May 18: Guernesy Island: city and museums

Previous: May 17

Forgot to mention in my description of yesterday's trip to Guernsey that the waves did occasionally become quite significant. One particularly dramatic lurch had the deck drop out from under us so fast that I briefly saw the heads of the passengers in the front row rise above the head rests, accompanied by many delighted screams (and presumably a few quiet groans). The type of ferry we took is apparently called a "surface-effect ship", which is basically a cross between a hovercraft (very loud, poorly maneuverable, and not in the water) and a catamaran (quieter because the motive power is directed to a propellor rather than a giant fan and is more maneuverable because two hulls are at least partially in the water). It handles waves well, but clearly not perfectly.

Also forgot to mention a local snack we tried yesterday: "gache" (pronounced "gosh"). It's a sort of dessert cum sweetish bread filled with cranberries and slathered with butter. The start of our hike was at a small café by the side of the sea, and since we'd never tried gache before, we bought a slab for trail food. We nibbled as we walked. It was okay, but not great; it would have been much better fresh from the oven, and "gache melee" (same idea, but with more fruits) would have been better.

Last but not least of the forgotten notes: When I complained about the endless upstairs then downstairs then repeat again and again and again, Shoshanna noted that next time, we should vacation on Escher Island. So long as we circle the stairs in the right direction, the entire trip should be downhill! That seems much easier.

Yesterday night's "Sunday slice" was a feast: The meat component was roast beef, "gammon" (a pork leg-meat similar to ham), crackling (pork fat roasted until it's crunchy), lamb, and chicken, with an honorary mention for Yorskshire pudding—a sort of bread soufflé with the batter moistened with meat cooking juices. The veggies were roasted potatoes, carrots, and parsnips, with shredded cabbage, cheesy cauliflower, and a sweet potato casserole. The veggies were best by far. I found the meat a little on the dry side and only available cooked as "well done", but it was heaped high on the plate and you could return for as many leftovers. And with a big scoop of gravy, it was tasty and very filling. Sadly, I'm out of practice; I couldn't manage a second helping, other than a few sweetly delicious parsnips.

As we ate, we chatted with a nice Dutch couple at an adjacent table. They were staying at the same hotel as we were.

This morning's breakfast was a large serving of watermelon, with "Le Chene Croque" as the cooked meal. Basically an open-faced version of Quebec's famous "croque monsieur" sandwich, but topped with grilled cheddar and an egg. Really well done, and a small enough serving to be filling without weighing you down. Shoshanna enjoyed her smoked salmon again.

Today, we took the bus into town (St. Peter Port) to explore. First, we went to a pharmacy, since Shoshanna wanted some "just in case" dramamine in case of sea sickness when we take the ferry to one of the nearby islands later in the week. We're still deciding which one we'll go to. Sark is larger, has more places to get food (cafés etc.), and has more dramatic hikes; Herm is smaller and more intimate, and may be more of a "pack your picnic lunch" kind of visit. But it has nice quirks like the fact that no vehicles are allowed on the island except farm tractors and a tractor-based ambulance service. I, of course, took care of my own pharmaceutical needs: 2 small chocolate bars. Purely in case of emergency.

I'm leaning towards Sark because, among other things, it has a better ferry schedule that would let us spend more time on the island, with less fear of being stranded if bad weather blows in or if the ferry experiences mechanical difficulties. Probably not a high risk, but back when we were doing the two trips with Jersey Kayak Adventures, another couple who were due to accompany us on the trips got stranded in the French port of St. Malo. Not sure of details, but it sounded like mechanical problems.

Ferry leaving port, with one of our possible destinations (Herm?) in the background:

Today we wandered around St. Peter Port to see how it compares with St. Helier on Jersey. My first take is that the St. Peter buildings are older and more interesting, with less of a Florida feel—though definitely still some touristy areas. We came across some entertaining street art, including the emblematic Guernsey donkey with baby and a smugly innocent seagull:

For our first formal tourism activity, we stopped at the museum's café for a light lunch. I had potato–leek soup and Madame had corn soup. Both were delicious and came with really good bread for sopping up any leftovers.

Once done, we checked out the Guernsey Museum at Candie. It's small, with two gallery rooms for temporary art expositions, an "exploration" room (hands-on play for kids), and a small but well curated permanent collection. The first exhibition was "Lost in Nature", with images of local natural areas, and several were quite good. The second was "Making an honest living" and focused on some of the island's agricultural history (large greenhouse areas for growing tomatoes and flowers such as Friesia). It was disappointing because there wasn't much there, and not much exploration of key details of the history.

The permanent collections included goodies that had been collected around the world and brought to Guernsey, artefacts of the island's early human history since the stone age, folklore, and a section on Guernèsiais, the local endangered language. It has some French elements, but they're Normandy French, which means more nordic language than familiar modern French. Some words are instantly recognizable; most aren't. My favorite part was the folklore; Shoshanna enjoyed the Guernèsiais part, particularly since the exhibit had some recorded short stories and folk sayings accompanied by explanations. I found the language reminded me of Swedish based on such words and phrases I've heard. I'm not an expert in Swedish or any other nordic language, so treat that as speculative.

For tonight's dinner, we returned to the Deerhound for their "pie night", which is an all you can eat buffet of primarily meat pies. Presumably some of this was made from all the leftover meat from the Sunday slice mentioned above. We're both fans of meat pies, so we were looking forward to the dinner. For the pie offerings, there were beef–mushroom, chicken, vegetable, seafood, and shepherd's pies, all good except Shoshanna's seafood pie, which was tasty but largely lacking in chunks of seafood.

Sadly, no dessert, as the Hart stomach capacity was reached after a single heaping plate. Clearly I need to add binge eating to my training schedule for our next vacation.

Next: May 19