Ellan Vannin. A Self-governing Crown Dependency

Glad to finally manage great flight tickets to Isle of Man, long time in the bucket list of the “nearby” destinations to go. And with the ongoing shortage of new destinations across Europe still pending to go, it was once more, a perfect choice and a great weekend. Landscapes, nature, city and culture road trip through the entire island which surprisingly has a lot to see and do, and an incredible history and past behind through the millennia. An entire weekend is just perfect time, enough to enjoy every corner of the island which is really pleasant to drive all around. Easy roads and short distances, with many sights along the way: megalithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age monuments; castles, beaches, idyllic villages and impressive Victorian engineering at its purest with the largest water wheel in the world, horse trams in Douglas, a mountain railway, steam train and electric tramways from the past century, just to name a few of the places we would visit.

Starting at Castletown and Douglas, we split between north and south, one area for Saturday, the other for Sunday. Our hotel however, was in Douglas since it’s the capital and largest city in the island and with majority of facilities, entertainment and nightlife. We did not want to be “stranded” in the middle of nowhere and having to depend on the car to even go and find dinner.

The island, on the Irish Sea, is one of the self-governing Crown Dependency of the British Isles where the head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, but not part of the United Kingdom. It is an independent country on it’s own, and the people of the island are happy about this. Sometimes people are mistaken in thinking they are part of the United Kingdom but is not. The other such self-governing islands are the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey in the La Mancha Canal. (more…)