Channel Islands: Guernsey

Gemma and I decided to make the most of the Easter break by taking a few days off after Easter, thus turning a five day break into a 10 day holiday. We used this massive time away to the utmost by visiting some of the Channel Islands - a bunch of islands in he English channel between UK and France. Now event though these islands have a different currency, don't pay British tax (or something like that), and are much closer to France then England, they are still part of the UK and a very popular tourist destination.

Some countries scare off toursits with complex visa applications, the Channel islands use the less conventional , yet just as effective, method of pill boxes. You can just see Baiky keeping an eye out for intruders.

Their popularity stems from two main reasons - they are waaaay down south, and so have the best weather of any UK territory and they are the only English territories (I think territory is the wrong word here) to be occupied by the Nazis (at least I am unaware of any others; feel free to educate me in the comments section and I will dutifully ignore said comment).

 We found this sign on one of our walks; about 60 years to late I reckon.

 We started off by spending a couple of days in Guernsey. We were greeted by a lazy rain. I call it lazy because it could not be bothered to go around us, and instead soaked us right through to our bones.

 Best. Weather. Ever. Also, funny story, it turns out the Gemma's jacket is NOT waterproof. Ahahahahahaha. I think I found that tidbit of information funnier than she did.

This was an issue because we arrived at 6am (via ferry, AND we bought Gemma's car!!!) and we did not have access to our hotel room for about 4 hours. So after going for a walk and visiting the lighthouse at St Martin's Point and Petit Bot Bay we were thoroughly drenched.

St Martin's Point.

Luckily the weather in our trip only improved from there, enabling us to visit all the sites Guernsey had to offer intrepid adventurers with only a couple of days to spare. We wandered around the tiniest church imaginable. 

Don't be fooled by this picture, I am showing you the angle that makes it look big (and, yes you can go inside)!

This, not surprisingly given my description, did not really take all that long.

This angle makes it look slimmer (I promised the church wouldn't show the 'fat' photo)

We visited the German Occupation Museum, which detailed the occupation by the Germans. Most interesting here (besides the tanks of course) was the tale of the poor administrator in charge at the time, whose name escapes me and google failed me. He had to represent the citizens of Guernsey while still maintaining the outrageous German rules imposed on his citizens.

Gemma and I also met up with Gemma's friend Paul, a local denizen. He showed us the trick of getting across to Lihou Island.

Here I am trying to get to Lihou island.

It turns out the the tides in Guernsey (and the rest of the channel islands) display one of the largest tidal ranges in the world, allowing the brave to safely wander across to the nearby island if you time it right. Just, you know, make sure you get back again in time too.

Paul parts the waters for us!

 More importantly, past or the cars lined up for an annual drag race. I have never seen so many elite cars at one time. 

This was followed up a few days later by a 'Hill Climb'. Pictured here are some F3s, but there were also a whole bunch of sports cars worth more than I'll ever see in a lifetime.

Fortunately, we also found time to take a leisurely drive around the coast of the island, stop off at Castle Cornet (for some history) and I even managed to sneak in a little run. I also probably could not finish this post without describing the difficulty in finding a beer on Good Friday before 7pm (and the strange looks we got when we asked for one).

Found one!