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| Royal Bay & Mont Orgueil Castle - Jersey, Channel Islands |
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| Pat with Our Hosts (Noelia & Annelise) - Jersey, Channel Islands |
Channel Islands - Jersey & Guernsey (6/26-29/2011) - Friendship is the theme that dominated our visit to the Channel Islands. We went to see our friends Noelia, who was our perfect host and showed us around this beautiful island for 4 days, and Annelise, who came over from London to see us. We met Noelia and Annelise in Iguazu Falls in Argentina and the four of us are travel/life-changing kindred spirits – we ‘get’ each other.
With
our host, Noelia, we toured the island of Jersey visiting such places
as the beautiful Beauport Bay, the silky sandy beach of St. Brelade’s
Bay, Gorey Bay, St. Juan’s Beach - a surfers’ paradise, and then having
dinner watching the glorious sunset on the west side of Jersey. Small castles and fortifications from centuries of occupiers surround the island. The Jersey countryside is beautiful.
We also took a day trip by ferry to the neighboring Channel Island of Guernsey, famous for the setting of the book “Potato Peel Pie Society” about the harsh German occupation during WWII.
Located
in the English Channel about 40 miles northwest of France, the Channel
Islands are self governing and although closely linked to the United
Kingdom for foreign policy and defense, the Channel Islands are considered a separate jurisdiction.
We
visited two of the four Channel Islands starting with Jersey. With a
population of about 90,000, Jersey is a beautiful island and is famous
for it modest climate, offshore finance, the Jersey Cow, and creamy
dairy products (the ice cream is great!). About 30% of population is
concentrated in Jersey’s capital, Saint Helier, where we stayed arriving
by ferry from France. Saint Helier is a pretty town with flowers
everywhere and all quite British. It is large enough to act like a small
city but small enough that a lot of people know each other. We wandered
Saint Helier's shopping
areas, open market, and had lunches of crab sandwiches and fish and
chips – all quite British. Because of no capital gains tax and other
benefits, offshore finance is huge here creating high earnings and with
Jersey’s mild climate, it is a sought out place to live and housing
prices have sky rocketed.
Some
history… The island of Jersey and the other Channel Islands represent
the last remnants of the medieval Dukedom of Normandy once prominent in
both France and England. The Channel Islands were the only British soil
occupied by German troops in World War II. With slave labor they built
massive defenses against possible invasion that never came.
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| Saint Peters - Guernsey, Channel Islands |
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| Sunset - Jersey, Channel Islands |
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| They Love Their Jersey Cows - Saint Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands |
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| Lunch of Fish & Chips and Creamy Peas at Hector's - Saint Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands |
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