I guess I’m doing this day-by-day: that wasn’t really my plan…but once I got into writing these posts, I realized we did more than I thought, and I don’t like writing realllllllly long travel posts. So, day 3, ahem….
We started with a nice Full English breakfast at Longfrie and then embarked on our plan of lazily riding up the west coast of the island. Guernsey is overall quite small–about 40 miles in circumference total on the road–and the original plan had been to spend only 1 night on the island. But when my plan to get us from Guernsey straight over to Diélette on the north coast of La Manche fell apart, the resulting scramble meant an extra night on Guernsey and a ferry transfer on the island of Jersey. So, we aimed to make the most of our extra time on the island.
As it was the day before the anniversary of D-Day, we stopped and poked around a few of the many German fortifications still hulking on the Western beach-heads of Guernsey: the one at Fort Hommet now houses a beautiful little chapel decorated floor-to-ceiling with beach shells; it wasn’t open the day we were there, so you’ll have to view pictures of it online. We were particularly impressed with the stone-masonry on the fortifications–still basically pristine after almost 100 years, complete with meticulously beveled grout lines and smooth, dark beach stones inserted into appropriate gaps in the red basalt. It matches very well the unique style of other island masonry of the same period, so while I assume it was done by conscripted Guernsey masons, I couldn’t easily confirm that. But it touched me–the thought of these local masons whose pride in their craft couldn’t be overcome by their resentment of a brutal Occupation.
We then detoured inland to the lovely Victorian gardens at Saumarez Manor and their fascinating little folk museum; we especially enjoyed the exhibits on cider-making and quarrying (Guernsey was heavily quarried for granite up to the 20th century) as well as the old kitchens. We chuckled when a promised exhibit of local costumes turned out to be mostly donated clubbing outfits from the 1980s(I had truly forgotten how big those shoulder pads were….). There was, however, a fascinating little exhibit on the knitting of the local indigo-dyed “Guernsey” sweaters, which were knit in the round to minimize chafing seams, and then armholes were cut and sleeves knit on (Cheryl and I, both knitters, still cannot figure how this was done without the whole body of the sweater unraveling….) The pretty terrace café at the manor was closed as it was a Sunday, so we meandered back to Vazon beach where we bought delicious fried potatoes and “bean jar” (sort of a cassoulet made with beef hock) from a kiosk, washed down with tea. We sat on the beach for an hour or so enjoying the sun and the dogs playing along the waterline with their owners, and then we worked our way to our hotel for the night.
The Rookery 