Guernsey Day 3 - Ship wrecks

Fort Grey, from the Guernsey Pearl.

Today is the only free day of the Holiday.  The free day was supposed to be tomorrow, but the Island tour by bus has been moved.

We headed to Fort Grey, opposite the Guernsey Pearl.  We had been given the information about bus routes and charges in the TI yesterday. So, 91 out, from the terminus, and later 92 back.  The route takes us past the airport. Not knowing enough about how the buses work, and exactly where the stops are, I followed the route on Google Maps and the island map that the tour guide (Alex) had given us.  I pressed the bell early, and the bus stopped some way away from where I expected it to.  Getting off, we saw the word 'BUS' painted on the footpath.  Now we know how it works.

We had heard a lot about the Roman era shipwreck that was found just off the coast.   The Guernsey Museum has the story here, https://museums.gov.gg/romanship. This location, in a shed next to the Guernsey Pearl, is a temporary place for the wreck, it will be moved and displayed in a purpose built location eventually.

The remains of the ship, behind glass.

 The fort contains displays of various Guernsey shipwrecks, some disastrous and some not so bad.  From the top there is an excellent all-round view of the bay.  It is an ideal defensive location.  The day was very windy, so being up on top was not pleasant.

We lunched at the Guernsey Pearl, and tried their Himalayan food.   

The soup I had was nice, but a little too spicy for me. Then back on the 91, again the fare was £3.60 for both of us.

We had been told by the lady in the TI that there was a concert in Saumarez Park - The National Trust of Guernsey's annual show. So we took another bus and bought dinner there. Dinner was a Guernsey Ice cream (deliciously creamy), followed by 'bean cup', a local dish. It is a thick, mixed bean stew with ham hock, served in a take-away coffee cup. I enjoyed it, Jo, not so much.

We tried, then bought some Gache ('gosh'), a traditional Guernsey tea bread. The settled down to watch the show. The traditional dancers did a good job, but reminded me of  'Allo 'Allo. The scout marching band was very entertaining and the local folk singers, singing in Guernésiais, did a great job. 

 

Then to get the bus back. This is the penultimate bus on this route. We do not know where it goes from, so we had to leave at 7:30pm to be sure to catch it. That meant that the last act, the one we were most interested in hearing, was missed. The show was running a little late, but this band took ages to set up, and then found the sound system was no longer working. We left, without hearing a single word from them.

We met a couple from our tour who had had an eventful day not getting quite where they expected to, and had been rescued by a local driver. They went to the stop we got off at, but we went in a different direction and waited at another stop. That stop had a closed sign on it, so we walked further down the road to the 'Temporary Bus Stop' sign. There were a few other festival goers there, and we chatted and convinced ourselves that we were in the right place. I went back to get our fellow travellers, but they were already on their way.  We almost filled the bus.