Isle of Man

 

Gardens of St. Germain Cathedral

The Isle of Man is a self-governing British Crown Protectorate having a parliament which has governed since 979. The lower house is elected by the people and the upper house is elected by the lower house. The island is 35 by 13 miles with mountains in the center. We landed in Douglas the capital city and headed to Peel. Our first stop was the gardens of the St. Germain cathedral. The gardens are arranged to tell the story of Christianity through the centuries. Knockalor Internment camp was created in 1914 to hold the citizens of the Axis Powers living in the United Kingdom or rescued from ships during World War I. 30,000 people were interred here. They kept busy with crafts, plays and concerts. The good news about this camp is that its mortality rate was below that of the island itself. The bad news is that many German Jews were repatriated into Germany in 1919 and would face persecution under Hitler.

Peel Castle

We had time to walk the harbor and beach including Peel Castle on the cliffs before heading to Port Erin. Here we rode the Railroad line built in 1874 back to Douglas. We had a lunch of meat pies in our 1905 dining car on way back.

Our locomotive in Douglas

We were supposed to leave at 4 PM at high tide, but the winds are over 50 mph. So, we’re going to leave at 5AM tomorrow at the next high tide. But that let us hear a young harpist, Myrna Royal. She played an interesting mixture of local tunes and some jazz.