Day 4 was St. Malo, France, where there is a medieval abbey, Mont St. Michel. Our daily info sheet warned us the walk was pretty rugged, and my ankle still hurt, so I opted to stay on the ship. There were only 2 other wimps, but we had a nice lunch and I read a lot, put my foot up and took a long nap. The only thing missing was a hot bath!
Day 5, 4/27
On day 5, we got an extra hour, due to being on British time rather than French, and so we got to see the ship approach Guernsey, one of Britain's Channel Islands.
More words and pictures after the jump!
Again, there was no way to tell if the light was operative, but the little lighthouse was very cute!
The view of St. Peter Port, with its houses built into the hillside, was adorable!
A pilot boat came to guide us in to the harbor:
But even our tiny ship was too big for the docks, so we took a tender and disembarked at the harbor.
As we left the ship, I saw our guest lecturer and his wife on their way onto the ship. He looks just like his grandfather, and she's instantly recognizable to someone who grew up in the 1970s!
Unlike in Belle Île, our buses were right in the parking lot at the top of the ramp, so hooray for that. Guernsey is an interesting mix of old structures and new.
The newer buildings are almost all finance-related, Guenrnsey has a lot of headquarters for various financial institutions.
There's a monument to all the lorry drivers killed in a German attack at the beginning of WWII.
After the Nazis occupied Guernsey, they dug lots and lots and lots of bunkers. Now, the people who own the land own the bunker.
A pretty Norman church:
Very narrow roads (this is two lanes!):
We had a long stop at one of the stations on Hitler's Atlantic Wall, including the gun:
Which was reached by a trench:
Into which I did not climb, but Mom did!
Then a walk over to the Atlantic-facing bunker:
I finally know what gorse looks like!
And I'm reasonably sure these pretties are members of the chive family:
Gorgeous view, but a bit of a drop!
A horse in a coat:
An abandoned tomato greenhouse, one of many:
Our guide explained that Guernsey tomatoes were a huge part of the economy until the fuel shortages in the 1970s drove up the cost of heating the greenhouses
Fort Grey, which is a Martello tower:
A miniature version of Fort Grey in a store parking lot:
Another tower:
More of the Atlantic:
A very old gristmill:
Another German installation:
Super narrow streets! o.O
A house I'd like to own:
A private school I'd like to attend:
On the left is a very worn gargoyle, attached to a church. On the right is a bar, making this the shortest distance from church to booze anywhere in Europe:
A close-up of the gargoyle:
The bar sign:
A Guernsey pig:
The young sales associate identified us as Americans, and then could not for the life of her understand why anyone would come to Guernsey on vacation! I guess it's all a matter of what's routine and therefore boring, and what's different from what you're used to.
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