Holidays – Jersey (Other)

This is my last post on Jersey and so this is just a few other things that I did while there and haven’t talked about on here and fancied doing so. One place I went was the Jersey War Tunnels which were alright as they had loads of interesting things about the second world war in which Jersey was occupied by Germans. My only real criticism of the tunnels was that most of the things were in fact just writing that you walked around and read, but it was good still as there were other things to look at and they set it all out pretty nicely too. Something else at the tunnels that was cool was that everyone who went in got a ‘identity card’ which depicted a person who was in Jersey during this time and then if you went upstairs to the cafe you could look among the pictures on the walls for the person on your card and it would say what happened to them during the war.

One of the other things I did while in Jersey was to do another coastal walk, this time from Bouley Bay to Bonne Nuit Bay which I think was around 4 miles and it was really pretty. Something I find especially cool about the coastal walks around Jersey are that you can see other places out to sea, for example, in the last talk I said about how you could see Sark and Guernsey, and for this walk you could see a load of France’s Normandy. Here are a few pictures from this walk;

 

Another little place I visited was St Catherine’s Point which is a pier bit which you can walk along which is lovely and pretty. Something I really loved about Jersey was the smell of the sea when you were doing all this stuff, it was just very nice and make everything feel a lot more summery. At the base of the pier there was a cafe which was very nice and also just around the corner from that was a man (you can find him by searching ‘sandwizard simon’ who had made some truly amazing sand sculptures which will apparently stay there all year because of how he does it and they were absolutely incredible, here are a couple photos of them;

 

Now, the last thing I am going to put in this post is a lighthouse which was pretty cool as it was similar to Elizabeth Castle in that it is slightly out to sea with just a small path leading to it which gets covered in high tide. This was right in the bottom left corner of the island and is called Corbiere lighthouse, there’s not really anything there but the lighthouse and you can’t go in unless you are on a tour but it was really beautiful, so have a photo;

Holidays – Battle of Flowers, Jersey

While I was in Jersey a flower festival was on, which may not sound very exciting but was actually really awesome because it is actually a parade with floats made of flowers and the energy behind it is amazing. In the days before the 2 days of the festival you would often see warehouse type shed where people would be working on their floats and this seemed to be going on for hours on end with loads of people around. The festival is clearly a huge community thing which I really love the idea of, as when seeing the people at the sheds there would be people of all ages and they would be working and eating picnics and stuff and then at the actual parade there would be floats for both adults and children. It was all really sweet and lovely, the kind of thing I wish you could do in England only it would never work as England has too many people who would hate on this kind of thing and it could easily be ruined where as Jersey is a small island with a small population and a very communistic feel to it which we just do not have. Anyway, the festival was fantastic, with so many people, such beautiful floats and an amazing vibe. The floats were awarded prizes, the biggest of which went to a float called ‘Beyond the Barricade’ which was based on ‘Les Miserables’ and I loved the singing and dancing of the people on it. A few of the others that I though were really good were; ‘The Magic Roundabout’ which was just adorable, especially Dougal, ‘Who’s Who’ a Doctor Who themed float, ‘Super Mario’ which had an amazing bit on the back depicting that picture of Bowser holding Peach from the games, and ‘Never Ending Stories’ which was a fairytale themed float with amazing detail. I have even more favourites than that but there were 28 floats in total and all of them were incredible though, so here are just a few of my photos from the day parade;

Holidays – Durrell Conservation Trust, Jersey

The Durrell Conservation Trust (the formerly known Jersey Zoo) is so sweet, it is not like all of the zoos I have been to before, so I can see why they changed the name as the main object of this place is clearly conservation as they have many projects all over the world rather than just focusing their efforts on the zoo part. There is even an exhibition on the man who set up the place and also a talk on how he came to choose the logo, all of this is great as it makes it all seem a lot more real rather than just staring at animals. Although, yeah I do like that part too, my favourite is always the orangutans, I think it’s ever since I saw a show on telly about a place where they were looking after baby ones and they were clinging onto people and it all looked so adorable. But anyway, again I loved the orangutans, but maybe even topping them at this place was the gorillas, purely because of the baby one which was so human like that it was strange. The logo of the zoo is a dodo, and from the gift shop I even got a pen and pad with the cartoon version of it on, the idea is that Gerald Durrell who created all of this took the dodo as his inspiration to try and stop this happening to other species, an act in which they seem to succeed. To accompany the logo and this idea there is now an animation, made by the people who did Wallace and Gromit while voiced by the amazing Stephen Fry it is so adorable and amazing. The video is here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvD4fRHstuU and you should definitely watch it as it is so great. Here are some photos from my visit to the trust as well, including baby meerkats;

Holidays – Plemont Bay and Greve de Lecq, Jersey

Also while in Jersey I took to the footpaths along the coast, walking from the amazing Plemont Bay to Greve de Lecq (another bay) and then back again. It was really beautiful and a lovely walk. Plemont Bay is cool because the beach has lots of caves which is cool, there is also apparently a waterfall although I didn’t see it, the other cool thing about this bay though it that at high tide it is completely covered up. There is also a cute looking cafe halfway down the masses of steps to the beach, but I ate at Greve de Lecq instead. So after exploring the beach a little (just walking around the rock pools and looking at a couple caves) I went back up to the clifftop and started walking to the other bay. On the map it looks 2 miles (one way) but there are a lot of steps and hills on route as you follow it along, which makes it a bit harder but was absolutely fine, I even saw someone biking along here which is pretty incredible because after overtaking us I didn’t see him again so he must have biked right up the steps, something I definitely could not do. Greve de Lecq was also a pretty cool bay as there was more rock pools and small bits of bay that you had to climb over rocks or walk through the water to get to. I ate at Coleen’s Cafe there which was one of my favourite lunches on this holiday and so that was lovely before having to head back the other direction. The other cool thing about this walk is that as you are walking along the North-West coast you can see Sark and Guernsey (Two other channel islands) in the distance. Some photos from this walk include;

Holidays – Elizabeth Castle, Jersey

I went to Jersey for a week after going to London, Jersey is one of the channel islands, just 9 by 5 miles, and is so beautiful. On my first day there I went to Elizabeth Castle in St Helier which was pretty good, there’s a small path leading from the bay to the castle entrance which I took to get to the castle but when the tide comes in the path is completely covered and there’s a small amphibious ferry to take you back to the mainland. The views from the castle are awesome while the stuff in the castle is also cool, there’s a couple of actors walking around who sit on the wall above the door with a gun, then later do a talk in the courtyard along with a marching demonstration and then the firing of a cannon. Along with the cannon they fire there are many more dotted around the castle grounds as well as in a museum building which also has rooms showing what the living conditions would have been like for soldier and officers. It’s all really interesting and there is loads to see which is good as it links into the characters’ talk. Some photos I took;