Tynwald

Tynwald, originally uploaded by British Traveller.

Forget Westminster, forget Congress, forget Athens, forget even Thingvellir (shame on you if you have to look that one up), what you're looking at the oldest surviving parliament in the world! Impressive, no? It's called Tynwald, and it's where every year representatives from around the Isle of Man come to promulgate new laws, and have done for the last...well, actually noone knows for how many years, that's the only catch. Manx people are proud of their political independence, which in practical terms means: 1) hardly any tax; 2) my vodafone sim card doesn't work, which is why all these blogs are late.

Vikings!

Vikings!, originally uploaded by British Traveller.

I know, I know, this doesn't look like Vikings, but bear with me. The outline of stones you see here are the remains of a genuine Viking ship burial. This was quite exciting for me as I remember studying it at university. The Vikings used to bury people in ships all the time back home, but never in Britain apart from right here, on the Isle of Man.

The Queen's coin

The Queen's coin, originally uploaded by British Traveller.

Britain does its best to pretend to be as many countries as possible without the inconvenience of actually splitting up. A good example of this is the currency. What you're looking at is, at the top, a Manx note and, at the bottom a Scottish note. Interestingly the Manx one carries an image of the Queen while the Scottish one doesn't. I've also thrown in a Manx 50p and a Hong Kong dollar which I found in Edinburgh. Again, note that the Hong Kong coin displays the Queen, as it dates from before the 1997 handover to China.

Port St. Mary

Port St. Mary, originally uploaded by British Traveller.

I arrived in the Isle of Man last night in miserable weather. A good night's sleep, and suddenly it's gone all tropical. Look, there's even pine trees. One immediately noticeable feature of the Isle is how affluent it is. It's a tax haven, of course, and the gleaming, villa-like houses make a marked contrast to many of the other islands I've seen, with their struggling crofting communities.