Failure to Sunburn

Just had a great few days away in Jersey. We flew out on Thursday, and failed to die in a burning pool of oil (I'm not the greatest flyer in the world). As luck would have it this weekend was Jerseys "Liberation Day" celebrations, and our hotel was right in front of the square where all the celebrations were taking place. The Hotel (Pomme D'or) is actually featured in many of the photos of the event, and it looks like all the speeches etc. were done from the roof of its lobby.

I knew that the channel islands were occupied, however I didn't know that they had been under occupation for a year after France was liberated, or that they were basically turned into concentration camps, and forced labour ran the place. There was a display at the Hougue Bie (forever known as the Huge Bee), which was very stark and shocking, and really brought home what had been done on the islands during the war.

I won't go into all the stuff we did, the photos cover that far better... We were really lucky wit the weather, with just a small bit of rain on the Thursday evening, but other than that it was glorious sunshine, and it was only generous applications of factor 30 (sunblock by Dulux) that kept me from burning to a crisp. Its a lovely place, with a strange mix of English, French and Mediterranean styles. There are no big roads, and everything goes at a fairly leisurely pace. High points were;

• Mont Orguiel Castle - very well displayed, and a real warren of a place
  
• Durrell Wildlife Park - AKA the zoo. Gorillas and monkeys all over
  
• The hotel - really nice place, and got us into a room at 9am, which was much needed
  

Some letdowns;

• Elizabeth Castle - Compared to the Mont very basic, and not really done to its best
  

Can't really think of any others really...pretty good sign over all!