Leslie and I both began re-reading the Potato Peel Pie Society book while we were in Guernsey and we decided the whole thing feels way more vivid and possible now that we've seen the island ourselves. Wow. Everything in the Occupation Museum rang true to the book, and I learned about so many more interesting details that were not in the book. I loved the organic sprawling cottage scrapbook style jumble of musty artifacts in the museum, especially the labels that said whose yard or house the items were found in. It was all so close and real. "The war goes on and on, doesn't it?" --Juliet Ashton in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
After trying some Guernsey gache at the museum tearoom (pronounced "gosh"--it's croissant-type bread with raisins, served with rich Guernsey butter on top), we walked a mile to the Little Chapel. The rain had let up and it was green and breezy--still cloudy, but the lanes were beautiful with endless quaint cottages and stone walls. It was an excellent peaceful green walk. We passed a Guernsey Dairy and saw some of the famous brown cows in the field across from the Little Chapel.
In a word, the Little Chapel was stunning. The details in all of the broken pieces of china made it into a glittering jewel, even on the cloudy day. I only went to the Little Chapel because it's mentioned in the book, but I stayed admiring it for a long time because it was so intricate and pretty. Every square inch of the walls was covered in pieces of broken china, and the variety was breathtaking. I could sit and happily stare at a wall in the Little Chapel all day. Also, the Little Chapel was little--I had to duck in the doorways and the whole building was only a few meters long.
We caught a bus back to St. Peter Port at the Little Chapel. I started a list of cottage names and added to it whenever I could all day--mostly on bus rides.
I also charged my phone on the bus rides--they had convenient USB charging ports at the seats, and thank goodness! My phone battery is weak and I still can't believe I left the charger back in France with Jeff! I had the plug converter, but no USB port to plug the cord into. Low battery warnings haunted the trip, but didn't ruin it--I was able to mooch enough charges off of various sources to get by so we could have maps and photos.
After our long morning at the museum and the Little Chapel, we ate a late lunch back in St. Peter Port at The Crow's Nest, which was on a third-story of a building overlooking the harbor. The view was excellent and the little restaurant/bar was very snug and cute. We walked around town a little after lunch, then retrieved our bags from the hotel's handy storage (underneath the counter) and went to the ferry terminal.
Our ferry was 80 minutes late and we had awful big rolling waves for most of the crossing. I felt so sea sick I had to stand on the deck in the breeze an breathe deeply for nearly the whole 90 minutes to avoid puking. We arrived in Jersey at 9pm, got off the ferry, and managed to walk the mile in the dark to our hotel before the check-in cutoff time of 10pm. There was no dinner that night--we were too tired to try finding a place that was open, and I was still feeling green around the gills from seasickness. Thankfully I had a massive hamburger at 3pm, which held me over till the morning. We arrived at the hotel at 9:42pm, but really, what hotel has a check-in cutoff time? The lady at the desk was cranky about it too--our Jersey hotel was the one on our whole trip that didn't live up to the research and expectations I put into it. I guess it was officially a Guest House, so maybe those have different rules? Whatever.
Since there was only one ferry going from Guernsey to France per day and it left at 3pm, we decided to take a later ferry to Jersey so we could have a few extra hours in Guernsey, then spend a night in Jersey. That way we could take an early ferry back to France--Jersey isn't so exclusive with its ferry times as Guernsey. Our ferry to France left at 9am the next day, arriving in Saint-Malo at 11:30am local time and giving us plenty of time to meet Jeff and the kids for an excursion in Normandy.
Guernsey
The occupation museum was in a long low cottage and was awesomely old-school in both its presentation and its operation. The guy working there was a child during the German Occupation, and he was rather fierce about the topic. He didn't seem very chatty though (surly and crusty to a t) so I couldn't ask him my one thousand questions about What It Was Like. Oh well, the displays and primary source documents spoke for themselves.
This gave me CHILLS: the islanders did passive silent resistance like painting V for Victory on walls and sometimes even on the seats of German motorbikes. The Germans countered with their own mark--a green laurel wreath representing their own victory.
These harsh hubris-heavy posters were shocking and really told the story of how it felt to be occupied, almost better than anything else.
Shudder--what awful toys!
A handwritten thank you note from various islanders to a German doctor who smuggled medicine out of the military infirmary and gave it to Guernsey people.
The scrapbook of a girl who fell in love with a German soldier--his portrait signed with his love and her handwritten postcard expressing her love and hope that her man would come back and marry her after the war was mind boggling. But he did come back and they did get married. I was completely caught up and swept away in all of the individual stories on display in this museum. I think it was my favorite museum that I've ever been to.
And then there were the notes written from island parents to their evacuated children who were living in England. The Red Cross delivered very short notes between separated families every few months. That's it. They had a word count limit of less than two dozen words per message and could only send letters 2-3 times per year!
Pictures of Guernsey in 1940 at the beginning of the occupation.
This one really got me: there was an underground news service, curated and written by people with hidden illegal wireless radio sets. Several of the writers were found out and sent to concentration camps and some even died there, but the newspaper went on. What a testament to human resilience!
A newspaper article from 2014 about unexploded German mines found on the channel island of Sark: WOAH.
I can't even imagine having a sign like this posted near my home.
Guernsey gache. Ours tasted a bit cold and stale to me--maybe it was the fact that we were eating it in a musty cottage museum filled with that old smell of historic clothing and other artifacts, but the gache tasted old. Maybe it was leftover from the occupation? haha
Time to walk to the Little Chapel. The route took us through some of the most idyllic streets in St. Martin's Parish.
Time to walk to the Little Chapel. The route took us through some of the most idyllic streets in St. Martin's Parish.
Necessary Guernsey cow selfie in the rain.
Walking in the rain.
Meadow Court Farm
Our "sidewalk" was multipurpose:
1. In the absence of pedestrians, it gave some much-needed extra width to the narrow street.
2. Sasquatches preferred--we thought the silhouettes used in the "walk" symbols were more Bigfoot-ish than the scrawny American stick figures and it made us chuckle.
1. In the absence of pedestrians, it gave some much-needed extra width to the narrow street.
2. Sasquatches preferred--we thought the silhouettes used in the "walk" symbols were more Bigfoot-ish than the scrawny American stick figures and it made us chuckle.
The field across from the Little Chapel, cows and all.
The Little Chapel had a grotto feel to it with an entrance down low at the back and another door up top at the front.
I think Leslie was tired of my selfie demands by the end of our 28 hours in Guernsey. But we went there TOGETHER! We needed pictures TOGETHER! So I limited them as much as I could and was satisfied with solo selfies for most of the time.
Going in
Utterly enchanted
I couldn't get enough of the details--the more I looked, the more I saw!
A helpful tourist took this scale photo for me.
The setting. Placid cows in the field, gem-of-a-chapel on the hill.
The Crow's Nest pub was above the Ship and Crown, which used to be a hotel, and those stairs next to it are the ones where Juliet Ashton meets Dawsey Adams for the first time in the movie rendition of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
The view from our table at the Crow's Nest
The entire Crow's Nest was this one perfect small room. We arrived five minutes before the kitchen closed for the afternoon, hastily placed our orders, and had the place to ourselves while we ate.
While Leslie was window shopping after lunch, I slipped off to do a bit more steep stair climbing up to a city/harbor view.
Hunting for a good view is always one of my favorite activities.
Found it! This short trip to Guernsey made me certain that I want to come back and spend more time there, if only to experience it all on a sunny day. The island has so much interesting history and gorgeous views and rustic buildings and adorably named cottages--I could easily spend a week or two enjoying it.
The sun started trying to come out just as we were making our way to the ferry terminal.
Boarding the ferry, which transported cars, shipping containers, and people. UGH that was a sickening rolling heaving journey.
The evening sea breeze was so chilly that I pulled out my Guernsey sweater and wore it for the whole ferry ride. I made sure to take a picture wearing my Guernsey with Guernsey in the background. This was before we were too far out in the tall awful waves and thus before the seasickness set in.
The walk to our Guest House on Jersey took us through this long tunnel full of cars on a narrow sidewalk. It was a nervewracking way to end a long day on a tender post-ferry tummy.
I LOVE GUERNSEY!
I LOVE GUERNSEY!
My list, for interested parties:
Guernsey Cottages
Seagull Cottage
Rose Cottage
Bramlea
Claremont House
Little Haven
Wishing Well
Elmtrees
Landela
The Tea Cosy
Michda
The Warren
Pine Groves
Les Ormes
Fairmount
Heaton Moor
Iris
Mi Casa
La Rocque Melange
La Douce Chaumiere
La Perle Noire
Les Loriers
La Maison des Reves
Highbury
Cliff Dale
Les Blicqs
Vauxbelts Cottage
Shadow Miss
Dolphin's Leap
Hedgefield
1 comment:
OK — We are definitely going back there together one day.
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