Yaverland continued

We did not abandon Yaverland after the sequence noticed at references 1 and 5, but we did calm down a bit, did introduce some other activities. But this to report on the remaining Yaverlands.

Saturday 14th. Regular format of park, walk, swim, snooze etc. A family of kestrels on a ledge near the top of the crumbling part of the cliffs. One older lady daring to be bare, that is to say to go topless; the first and only such of the holiday. Plenty of beach apparatus of one sort or another, including another round of flyboarding. Tide right up to the wall, which occasioned a  number of defections and a modest amount of sand got washed into our picnic. Closed the visit, after a further snooze, with tea and rock cakes at the café.

Monday 16th. Regular format of park, walk, swim, snooze etc. At least one kestrel. Two swims. Tide right up to the wall again, which again occasioned a number of defections. Several older swimmers, mostly in pairs. One younger lady doing sterling service with her three boys and whom I suspected of changing from one bikini to another after she swam. Did not like sitting around in a wet swimming costume, however brief.

In the evening to Michelangelo's of Ryde, visited several times over the years. Recently the subject of a strong puff from a national newspaper which claimed it was one of the three best offerings of north Italian food in the country - which seemed to me to be rather a far-fetched claim. I had what I thought was a very ordinary minestrone, might well have come out of a tin from Heinz. Followed by gnocchi in a rich sauce, perhaps a touch too rich for me. While BH had scallops and so forth in a sauce which looked very similar. Plus linguine. Possibly a better choice than mine. Followed by tiramisu, again good but at the rich end of the spectrum. Taken with pudding wine. Followed by grappa from Julia, an outfit which is certainly known to Bing, but not to the extent of having a website. White grappa rather than the yellow grappa of reference 4 (there called by its French name of marc) and said by our waitress (who was, I think, actually Italian, at least ancestrally) to be better. Tasted well enough.

White wine good, but our wine waitress who was not Italian, rather some other sort of foreign, had no idea why it was named for a sheep. But enlarging the rear label would suggest that it did indeed come from the people at reference 3.

Wednesday, 18th, the last visit. Late start (for reasons to be noticed shortly), so just the one swim. Maybe an hour after low tide. Beach still sandy and entirely practical for swimming.

All in all, a fine beach. Lots of sand. Lots of beach to walk on. Lots of natural beauty. Good swimming. Lots of people - including a lot from up north as well as locals - but not so many as to swamp either beach or car park. A total of nine visits in the course of the 13 full days of holiday, all bar one involving swimming. The other four days being Shanklin (train), Bembridge (half day), Ryde (train) and Newtown (car), only managing to make it west of Ryde on the one occasion. No Osborne, no Ventnor Botanic Garden, no Carisbrooke and so on and so forth.

PS: but we have a few years to go on the swimming yet. I don't think BH's parents gave up sea swimming until they were in their eighties.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/07/yaverland.html.

Reference 2: http://www.ristorantemichelangelo.co.uk/.

Reference 3: www.torredeibeati.it/en/.

Reference 4: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/06/russian-pots.html.

Reference 5: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/07/rock-cake.html.