Guernsey Day 7 - Castle Cornet and Day 8 - the return trip

Cover your ears!  The noon day gun is a long-standing tradition in Guernsey.  We have seen it twice now.  Once from town, when the smoke appears before the bang, and now, close-up, where there is no appreciable delay.  Even though I was expecting it, I still jumped, which is very obvious when you watch the video.  It was loud! I have joked beforehand: "Get ready for ringing in the ears". It shouldn't have been a joke. We had been provided with a bus to the castle, as it is quite a way for some of us older folk to walk.

The history is well presented, I spent ages reading the boards and listening to the short videos.  The lightning strike on the powder store is the most incredible story.  The governor survived, still on his mattress, but now outside the castle, and was woken by the rain.  His wife did not survive.  After that, governors lived on the island. 

We wandered around the castle, but with both of us struggling with our knees, we didn't get everywhere.

There are some lovely little gardens in the castle.  They are all kept in the style of their original owners.
 

We were one of the few couples who came back on the bus.

After that, and some lunch, we took a bus ride to Cobo Bay.  We had intended to go anti-clockwise, on the 92 (anti-clockwise), but that particular bus is only for non-school days, so we had to go the other way around, on the 91, 30 minutes later.  We stopped at Cobo bay for about an hour.  Had ice cream, a walk on the beach, a paddle (Jo only), and a cup of tea in a tearoom.  All the while trying to find Wi-Fi, and keeping an eye on the bus.  We had a short walk to make sure we were on the right road and waited - sitting on the sea wall - for the bus. 

Cobo beach, from the bus stop

 I saw the bus coming from the other side of town, about where the hill is in the picture.  After that, it felt like a long wait.  Finally, we caught the next bus around the island and back to St. Peter Port.

 

We briefly returned to the Hotel, to get something to sit on and pick up the food we had stored in the fridge. Then it was off to the castle, on foot to the KPMG 'Castle Nights' concert.  

 We were headed to the middle ward, which was quite full as Eloise Fabbri entertained the crowd.  We were there for the next act, and by then we had found a seat as people moved around.  "The Devotees" cover songs from the '60s, '70s and '80s.  They played songs from The Who, The Beatles, Rod Stewart, and Oasis, among others.  A very enjoyable evening.  The long walk back to the hotel was very slow, as we both struggled after a lot of walking.

 

Day 8 - the return trip 

Although the flight isn't until late afternoon, there is not much that can be done today because there is that very hard deadline to meet.  So it was a quiet morning, sitting in the hotel reading and generally being lazy.  All the baggage arrangements worked, all the transport arrangements work, the flight back was lovely, we could see most of southern England as the plane turned on its various tracks.  There were lovely views of the Isle of wight and Southampton and Portsmouth.  We arrived home late evening after a great holiday.