ST. HELIER, JERSEY, CHANNEL ISLANDS

2016-01-12, 22:05, JASON

STAY: OLANDA BNB

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No, not New Jersey.

We quickly did a SkyScanner search and took a look to see what was the cheapest to get to. Jersey came up. Thorin gave me a brief history of the Channel Islands (as he does), and before we knew it we had a weekend booked.

Jersey is similar to a small seaside English town, except that they speak English with strange accents, and they speak some form of Island French Creole (Jèrriais). I can't describe it to you since I don't have any French knowledge, but it sure as hell didn't sound English (I have some knowledge of this language). Anyway, we stayed on the St. Aubin side, which is south west of the Island. The capital, Saint Helier, was on the eastern edge of the island. About a 45 minute walk from where we stayed.

Impressions on getting in: it almost looked like Monterey. Very small seaside town. You could almost retire here and just be at ease with everything. The houses looked general English countryside, and since we were near the beach, it outlooked the ocean. Apparently, the tide has very large fluctuations here, so, as a result some of the forts built into the ocean would be 'walkable' to on low tide. I'll get to that in a bit. Overall, very calming. We stayed at a bed and breakfast and the owners were nice. Served up a good breakfast too.

During the night, we strolled along the beach to St. Helier to check out the main city. It was actually a bit chavvy, with all your classic bros out at the bar. Contrasted heavily with the quiet seaside that we observed in the morning, we didn't stay around too long, just went for 'observing, sociologically' then proceeded to walk back to St. Aubin.

A thing that people do often is rent bicycles to cycle around the island. I don't know what possessed us to do this, but we decided to try doing this: it would be a great way to see the city.

YOU GUYS.. if you're not DTF, as in, get fucked by some mountains along the ride, then I advise against this! Actually, looking back when it's done, it was rewarding. But, be forewarned: you're on an island. As a result, there are tough hills that sometimes you have to bike up and down. However, it's a great way to see the city. We get biking, and hit some old ruins of what I believe is a mill. I can't recall, I'm documenting this nearly two years later. 

After that, we continued on. At one point I think we got lost along some more interior houses on the island and it felt like you were biking through an English village. It's all very quiet, everyone has nice kept gardens; a little Stepford if you ask me. Eventually we dig our way out the mess and find ourselves biking along the coast, where a lot of the war fortifications were built during WWII to protect against the Germans, who eventually went on to occupy the country. 

After the nice downhill bike ride to the coast, we did a long stretch along the coast. This was a peaceful ride: all flat, and just biking along taking a glimpse of the beach in to our left. Nice. After this was the hardest climb of my life. A pure, solid nonstop uphill bike ride, the kind where if you stop half way you lose motivation to start pedaling again, so you try not to stop, but every ounce of that actin is just pumping away contracting your muscles. The best part was that we overshot our entry onto the path so we spent a good 5 minutes just doing that extra pedaling. Whatever!

After getting to the top, there are some scenic views of the beach and some more ruins. 

We bike, bike, bike some more and eventually hit a pier area. We stop in to have lunch, pretty good.

There are a few things in life that I'd go back to the place specifically for. A scone I had in Mt. Shasta City when we were driving to Lava Beds. Belgian Waffles. The third thing I can think of is Jersey Cream Ice Cream. I don't know what they put in it, but the cream they use is amazing. We had caramel ice creams and I just couldn't help myself but go back for more. Do yourself a favor and go to Jersey just to get one of these suckers.

Biking some more, we duck into a rural looking pub along the way, and decide to dismount and walk our bikes to a place called Devils Hole. It's a crater in the cliff that's caused by the sea eroding it, so it used to look like a cave. But, it's collapsed into a crater and so it's just kind of a deep hole. Before going in, you see a phallic imagery of a devil. Now that's my kind of hole!!

Bike some more, tired as F. We've almost made it to the other side of the island now, moving clockwise from southwest. We eventually hit some castles along the southeastern shore, Mount Orgueil Castle. We visited this the next day since we didn't have enough time by the time we reached it, touch on it in a bit.

Looping around back to St. Aubin's where we were based, we noticed that the beach was in low tide. By this point, we'd biked up hills, through dirt, along coasts, in towns, and in total probably gathered 40 miles on our wheels. So, what we decided to do next was just 'bike' to the castle over the walkway that revealed itself when tide was out.

By the end of the day we were knackered so we crashed that night. A big sigh of relief, but we were glad to be done with the strenuous part of the bike riding. Challenging, and worth it.

The next day, we woke up early and bought a cheap pass to see all the castles in Jersey, so we would be doing castle day. The castles were all nice, we were able to get in for a cheap price as opposed to paying for each one. Most of the interior was decked out with your medieval gear: punishment rooms, quarters, open spaces, wells, etc. First, we viewed Orgueil Castle, which we stopped by the day before. this one was situated just on the coast.

Next stop was La Hougue Bie. It was inland in the island so we again had to bike and trek our way up. La Hougue Bie is a mound on the ground built and used as a Neolithic ritual site, with a chapel at the top of the hill. There were some 'passage graves', as in, you could pass from one side of the mound to the other. In WWII, it was used as a lookout point and a command bunker. Leave it to modern Europe to use it for war! 

After, we decide to bike down to the shore again to go see Elizabeth Castle. The best part again, about low tide, is that we were able to just walk to the castle. This one was in more ruins and not as preserved, but allowed free-browsing so you could get a feel as to the original usage of the castle. The acreage was pretty intense, with a large grassy bit in the middle but with a lot also extending to the back. There was a small monastery tucked behind the castle at the top of the mountain. We climbed the stairs to go in and peek, and all it was filled with was pigeon poop. Just as we like our castles: not maintained, and historic. What is it with these monks and finding the most isolated places? They'd probably be great at hide and seek. As the tide was coming in, we only had an hour or so at this site, but the journey is what made it fun. On the way back, we even tried venturing out to walk on the ocean floor and made it to some pile of rocks with a light indicator on it. Was that worth mentioning at all? Probably not. For some reason, I have a memory of it.. 

On the way to Elizabeth Castle

Whew, that was a lot in a day.

The final day, we coast around and go see some museums we hadn't seen. They had a really cool installation in the Maritime museum that was very interactive. Although it was probably meant for children, I have no shame in admitting that I enjoyed myself. A lady in there had a 'aquarium' knitting project she had been working on for four months that was really impressive, so we took a picture of that as well. 

Other than that, the last day we biked around some more to soak in the last bit of Jersey sunshine. By that last day we were so exhausted, we retired like two old English grannies and just had a cream tea. Now, not as good as the Jersey Ice Cream (since I don't do my scones with cream), but still worth it after all that hard work. I think at that point I just wanted some .. calories