Welcome to Guernsey - land of rain, sleet, sun, scones, full english breakfast, and CIDER!

 

On the ferry from Saint Malo to Guernsey

We've been to Guernsey!  Woohoo!  It was fabulous.  We had 5 great nights on this super cute island where we ate lots of bangers and mash and scones with clotted cream, and I discovered CIDER!  We had a great little guest house right on the water and next to a quintessential Guernsey pub which we visited for brekkie, lunch, and dinner!  And each time I had Inches Cider (except brekkie) - I'm hooked!  So, other than eating, we bussed our way around the island, sadly it was a little dangerous to ride due to the freezing temperatures, icy rain and gusty winds, not to mention the regular sleet, and because of the biggest surprise of all - the traffic.  Yep, Guernsey traffic is a nightmare.  Seriously.  And it isn't tourist season - in fact there were 12 people, two bikes, and a horse on our big ferry on the way to the island - so no tourists, just us.

It was strange to be among English speakers, and to understand everything on signs and menus - but we quickly adapted, found the Marks & Spencer food hall and the local Waitrose, and had a ball!  We dined at the famous local Chinese restaurant which was excellent, and made friends with the barman at the aforementioned pub.  We left today, hopping the weekly ferry to Jersey, which took us 4 hours, even though we could see Jersey when we left Guernsey - we couldn't work out why it was going to take so long, then they announced it when we were on board - we had to get the timing right to get out of Guernsey harbour with the tide, and then had to do happy laps for hours to wait for the right tide for us to get into Jersey!  Whacky.  I actually started writing the blog on the ferry, but alas, it was a little rockier than our ferry to Guernsey, so you had to wait till we were settled in our cute little apartment in St Helier in downtown Jersey - so far so good (we're just back from Marks & Spencer and the food is heating up in the oven - YUM YUM!).

So, that's enough yakking - I'll let the pics do the talking...

We had to be at the Saint Malo ferry terminal at 6.30am for our 8am ferry - it was FREEZING - rainy and windy.

Through customs and waiting for an hour to board - in the freezing cold!  By this time we are realising we need more weather protection.

On the ferry - pretty damn happy - and then we ordered our full english breakfast, including black pudding.  Yum Yum.  And you can see, like I said, 12 people.  The 2 bikes and horse were down in the car bays.

After 5 hours we site land - Sark Island, one of the smaller Channel Islands.

And then, we come into Guernsey - the rain has cleared and it's glorious.

We headed straight for the high street and lunch.

And then wound our way, through the cobbled back streets to our cute little guest house, right on the harbour.

 

Where around 7.30am a cute little breakfast basket would land on our doorstep - cereal, yoghurt, croissants with all the trimmings, and juice - with some fruit thrown in a couple of times.

But it was COLD!  "Feels like -4"

So, we ate scones with guernsey cream and butter

And sausage rolls with cider - my first cider at the pub next door

And the next day, after a morning of exploring, more scones at Fishy Tales kiosk at the harbour - with funny opening hours - we had more sausage rolls and scones

After a shopping morning on our first day on the island, we are sporting new warm and cosy jackets....sooo nice.

The castle on the harbour - it was closed for the season, as was pretty much every tourist attraction on the island - like I said, no tourists, only us.  It was awesome!

My new best friend.  Inch's cider.

Inch's Cider with our bangers and mash lunch at the pub - we went back the next day to repeat.

The view from the front of our little guest house

We hit the local public transport - which consisted of cute little buses - and went all the way around the island.  It's way more urban than either of us expected - so many people and cars, but we did spot some cows...

And glorious beaches and scenery...

And yesterday we took the bus again and headed to the one tourist attraction that's always open, The Little Chapel.  Built by a French brother in 1904, it's completely covered in mosaics using broken tiles, crockery, and shells.  Incredible.

And here's the cute post box outside the Saint Peter Port post office.

Saying goodbye to our wonderful home for the past 5 days and all packed ready to go to Jersey.

But first, we had to get in a little ride along the waterfront - today we woke up and IT WASN'T RAINING!

Brunch at the pub before we get the ferry.

And now we're here.  In Jersey.  We loved Guernsey, and can't wait to see what awaits us here.