Hey folks, as
promised this is the 2nd part although it took me longer to get to
it than I had hoped. Sorry but I hope
you still enjoy!!
Guernsey, UK
First we need a
little history lesson. During WWII, the
Channel Islands were the only part of the UK to be invaded and taken over by
the Germans. Since they are closer to
France than to England, King George de-militarized them because he needed his
forces for the mainland. For one reason
or another, the Germans were not notified that Guernsey was de-militarized and they
bombed the main harbor of St. Peters-Port.
Then the Germans invaded the island and took control for the next 5
years. The last year or two of the
occupation, the food supply became very limited because the Germans were losing
the war and supplies were not being sent over to the islands. For the last year, it was just as rough to be
a German solider on the island as it was to be a citizen. When the citizens were finally free, lots of
German soldiers stayed on the island to help remove the mines, barbed wire,
etc. Apparently, they were happier to
stay there and help clean it up then to be sent to some prison. That is the very short, abbreviated version
of course.
Now you are
probably wondering how I know all of this.
Well it’s from 3 parts. 1 part from
reading a fiction novel about the island (Guernsey literary and potato peel pie
society, very good), 1 part from visiting a German occupation museum on the
island and 1 part from talking to a British gentleman who lived on the island
during the occupation.
I had first heard
about Guernsey through my boss, Bill, because his wife (Penny) is from
Guernsey. All of the pictures I had seen
of the island were absolutely beautiful so I told myself I really wanted to
go! After talking with Bill and his
wife, I realized the dates I wanted to go happened to be while they were
visiting the island as well. This meant I
now had a personal tour guide from someone who had grown up there, yay!
I took a plane over
on Saturday morning and it was a short journey, about 1 hour. I grabbed a cab from the airport to my hotel,
which was in the main town of St. Peters-port.
I wondered around the high street for a while, and then decided to take
a bus trip around the island. I was told
it takes about an hour and since it was only £1, it
seemed like a great deal! I hopped off at one of the bays and had lunch staring
out into the ocean. It was
breathtakingly beautiful. After lunch
and some more walking along the beach, I hopped back on and went back to
town. That night, I met with Bill and
Penny for drinks and they took me to dinner in Cobo Bay. We had a table looking out at the water and
the sunset was amazing. The only place
better was in Oia, Greece, on the island of Santorini. We didn’t stay out drinking too late because
we had an early boat ride over to the island of Sark.
Lunch Spot |
Coming up to Cobo Bay |
The boat trip over
to Sark on Sunday was great, it was a large ferry boat but we could still be
outside to see the surrounding islands. We
passed the island of Herm along with all of these little rock islands sticking
out of the ocean. At several points you
could see nothing but open waters and the next closest body of land was
probably the east coast of the states.
After arriving at Sark, we started to make our way to the restaurant for
lunch. It was a 45 minute walk because
there are NO cars on the island.
Everyone gets around by bike, horse-drawn carriage, or tractor. We had lunch in a hotel garden and a few
pitchers of Pimms & Lemonade (so delicious). Next we went roaming around the island and
found some cliffs overlooking the sea. I
felt like I was standing on the edge of the world because everywhere I looked
it was nothing but water. We couldn’t have
asked for better weather either, a perfect 72 and sunny! We walked around the town some more and took
into all of the beautiful beaches.
Boat Ride to Sark |
Carriage outside the Restaurant |
Nothing for miles!!! |
We headed back late
Sunday evening and had a relaxing night in watching the Euro cup finals. Felt bad for my Italian friends but it was a
good match. Monday I was supposed to
have a rib trip around the island of Herm.
Apparently it was a large rubber boat (fits 10peoepl or so) and it whisks
you around the island and you get to see various beaches and wildlife
spots. Well the weather turned to crap
on Monday so the trip got cancelled. The
captain said the seas would have been too rough. I was bummed but I did get some shopping in
to cheer me up J Instead of the rib trip, we visited the
occupation museum. It was amazing to see
all of the pieces they still had from back in the day. I also found out that Penny’s dad was here on
the island during the occupation so after we finished at the museum we went
back to his house and talked to him for a while about what life was like
then. It was incredibly
interesting!! It is also rare to meet
someone who lived on the island then because most children were shipped off the
island before the Germans invaded. Women
and most children were sent to live with families on the mainland that would
take them in.
Because of the crappy
weather, I was a little afraid I wasn’t going to be able to get off the
island. When I was dropped off at the
airport, the fog was so heavy that you couldn’t even see the runway. Thank goodness the fog cleared and planes
were able to land. My flight was only
about 15minutes late taking off so it wasn’t too bad.
I would have to say that my
favorite part of this trip so far has been Guernsey! Most British people I talk to ask me about
it, I show them pictures and they are amazed at how beautiful it is. Apparently it’s not a popular destination for
British folks because they would rather go someplace farther down on the Mediterranean,
like France or Italy. I would guess that
for every 10 people I ask, maybe 1 or 2 has been to the Channel Islands.
If any of you ever have the
chance, do it!! It is truly
amazing. Well I leave you with some fabulous
pictures from my trip. I will try to
write one more time before I head back to the states on Friday. I have some good stories from the last few
days.
Guernsey Castle |
My preferred method of travel once im rich and retired (i can always dream right!?) |