De L'etang St. Helier

... Quite funny to go by and see all these lovely boats tiled over and waiting for water. Transportation is good once I figured it out. However sometimes the times between buses are a bit longer than I would have liked, still, I was able to move around quite easily once I figured out the bus stops had larger letters "BUS" on the pavement. So it is with sorrow that I leave after just a bit over 24 hours. another place that it is going to be necessary to return.

found out yesterday that sky europe has ceased its operations. just great. that is one leg we had flying from Prague to Venice so now i'll have to find another way and i'm sure it won't be as cheap. well, if that's the only problem i run into for 4 months, eh?...

... so I thought I'd do that. my taxi driver said it was about a mile walk out to the castle over a walkway that is covered during high tide. I looked it over and people were walking on it and seemed like i would have plenty of time besides, once I got to the castle, I could buy a ticket to ride the ferry back, a big amphibian truck that runs when there's too much water to walk.
So strolled to the castle ...

We got on to the ferry to Saint Malo and Julz was feeling sea sick. Instead of sitting in our club class seats, she chose to spend an hour outside and then the rest of the journey in cattle class right at the back of the ferry!! Si was very supportive x

... immigration and customs, picked up our bags and
headed for the train station at the airport to take us to the
Centraal Station in Amsterdam. The line was pretty long to get a
ticket, but we got the train and headed to downtown Amsterdam.




Monday June 15, 2009






We arrived at Centraal Station and went
to the tram office to get a 3 day tram pass and hopped a tram to the
Rembrandtplein (square ...

... beautiful
day and had a nice breakfast. Whitford then took Sandy and I on
another tour of the island, stopping at the island's reservoir for a
nice view, we stopped at a German gun battery that had been
preserved after the war. It started to cloud up and was getting
cooler with the stiff breeze coming in off the Channel and I was
concerned with our plans for the rest of the day. Our plan was to
catch the 12:15 ferry to the adjacent island of Herm and have ...

Took another fast ferry over to Jersey just for the day. The island is beautiful and has a lot of shops and restaurants. First thing we did when we arrived was take one of those little city tours on one of the open air trolleys that look like trains. Then it was time to find some food. We ended up going to a quick sandwich shop and ...

... in Guernsey to do it. Which would mean we'd lose some time on the island to laundry.

The fast ferries on Condor are HUGE catamarans! And I went and stood outside while we were moving and I couldn't stand the chill with the wind. Which is impressive because I have the skin of a polar bear.

We made it to St. Peter's Port in Guernsey just fine and walked to the Sunnycroft Hotel. When I read off the address, 5 Constitution Steps, I ...

... to attend my Monday class. It's been almost impossible to pay attention this week w/ the anticipation for the upcoming holiday and thinking about going home!!!!! Tomorrow (Thanksgiving) we are heading out early to go get Les Miserables tickets. Afterward, we are going to the Thanksgiving service at St. Paul's cathedral that is held by the US ambassador. Later, everyone in the group is preparing ...

St. Peter Port in Guernsey, Channel Islands was an interesting mix of British and French culture. Street names, architecture, and language are a blend of influences. We toured the main Anglican church and saw with marble statues and tombstones written in French. There was a small street market filled with handcrafted jewelry and pottery, and British pubs that promised to bar patrons who were too rowdy during football games.