Holidays In Guernsey

A Memory of Guernsey.

We first went to Guernsey in June 1979. The first thing we noticed as we drove off the ferry was that the pace of life was a lot calmer then here in England - mainly because of the speed limit of 30 mph. My husband spent 30 years in the Metropolitan Police Force - a very stressful job and has always said that Guernsey is the only place where he can totally "switch off".

We stayed at a holiday apartment in Vale.  Guernsey was still very much the same as it had been when the war ended.   As it was not a popular holiday destination at the time it was very peaceful and very beautiful but as there were still a lot of road signs missing it was difficult to follow a road map which meant we were always getting lost.  We returned in 1981 when our daughter was 18 months old.  That was when we discovered Portelet Harbour.  An ideal place for us to spend our time as it was sunny with shady places that remained all day. This meant that my husband could sit in the shade while myself and our daughter could stay in the sun.  There is a splendid view of the Maritime Museum or the "cup and saucer" as the locals call it.  You can also watch the fishermen as they take their boats out to to catch crabs and lobsters. It became the first place to visit whenever we were in Guernsey - in fact we spent most of our beach time there.

Our children always enjoyed the Old Guernsey Market especially joining in with the dancing. This was suspended for the re-building of the market but hopefully will be back next time we visit.

 My daughter found the Museums useful for her GCSE History project about World War II.  She even used the book "A Childs' War" by Molly Bihet as part of her Food Studies exam using extracts about the children collecting potatoes that fell from carts. On our last visit we went to one of Molly's talks about the German Occupation during the war.  We found it fascinating and spoke to her afterwards and found her to be a lovely lady.  She kindly autographed her lastest book I had bought for our daughter. We have also visited and enjoyed the North Show, West Show and The Battle of the Flowers several times, in fact a holiday in Guernsey is not complete without a day out at one of them. We have also enjoyed visits to Herm, Sark and Jersey.  A visit to Alderney is on the list of things to do next time we visit.

Over the years we have noticed that the holiday trade increased in the late 80's and early 90's but has lessened in the last few years making the Island a more peaceful place to visit once again. We returned to the Island in 2002 after a 9 year gap and noticed a lot of changes had taken place.  The Tomato Centre is no longer there, the Strawberry Farm has changed and a number of hotels have disappeared but this makes no difference to us, we still enjoy our visits.

Our last trip to the Island was in September last year.  We were lucky with the weather and spent 10 days enjoying the Island, seeing the flypast for the Battle of Britain anniversary.

We are always very sad when the time comes for us to return home.  We would love to retire there but that is not an option we can take as property is too expensive .  Guernsey feels like a second home to us and we will return as often as we can.  In fact I JUST CAN'T WAIT TO GET THERE AGAIN.

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