Day 4 - Guernsey

28.07.13

It was a little hit and miss today whether or not we'd be able to tender in Guernsey. The weather wasn't great and the sea was a little choppy. I'd heard before we left that Guernsey is often difficult to stop at. We collected our tender tickets after breakfast, we weren't due to dock until around 2:00pm so we had a little while to wait and see if we could get off.
Charlie and Courtney requested to go to the kid's club so off they went and we went for a coffee with Sylvia and Hughie. We also had a look in the ship's shops, Sylvia and I each chose a Swarovski crystal necklace. We decided Charlie and Courtney might as well stay for their lunch in the kid's club so Mark went off to tell them and came back with Courtney! She'd been tired and whiny. Her and I retired to our cabin for a rest whilst Mark and Sylvia went to watch a 'coffee and chocolate' demo but they decided it wasn't their thing so came away. They did however see the kid's club come onto the pool deck and do a dance! They were dancing to Gangnam Style, Charlie's favourite song, he loved it and Mark took some pics for me to see. (as he dances he somehow always manages to go backwards and we lose him but he got this one!)

Mark and Sylvia came back to our cabin and we woke Courtney. We called for Hughie who was in his cabin and went up for some lunch. We still weren't sure what was happening with the docking so went back to our cabins to wait for further instructions! It's now that I will introduce you to 'Funky Monkey' who we purchased in Southampton. He's a dancing monkey speaker, that's about the best way I can describe him! I set him up with the iPad and put on Gangnam Style and off monkey, Charlie and Courtney went dancing! There was such hilarity going on in our cabin, it was fab, we had our very own mini disco as a few other tunes followed! They are watching themselves in the mirror here! Can you see Funky Monkey in the background?

It came over the tannoy that they were going to attempt crossings to the island but it would take longer. It didn't matter we really wanted to see Guernsey and could wait! We made our way to the lounge and after about an hours wait we boarded a tender boat.

 

At first the weather seemed to have settled, it was dry and sunny when we arrived in St. Peter's Port. There was what looked like a St John's Ambulance fair going on along the promenade area so we had a look in some ambulances and watched a couple of demos. I snapped this lovely picture of Sylvia and Hughie with Charlie and Courtney just before it started to rain again!

 

 

It was only showers so we decided to catch a bus around the island, during our trip research we found out there was a bus that goes around the entire island for £2 per person. Sylvia and Hughie stayed in St. Peter's Port. We boarded the bus, left St. Peter's Port and then it wasn't showery anymore, it was torrential!!! It got worse and worse, the bus steamed up, there was flooding and eventually we couldn't see anything! At least we were dry! (Sylvia and Hughie in the meantime got soaked in St. Peter's Port!)

 

 

 

Once we got back to the coast road the weather once again turned nice and we got to see some lovely views. One being our ship docked in the sea.

 

 

Once back in St. Peter's Port the sun had come out again and it was even nice enough for ice cream!

 

We had a walk along the narrow winding streets, being a Sunday almost every where was closed (we only found the convenience store and supermarket open) but you could see it would be a vibrant place during the week.

 

One thing we really wanted to do was find a sign with the place name on as the children go to St. Peter's school. We really struggled but eventually found a planter with St. Pier Port, near enough I suppose!

 

 

We made our way back to the port and there was a tender in so good timing really, it literally set off a few minutes after we sat down. From the tender boat we could see a rainbow, it was quite choppy but Mark somehow managed to capture this brilliant pic, what a fluke!

 

 

We freshened up on board and were just in time for dinner, we had thought we'd eat in the buffet restaurant this evening but made it to the dinner restaurant. Sylvia, Hughie and I wanted to go to the theatre tonight but were a little early so went up to the top deck for a coffee, Mark then took Charlie and Courtney to bed and we went to the theatre, by the time we got there, there wasn't many seats left. We stood for a few minutes but decided to give it up. It was Spanish dancing, we watched a couple of dances so got a flavour of it.