Tag: Guernsey and Alderney

Channel Islands 4: Guernsey to Alderney

Continuing coverage of my holiday with the trip from Guernsey to Alderney

We reach a transition point in my account of my recent holiday – the journey from Guernsey to Alderney.

THE MORNING

Although we had to check out of our hotel by 10AM and the boat to Alderney was not due to sail until 4PM we were able to leave our bags at the hotel to be picked up immediately before boarding, which enabled us to spend an enjoyable morning in St Peter Port. We enjoyed a picnic lunch, and picked our bags up from the hotel, before heading for the boat.

THE VOYAGE TO ALDERNEY

The boat on which we travelled over to Alderney (a voyage that takes about an hour) on a small boat run by a company called Salty Blonde. The voyage itself was fairly uneventful (the sea was very smooth fortunately). The main drama came on our arrival at the harbour on Alderney, when we had a substantial climb up a vertical metal ladder from the boat, and the platform at the top of said ladder was covered in seaweed. The boat crew managed our bags for us to that point, but the climb was not an experience I would care to repeat even so.

FROM THE HARBOUR TO FORT CLONQUE

A taxi conveyed the baggage and my mother to the fort while the rest of us walked. The walk was a pleasant one, and then it remained only to decide on rooms at the fort.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Photographs from the day…

Our boat for the trip to Alderney

Channel Islands 3: A Day on Guernsey

An account of a full day on Guernsey as part of my series on my recent holiday.

Welcome to the latest post in this series about my recent holiday (I am now back in Lynn, so these posts will be coming less sporadically). This post covers the one full day we spent on Guernsey en route to Alderney.

A FRENCH RESTAURANT

On the Saturday evening, having established ourselves at St Georges Guest House, roughly a kilometre from the centre of St Peter Port, we went out to find a restaurant to eat at. We settled on a French establishment, and the food and drink were both excellent.

We were given seats in the ‘2CV Room’ – this pic should explain the name.

Castle Cornet

The following morning we walked out to Castle Cornet, purchasing food at an M&S Food Hall on the way. We ate near a lighthouse, which I subsequently walked out to – it was very windy around the lighthouse but worth it for the views.

The restaurant we booked for supper

THE GUERNSEY MUSEUM

There was a wildlife photography exhibition at the Guernsey Museum as well as some stuff on the history of the island.

Channel Islands 2: Setting the Scene for the Rest of the Series

Resuming my coverage of my holiday to Guermsey and Alderney, setting the scene for what is to come in this series of posts.

I wasn’t entirely sure when I put the first post of this series about my holiday up as to when I would be able to post. There was no internet connection in Alderney, although I was able to edit plenty of photos ready for use. Yesterday we travelled back from Alderney to Guernsey, and then visited two places which both proved of huge interest, and left me with over 300 photos to edit to catch back up with that side of things. Between last night and this morning (I was underway before 7AM) I completed that job, meaning that at least until the end of today I am up to date in terms of photos. I am going to use the rest of this post to outline the rest of the series for you.

PLANNED POSTS

I will devote one post to the day we spent on Guernsey before we were able to travel across to Alderney.

The journey to Alderney will account for the next post.

The Harbour at Braye, Alderney – the boat bottom right of shot is the one we travelled on from Guernsey to Alderney.

I will produce several posts about Alderney:

A cricket themed post in honour of John Arlott who spent his last years on Alderney – this will take the form of a two-fold journey, through a large amount of space and centuries in time as I cover cricketing links relating to my journey (two of them highly contrived, I admit), creating a spectacular XI in the process.

Students of the game will instantly realise how the road sign in this picture enabled me to sneakily fill one of the opener’s slots -the other was already filled fair and square.

A post about our first visit to St Anne, the sole town on the island.

Probably two posts about the walk we did on our second full day on the island.

A special post featuring maps of Alderney and the Channel Islands, several great examples of which I saw:

A special post dedicated to the birds of Alderney, of which I saw some fine specimens.

A post about the return journey to Guernsey.

Every post relating to Alderney will feature a view of Fort Clonque, where we stayed.

A view of the fort taken from the far end of the causeway that links it to the rest of the island.

Events since arriving back on Guernsey warrant at least three posts already:

A post about the Little Chapel.

Two posts minimum about the Occupation Museum (Guernsey was occupied by the Germans from 1940-5).

I have no doubt that today’s events will be worth at least one further post, and then there is the return journey.

Channel Islands 1: King’s Lynn to Guernsey

Beginning my account of a family holiday in Guernsey and Alderney with an account of getting to Guernsey.

I am writing this post in a guest house at St Peter Port on the island of Guernsey. I am on a family holiday the centrepiece of which is a few days in Fort Clonque on the island of Alderney. We have time on Guernsey either side of that due to the fact the only ferries we could book were one going out of Portsmouth yesterday morning and one returning to Poole a week today. Just for the record these ferries are run by Condor, which is not part of the Pathetic & Obnoxious Group (P&O for short) who are currently treating their employees so atrociously.

KING’S LYNN TO PORTSMOUTH

Owing to the amount of stuff she and my nephew were taking my sister drove from King’s Lynn to Portsmouth, then took her car to Poole ready for the return journey before getting a train back to Portsmouth. I travelled by train (I had intended to do the same for the return journey from Poole before change in ferry times nixed that idea, so I will be a passenger in her car for the return journey). I got the 13:44 from Lynn to London which ran to time, giving me just under an hour to get from King’s Cross to Waterloo for the train to Poole, far more time than needed for that journey. I elected to take the Victoria line to Oxford Circus and then the Bakerloo line to Waterloo, deciding that although changing to the Jubilee at Green Park was quicker in terms of time spent on trains that difference would be more than accounted for by the difference between the cross-platform hop at Oxford Circus and the long interchange at Green Park, especially given the weight of my bags.

I arrived at Waterloo half an hour before my train to Portsmouth was due to depart, and had to wait for the platform to be confirmed. The train arrived in Portsmouth on time, and I made my way to the Travelodge, about three minutes walk from Portsmouth and Southsea station, where my sister my nephew and I were booked into a three bed room for the night.

PORTSMOUTH TO GUERNSEY

Originally our ferry was supposed to set out at 9AM, which would have meant being at the terminal by 8AM (Guernsey is a ‘crown dependency’, not part of Britain, so this is officially an international journey), but a delay meant that check was not until 9:30AM. Once we got underway it was smooth sailing – there were a few small waves in evidence in the open sea but it was never remotely rough.

We arrived into St Peter Port just after 5PM, and were established at our guest house an hour later.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…