#MiniBreeze in Ryde

#MiniBreeze has been with us for a couple of months now, but he realised he hasn't shown you the town where he is staying, Ryde.  He decided to show you a typical weekend in Ryde, although it didn't turn out to be so typical after all.

All the best weekends start with fish and chips and as #MiniBreeze loves fish he has had fish and chips quite a few times with us, he usually eats them too quickly for us to get a picture of him with them.

On Saturday morning we took him for a walk on the seafront.  We had to get to the seafront first and that involves walking through this little park with a fish pond.

We are talking about fish so #MiniBreeze stopped for a look, it was a bit green because the pump wasn't on but we did see fish.

Leaving the park we met this friendly lion and his friend.  They were guarding some important memorials.

The ship memorialized above #MiniBreeze sank at Spithead.  This is significant to our American friends from British backgrounds as many of their ancestors will have left this country from Spithead which is off Portsmouth.  The other memorial is to commandos from the second world war who trained on the island.

We crossed the road and then #MiniBreeze could see the sea.

He started to get excited at this point.  Especially when he saw the trampolines.  He thought they looked comfortable for a nap.

We came to the beach.

#MiniBreeze also thought that looked a good place for a nap.

Just to prove that he is in Ryde #MiniBreeze had this picture taken in front of the swimming pool by the lake.

#MiniBreeze took one look at the swans over the other side of the lake with the cygnets and decided they did not look friendly.  The ducks obviously felt the same we couldn't see any.

#MiniBreeze had got used to seeing palm trees in the south of England but he thought he would show people that we had them.

He spied an interesting looking castle in the distance and decided to investigate.

As he got closer it got more fascinating!  Finally he got there.

It is a small castle, actually it is a Victorian folly. The Victorians thought it was stylish to have a ruined castle or church in the grounds of their estates.  This one belonged to the Appley Estate in Ryde.

The weather started to cloud over but #MiniBreeze noticed some beach soccer going on in the distance.

He got closer to investigate.  This is a regular local tournament, all through summer they play on the beach at Appley.

Just behind the beach soccer game #MiniBreeze met these owls and you can see the tail of a squirrel.  The island is famous for still having red squirrels and you see them occasionally around here but not when there is noisy football going on.

The weather was not the best so we walked back to Baboon HQ and lazed like a normal Saturday.

On Sunday we usually go for a long walk but the weather was not good and there was also something unusual in Ryde.  Well firstly our good Twitter friend @MarthaBBear is having her regular holiday on the island and wanted to come to Ryde to see the unusual thing that was going on.

#MiniBreeze went to French Franks (where he usually has croissants), for coffee.

He met Martha

and so did our good looking baboon Lukaz who went out instead of Mini-Kolo on this occasion.

After coffee they went off to see the unusual thing in Ryde, have a look!

They had a water slide in Ryde, going down the main tourist street, Union Street, just for one day.  It was a pity it was raining because it looked like fun.  Only 300 people got to go on it.  They won a competition by donating to a particular charity and then being picked.

One of the lucky winners was spiderman!!

Well that was an unusual sight to see!!

There are more things to show in an around Ryde, but that is a start.  Thank you for reading.