Osborne House...

Queen Victoria's 'holiday' pile, on the Isle of Wight.

Much clearer LARGE

Des went there over ten years ago and an IOW blipper has done voluntary conservation work here, so I had to include it on my IOW itinery.

Sold my little Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 lens on Ebay for not a lot, but just enough to not have been robbed and to make it worthwhile and so have escaped England, for a chunk of England floating underneath (it doesn't actually float, by the way). Hence the red squidgel yesterday, which can be seen in parts of the Island.

Osborne House, apparently, is English Heritage's most expensive acquisition to visit (I think Stonehenge is more, now) unless you are a member. If you have fifty quid spare, for that (which I haven't). BUT, I got 20% discount by buying the ticket with Red Funnel, online, with the ferry tickets, before I went. Saves about four pounds. Not a lot, perhaps, but enough to take advantage of.

Fabulous day, lots of elderly mooching customers who enjoyed lingering within my ultrawide angle lens' view. They kept appearing at the balustrade at the top - returning much later (after the tour of the House = very interesting and will make you think again about that dowdy queen, though some of the ceilings/furnishings/collected 'stuff' will make your eyes water - and not necessarily in a good way! Probably just as well that photography is banned totally inside - I'd still be there in a week's time - it is massive and takes about 2 hours to walk around.

Anyways, when the old folks had gone, so had these shadows, and that was what it was all about. Yes, I wanted the shapes and curves and it was shot and exposed with mono in mind. The extremes in contrast was a real test though, to not let those light steps burn out. The walls are a very dark grey/brown. I still had to clone one woman out taking a selfie, from between the balustrade pillars. 

The 1.2 mile walk to the private beach was worthwhile, a very pretty location, but my toes did not join in where Royal tootsies did, back 100 and a lot of years ago. The view from the House's back terraces out to the sea (which now includes the distant pinnacle of Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower) looked rather special in the twinkling sunlight.

Yes, Osborne is worth the money, lots to do and see, and overall very well done by English Heritage. A lot of Lottery money has been spent on the place recently too. Bit of an uphill walk from East Cowes though, then the same distance again from the entrance to where everyone else parks. I was there five hours, which was enough, really. Another Big Pile Blip to cross off my list.