Isle of Man April 24

With spring in the air our destination for April's tour was the Isle of Man. We being, Richard, Malcolm and myself. This Crown dependency with its own Parliament was once described by a local wit as being, "A rock in the middle of the Irish sea with 80,000 alcoholics clinging to it" - perhaps that was the attraction for us? It is also famed for a number of things; the Manx cats which have no tails; The TT races that occur in May and June which sees the island flooded with motorbike enthusiasts to watch people with a death wish hurtle round the island's 37.7 mile course on public roads and they do this in 17 minutes averaging 136MPH ! Other interesting facts about our destination - the Isle of Man Parliament, The Tynwald, was the first national legislative body in the world to give women the vote in 1881; The Isle of Man has no capital gains tax, wealth tax, stamp duty or inheritance tax and a top rate of income tax of 20% but perhaps what probably tipped it for our visit was that Malcolm had been brought up on the Island so we had a ready made Tour Guide for the trip. We intended to cover most of the island in our 3 day visit and used the railway and the electric tram to help us. If you're really interested in what we got up to you can find an account at backroadsanddetours.blogspot.com