We sailed in to the harbour and parked away from the sure and this port requires that we use the tenders to go ashore. we are booked on a tour which puts us the Tram from downtown Douglas I.O.M. up to the highest peak on the Island. So we headed for an early breakfast at 0745 as we need to meet the tour leader at 0815 with the tour starting at 0845. So at shortly after 0815 we are on the tender to the Cruise Port and shorty afterwards boarded a bus for a short drive to join the Manx Electric Railway .
Se Wikipedia for more detailed info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manx_Electric_Railway
However when we arrived at the station at 0850 for a 0900 departure no train was to be seen and it did not turn up until about 0940 with the excuse that a cable had broken??? Ah well we all got on board and went along the coast on very bump rails for about 35 minutes until we reached a pace called Laxey where we had to change to the Snaefell Mountain Railway to go up the mountain to reach the summit at just over 2000 feet. The type of tram was not dissimilar although the seats were not very wide and one person only had enough for about half a cheek! anyway after a further 35 minutes we rattled and scraped our way to the top where it was planned to have about 30 minutes allowing a cup of tea and a general walk around but due to the late departure this was cut to ten minutes which really was not time to enjoy a cuppa then we had to board to return to a stop called Bungalow where we left the tram and re-joined the bus.
It was originally planned to take straight back to the cruise terminal but due to the original delay they decided to take us on a local tour which was more interesting as the TT racing is due to start in about two weeks and there are major preparations underway with roads ready to be closed etc. There were some lovely views on the way back although trying take photos from a moving bus is never great.
Some cruise guests wanted to get of the bus prior to it arriving back at the terminal they could take a walk around but we decided against that and head back to the ship. After a short rest we went for a light lunch and then back to the cabin for Noel to blog etc and Jennifer take a rest, thank heavens she is feeling a lot better.
In the evening we went for dinner and then early to bed.
