Ticket to Ryde - Beer & Buses Part 2

I ended the last blog post travelling back from the west of the Isle of Wight on the Southern Vectis bus to Newport.
I've really gotta work on my cliff-hangers.

Arriving back at Newport bus station several of our group leapt straight aboard a waiting bus to Cowes. 
Alas, I bring you no report on Cowes, as instead I leapt straight into the George Inn for a wee.

Deciding we'd done enough bus journey's for the day, we headed to the local 'Spoons for food, then onward to visit another couple of Newport pubs.

The Crispin (10 Carrisbrooke Road, Newport, PO30 1BL)

The Crispin was actually a lot better than I initially expected, having stood outside looking at its mock tudor frontage and prominent Sky and BT Sports banners.
It's one of those pubs where you weigh up whether to pick the door to the 'lounge' or 'bar', only to find they lead into exactly the same place.  This is a typical town boozer, now open-plan with a large U-shaped bar and a lively crowd of punters.
Why this pub?  Because the booklet we'd been given earlier showing what beers were available where, mentioned The Crispin having a Castle Rock 'Brian Clough' pale ale, that's why.

The Crispin

Old Big 'Ead

Leaving The Crispin we walked back past the Ale House and on to a pub close to our B&B.
 

Railway Medina (1 Sea Street, Newport, PO30 5BU)

A railway pub without a railway.
This was once the closest pub to the now-demolished Newport train station.  Unlike the single-room Crispin, this had two distinctly different halves.  We settled in the quiet calm of the rear bar, surrounded by old pictures and railway memorabilia.
I ticked-off another local beer brewed especially for the Beer & Buses weekend here - 'Hop Aboard' by Island Brewery.

The quiet half of the Railway Medina.

Day 2: Ticket to Ryde

So, to recap: Beer & Buses is in it's 6th year and features some 85 buses of various vintages plying routes around the Isle of Wight.  There are roughly 140 pubs, clubs and other venues participating, offering beer and bus enthusiasts plenty of choice.
Most of our group from Oxford left a little earlier on Day 2, headed to the beer festival in the Winter Gardens in Ventnor.  Breaking rank, we'd decided to make our own way in a loop through Shanklin, Sandown and Ryde.

Sorry to harp on about the weather, but...still raining...

We arrived in Shanklin shortly after 11am and walked down to the esplanade where the waves were crashing roughly at the top of the beach and just a few brave souls hunkered against the wind as they walked along the seafront.

If I'd have been looking for shark teeth, I'd never have been able to find them...

A short way back inland, we found our way to the pretty, thatched buildings that make up Old Shanklin village.  This afforded us the opportunity for a quick first half of the day in...

King Harry's Bar (6 Church Road, Shanklin, PO37 6NU - web)

Built in 1854, this hotel bar has been IOW CAMRA pub of the year in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

King Harry's, Shanklin - looks so much better in the picture in the programme

The bar was dark wood and dimly lit, with old pump clips covering the ceiling, whilst seating to the side of this is in cosy rooms overlooking a great garden.  Beyond this is a function room designed to look like a stately Tudor Hall, which is where we sat to sup an Island Brewery 'Hop Aboard' golden ale.

From Shanklin station we caught the next vintage bus heading east through Sandown.  Here was a venue only opened this weekend, where we caught up with Gareth and Tanya from our Oxford group (who'd beaten us here and already tried most of the beers whilst we were navigating buses from Shankin to Sandown).

Boojum Brewery Tap (High Street, Sandown - fb)
A brewery tap without a brewery!
This is a new enterprise, which will eventually become a new brewery for the Isle of Wight.  For now, they're still awaiting brewing kit, but were eager to participate in the Beer & Buses weekend.  Set within an old shop unit which had hastily been made presentable, Boojum had opened for the first time on Saturday, with a good selection of craft ales and cask beers.

Work in progress.

Great selection of beers available on this visit, especially if you liked your crafty murk.
I started with a Mad Dog 'K9 Triplephena' and then the lovely Vibrant Forest 'Black Forest Porter' on cask.
Being a foolhardy sucker for the strongest beer on the list, I couldn't resist the Hardywood 'Peach Triple', labelled as 8.2% ABV, but not tasting its strength and very easy to drink.

Friendly welcome at Boojum.

It'll be very interesting to come back again and see how Boojum looks once they begin brewing and creating their own beers.
We headed just around the corner to somewhere that had been recommended to us as a 'proper pub'.

The Castle (12-14 Fitzroy Street, Sandown, PO36 8HY)
And it was a proper pub.  It said so on the sign next to the entrance.

The Castle advertise themselves as the "Original and best Halloween pub".  "Enter if you dare..." the banner above the door says.
The pub picked up a lot of waxworks when the Isle of Wight wax museum at Brading closed down, which they now use to tremendous effect to seasonally decorate the pub.
I got a bit carried away taking pictures...

I'm not really sure how much competition there is for best Halloween pub, but I'm gonna make an assumption that The Castle is pretty tough to beat.

Oh!  And they had beer as well!
In addition to what was on the bar, they were running a beer festival in the function room.  They had a number of Halloween beers ('IPA of the Dead, 'Screech Owl', 'Bucket of Blood') but I picked the un-spooky 'Espresso Stout' brewed by Downton Brewery, and very tasty.

Pub Cat - not going back inside until after the crazy Halloween shit gets taken down.

Leaving Sandown behind, we jumped aboard another bus for a 30-minute trip to Ryde. 

The Railway (68 St Johns Road, Ryde, PO33 2TY)

Blue sky. BLUE SKY!

Previously called the Hole in the Wall, this back-street pub may be plain from the outside, but it's another good, traditional boozer inside.   We were greeted by a choice of around 20 casks on a stillage filling the corner of the pub.
Taking advantage of the rare sighting of sunshine, we took beers out into the pleasant walled garden to the side.

A short walk through the residential streets of Ryde took us to our next point of call...

The Solent Inn (7 Monkton Street, Ryde, PO33 1JW)
This was a two room corner-local in an interesting building with another fine choice of beers from casks on stillage in the window alcove of the bar.  On reflection, we'd done exceptionally well for beer selection throughout today.

And that was it.  Last Beer & Buses venue of the weekend.
We were just in time to catch the open-top bus, in the picture below, back to Newport.  It may have dried up, but it sure was chilly up on the upper deck, huddled into my hood, as we headed westwards with the sun setting on the horizon.

One last bus picture!

Despite not being blessed with the best of weather, Beer & Buses had been great.  There are numerous routes to new towns and villages that we didn't get anywhere near this weekend, so I'm certainly keen on a return visit.
After sitting on top of an open-top bus in October we woke up next day with sore throats and runny noses.

Our group travelled back home (as we'd arrived) on the route-master bus on Monday.  As the Oxford CAMRA group dispersed in their different directions we bade farewells until next week, when the Oxford Beer Festival gets underway at the Town Hall.  See you there!