I spent a good week of my summer holidays 2002
in Jersey, the biggest of the 5 Channel Islands.
Jersey is 116 square kilometres and has a
population of 85,000. My mother and I started our
journey early in the morning on Saturday, 21st
July.
On our flight to Jersey we had quite a long stop
in Zurich and so we decided to take a short trip
into the city.
After
landing in Jersey we took a taxi to our hotel, the
Water's Edge Hotel on Bouley Bay. It was situated
directly on a stoney beach - nearly at the edge of
the world - and we had quite a nice view of the
sea. On the same day we took a bus to St. Helier,
the only town in Jersey, and rented bikes for the
whole week. As part of Jersey is English we had to
drive on the left side of the road which was a new
experience for us.
Nearly every evening we went to the Black Dog
Bar - a famous pub - for dinner directly next to
our hotel.
On Sunday we took a bike trip to Gerald
Durrell's famous Jersey Zoo where you can see
primarily endangered animals.
On Monday and Tuesday we decided to bike to
Rozel Bay and St. Aubin's Bay, both sandy beaches,
where we could relax.
On Wednesday we took a ferry boat to Guernsey,
the second biggest island, and landed at St.
Peter's Port. By chance there was a big fire
brigade festival going on. So we "escaped" to the
Candie Gardens where we saw a big statue of the
famous writer, Victor Hugo, who lived in Guernsey
in exile for several years. All the gardens we saw,
and there were a lot of them, were very
well-groomed.
On Thursday we again rode our bikes on a trip to
Devil's Hole where you can see a statue of the
devil standing in a small pond. The path down the
cliffs to Devil's Hole is a real challenge for
bikers. And you can only go there when it isn't
flooded.
On Friday we took a bus to St. Brelade's Bay
where we visited the Fisherman's Chapel. As the sun
was shining, we spent the rest of the day on the
beach.
Before bringing our bikes back on Saturday, we
took a trip to the German Underground Hospital. It
was very cold in the German Underground Hospital,
but it was still very worthwhile visiting. It was
built by the Germans during occupation for 1000
patients but it was never used. Now it's a good
museum which shows the occupation by the Germans,
especially the effect it had on inhabitants.
We were lucky and had good weather. We had
sunshine every day except for one, when we got
soaking wet.
We spent the last day walking along some cliff
paths and then flying back to Linz via Zurich.
Altogether, it was a nice week and I would like
to repeat it.
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