at the Old Battery

View of the Parade and the New Guard offices (built in the 1940s)