Guernsey (Full) Day 1

After a latish breakfast it was time to head into town - Saint Peter Port.

There is a bus-stop just out the front of the hotel. Fortunately the front desk was able to provide a timetable so we didn’t have to wait long… single bus trips on the island are £2… or, as we purchased, a 7 day ticket for only £19 - good value.

The trip into town was only about 20 minutes - the island #is# only 7 by 5 miles!

We had quite a pleasant morning wandering the shopping precinct… it was nice to see a High Street that wasn’t full of the standard brandings seen in many towns and villages of the UK.

Morning tea was, of course, in order so we went into the Pasty Presto to rest the feet and have a read and a danish. The shop also had a great view of the harbour and a nice sunny outlook - the day, overall, was fine and sunny 19˚.

After a little bit more of a wander we decided to have a look at another part of the island - Sausmarez Manor - apparently the seat of the Seigneurs de Sausmarez family for 800 years. We had a look around the farmers / craft markets and gardens.

Another bus ride puts us back in Saint Peter Port and time for some lunch. A rather leisurely affair at the Yacht Hotel - mains, deserts and teas/coffee to finish… a great place - good view and great venue.

A quick trip to the supermarket for the obligatory stock-up of Pepsi and we were ready for another bus back to the hotel - we used up 50% of the value of our bus ticket in just our first day - cool!

Another bout of rest and recuperation and time for the evening meal and a calming tea in the lobby lounge before retiring or the evening.

The Trip from France

Another late breakfast at our hotel in St Malo followed by a morning reading in the beachfront bar.

About 11 we had a short taxi ride to the ferry port. The ferry departed on time and on calm seas.

It only took about 2 hours to get from St Malo to Saint Peter Port in Guernsey. The ride was smooth and again I managed to sleep for most it - I think all of those boring flights to and from Ireland earlier in the year has enhanced my ability to sleep on most forms of mass transit…

The bags were waiting for us by the time we went through passport control and the trip through customs was uneventful.

Our cab arrived five minutes after ordering through the courtesy phone and we were on our way to the hotel. I’m glad in a way that I’m not driving over here - the roads are very narrow an the other drivers look, at least initially, like maniacs!!

We were arrived at about ten to two - the bar closed for two for food orders but they were king enough to hold the kitchen long enough for us to order some lunch.

After lunch was the rest of the checking in process and time to unpack.

The evening meal was in the hotel’s restaurant and was pleasant enough - the food was OK but nothing to really write home about [except for that last sentence :-) ]

Le Petit Bois

The cottage is quite brilliant - three bedrooms in all - two large doubles (one with en suite) and a smaller one with bunk beds. There is a common bathroom for the two bedrooms. Downstairs also has a cloak room with shower.

There is a nice large kitchen with separate dining room. A nice large lounge room with an nice airy conservatory off to the side. Althugh of no direct use for us, there is a big deck next to an above ground pool.

The Journey to Plessala

The train journey to Rennes was nice and smooth and quite pleasant - and I spent most of it asleep!

We managed to find the car hire place - just not where all of of the other car hire place at the station. Our travel beastie for this part of the journey is a Opel Corsa.

Driving on the right side of the road is not too much of an issue and surprisingly, changing gears with the ‘wrong’ hand hasn’t been an issue… although every now and then the left hand leaves the wheel heading towards the non-existent gear stick.

The ol' trusty (and dusty) TomTom (with updated France maps) was working a treat and we were of on the way to Plessala - the cottage owners only gave descriptive directions - no direct co-ordinates, so the TomTom was to just guide us to Lamballe and it did that quite successfully.

Driving into Lamballe we found nice cafeteria place for some much needed lunch - an v.early breakfast (7AM), a two hour train ride and an hour in the car generated a bit of a hunger. We also made use of this stop to call into the supermarket to pick up some provisions.

We now entrusted ourselves to the directions from the cottage owners…

All went reasonably well and we found the cottage - although the sign to the cottage itself behind a tree didn’t help!

Departure to Renne

The morning started well but for the fact of the hotel lifts not working properly. One lift was stuck on the 4th floor (Mums) which meant that no request forthe lift from other floors were being accepted. 

I went up to Mums floor to see what was happening and met her in the stairwell on the way down. We headed down via the stairs to the restaurant in he basement. Breakfast was had and, with Mum's key, I headed to reception to see what was what. 

The unstuck lift was in the ground floor so I thought I'd give it a go - success! It took me to the fourth floor but if course by the time I had her suitcase back it was gone irretrievably... walk back to the lobby... lift again to the third floor (mine) for my bag. 

Walk down to lobby... lift to fourth floor, pick up Mums suitcase... down one to get mine... back to reception!

Yay!!

A cab to the Gare Montpanasse and now waiting for the train to Renne...