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As a major ferry terminal, RYDE is the first landfall many visitors make on the island, but one where few choose to linger, despite some grand nineteenth-century architecture and decent beach amusements. The tourist office (March-Oct Mon-Sat 9am-5.30pm, Sun 9am-5pm; Nov-Feb daily 9am-4.30pm; tel 01983/562905), bus station, Hovercraft terminal and Esplanadetrain station (the northern terminus of the Island Line train line, which runs south to Shanklin) are all located near the base of the pier. Boat trips to the Solent forts leave from Ryde jetty; for details contact Solent & Wight Line Cruises (tel 01983/564602). Accommodation is available at Yelf's Hotel on Union Street (tel 01983/564062; GBP50-60), right in the town centre; it's one of Ryde's oldest hotels, though mainly geared up for business travellers. Inexpensive B&Bs include the Trentham Guest House , 38 The Strand (tel 01983/563418; under GBP40), and the similar Vine Guest House , 16 Castle St (tel 01983/566633; under GBP40) - both are just south of the Esplanade. Central eating options can be found around Union Street, such as Joe Daflo's Cafe Bar at no. 24 and the elegant Blue Moon on Castle Street. As elsewhere on the island, just a couple of miles can remove you from an undistinguished urban setting into one of idyllic rusticity. Just outside the village of Binstead, two miles west of Ryde's centre, lies one of the island's earliest Christian relics, Quarr Abbey , founded in 1132. Only stunted ruins survived the Dissolution and ensuing plunder of ready-cut stone, although an ivy-clad archway still hangs picturesquely over a farm track. In 1907 a new abbey was founded just west of the ruins, a striking red-brick building with Byzantine overtones (daily 9am-9pm; Vespers 5pm). Three miles south of Ryde on the busy A3055 Sandown road, the ancient village of BRADING boasts a surprisingly disparate collection of ancient and modern sites. Just south of the village are the remains of Brading Roman Villa (April-Oct daily 9.30am-5pm; GBP2.75), one of two such villas on the island (the other is in Newport), both of which were probably sites of bacchanalian worship. The Brading site is renowned for its superbly preserved mosaics, including intact images of Medusa and depictions of Orpheus, associated with the cult of Bacchus. Signposted off the A3055 less than a mile northwest of Brading, Nunwell House (July to early Sept Mon-Wed 1-5pm; GBP4) was where, in 1647, Charles I spent his last night of freedom before being taken to Carisbrooke Castle and thence to his eventual execution in Whitehall. The house has been in the Oglander family for nearly nine hundred years, with the present building being a mix of Jacobean and Georgian styles with Victorian additions. Guided tours take place at 1.30pm, 2.30pm and 3.30pm, and the entry ticket includes a free guide booklet.
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