i wake up feeling laaazyyyy…luckily dorothee is sympathetic and agrees to a day in ventnor botanical garden…so, after breakfast and getting today’s guardian we go by easy-vauxie to ventor.

the last time we were on the isle of wight the undercliff drive from niton undercliff to st lawrence was closed due to a rather disruptive landslide in 2001 — and the local paper reported that the question whether it would be reopened was — back then — still not resolved (and the road might very well remain closed, as happened to the niton undercliff to blackgang chine part of the road in 1928), so we were curious whether it had been reopened: at first, while cirumnavigating niton on our way to iow-ventnor the still existing detour signs seem to indicate that the undercliff road to st lawrence is still interrupted — and we dutifully follow the detour signs via wroxall to ventor and then to the botanic garden.

the weather alternates between overcast and sunny — whenever the sun makes it through the cloud cover it becomes quite warm. on our way to the tea room (remember: “lazy!” is today’s motto) we notice a exhibition of local artists and have a look around: quite a few paintings i really like, one i’m tempted to buy but in the end do not (how on earth will i get it home in one piece? and sending it by mail will be a rather costly endeavour considering royal mail tariffs).

after a nice half an hour (or was it in fact, two hours as dorothee claims?) on the sunny terrace we start for a walk through the botanic garden (recommendable as ever) and then follow the coastal path to ventnor: a new apartment complex opposite the church (kingsviews ventnor) is one of the most prominent additions since we last stayed in ventnor. interesting building, mimicking the 1920s/1930s style.

on the way from the coastal path up to the royal hotel we spot a lizard on the walls of zigzag road: it seems lizards only notice you when your moving with a certain speed, anything moving below a certain threshod apparently is considered stationary by those little buggers — i manage to get quite close with my camera and take a couple of pictures (“smile!”)…i’ve never seen a lizard that close up.

after a thorough look around we walk in the sun on the coastal path back to the botanic garden, have a look at the shop (very important) and then are on our way back to shorwell — having a bout of adventurism we decide to give it a go and take the road toward st lawrence and (hopefully) to niton undercliff on the undercliff road…and it’s open all the way! (just not for vehicles over 6’6” in width)

dinner is in the crown again. the guardian has a rather interesting report on the benefits of a “wee dram of whisky” and how it can help reduce the risk of cancer! i wonder how one manages to enrol in research such as this…also in today’s guardian is it’s first sudoku — which, even though it’s labelled easy, i mess up big time…hmm…that won’t do…i blame the pint of murphy’s that’s mingling with a good dinner…

anyhow: “cheers! to research!”

(p.s. you might want to install my greasemonkey script to disable the extremely annoying blinking text on the ventnor botanic garden website)