Villa

Recent weather hasn't been kind to the Isle of Wight, and on our first day the rain didn't let up much either.

Best place to hang out: Queen Victoria's summer home Osbourne House. Lovely place, well worth a visit, some areas seems like they are still very much as she left it and generally for a stately home its pretty cosy feeling. Ok, not really but compared to Blenheim!

We did linger with furrowed brows over the family tree diagrams helpfully provided to show how Victoria and Albert planned the marriages of their children across the aristocracy of Europe. It was interesting to reflect on this, and their aim to use the connections to bring in a period of peace and prosperity. Given what we now know about the following hundred years, it sadly didn't quite work out.