A glorious break in Guernsey (an island in the English Channel), United Kingdom

Guernsey is one of the great destination at British Channel Islands in the English Channel near the French coast. It is famous for its excellent dairy herd as agriculture and farming is done largely and effectively.  

I got an opportunity to visit Guernsey for a month, although it was for the business travel I was happy that I was getting 3 weekends to explore a new place. Because this was my first international travel I was a bit nervous and the first time I have heard the name Guernsey. I was very excited as I was supposed to operate from the London office for a month but suddenly it got changed to Guernsey. 

Guernsey is one of the British Channel Islands in the English Channel near the French coast. It is a great place for a holiday or short break, with sandy beaches, castles, history and lots to explore. Guernsey is easily accessible by both air and ferry from London. 

It’s a picturesque harbour that offers views of neighbouring islands, quaint cobbled streets lined with continental style cafes and restaurants, lots of shopping centres of low duty goods such as perfume, wine and spirits and exclusive boutiques. It's a wonderful destination with lots of sightseeing attractions, the island can be visited at any time of the year and it won’t disappoint you. There is a neighbouring island Jersey which can be visited for a daily trip, Condor ferries offer fast ferries between St Helier (Jersey) and St Peter Port (Guernsey) in about 55 minutes.  

We (I, Rahul and Kautuk) hired a cab and travelled to Mumbai in the evening as we were having a flight in next day early morning at 4.00 am on 3rd August. It was connecting flights Mumbai-Dubai-London-Guernsey. Mumbai to London we travelled in Emirates and London to Guernsey it was in British Airways. We had arrived at Gatwick airport in London as we were further travelling natively to Guernsey. Kautuk is operating from London, and he is on long term assignment. I and Rahul took a flight from Gatwick airport and reached Guernsey airfield Sunday, 4th August around BST (British Summer Time). We hired separate cabs as staying arrangements for both were at different hotels. For me, the company booked La Piette Hotel which is at St Peter Port, which is the capital of Guernsey. The hotel is a seafront resto-bar and offers a very beautiful view of the sea and harbour. 

Hotel website - http://www.lapiettehotel.com/

The rooms are very clean and well presented, calm cosy place, very helpful staff and great food, definitely recommend if you are visiting the island. I was tired due to long air travel but very excited to explore the islet. 

My workplace (client office) is a short walk (900m from Hotel) in the opposite direction (from the harbour) is the Admiral Park business and commercial centre. I was going to the office on the walk. It is a coastal sideways which gives a beautiful view of the ocean.  

I decided to explore a beautiful place at a maximum. But things never go as planned! I got stuck in a heavy workload and had to work on the first 2 weekends too. I was very disappointed but had no option. However, we (I, Rahul and Gobinath who was working there 2 months before us) managed to visit Taj Hotel for dinner as we all are pure vegetarians and wanted to eat something really good there.  

Last weekend we decided on a day trip to Jersey but could not make it due to sudden meetings and we went to explore harbours, markets and surroundings. 

I was mesmerized by seeing the roads, traffic discipline and politeness of the citizens and of course houses and cafes there. One needs to press a knob at a signal for crossing the road then vehicles stop and allow you to cross over. It has a separate track for cycles, the things I liked the most. 

There is a bus that takes a tour to entire Guernsey within 2.5 hours, we went and enjoyed the ride. The bus has only a driver and no conductor! You need to get a ticket and stand in a queue for boarding the bus, driver check tickets and allows you to enter a bus. The passenger needs to press a button if he wants to get down at the stop, there are predicated stops for a bus. I liked the concept very much!! 

I enjoyed the stay over there, though I could sightsee only a few places, actually I did not travel to any of the tourist places except harbour there.  

At the harbour...waiting for a ferry

For the return journey, I was alone travelling as Rahul got the tickets for the next day. I was having a flight at 7.00 am from Guernsey to London. I booked a cab (5.30 am) through the hotel manager but forgot to get the phone number of a cab driver as I thought the hotel will arrange it. That day, I got ready by 5 am and got down at the reception and was shocked to see that hotel is locked from outside and there was no one at the reception. I waited for some time and called the manager but no luck, then I got tense and was unable to think of what can be done? Cook came and unlocked the hotel. I called Rahul and asked for the number of his cab driver which he was usually hired to come to the office. I called the driver and explained the situation, requested him if possible he came to pick up and drop me at the airport. He was having a drop at the airport but it was far from my hotel. He asked the commuter, fortunately, they agreed and he came to pick me up within 20 minutes and I reached the airport around 6.25 am. After reaching the airport I came to know that the flight was delayed by 15 minutes. Thank God! I managed to complete a security check and boarded a flight in the last 2 minutes as they were waiting for 2 passengers including me. It takes 2 hours to reach London from Guernsey by air, and need to travel by bus to the south gate to catch the flights for Dubai. My next flight for Dubai is at 11 am, and I had to complete immigration formalities so a similar marathon happened at the London airport and boarded a flight for Dubai. After reaching Dubai I was like coming back to my country as I could see lots of Indians and I was having plenty good amount of time to walk around and explore Dubai airport, as I reached on time and was having wait time of 3 hours to board a flight for Mumbai. Finally, I reached the Mumbai airport on Sunday, at 4 am IST.  

The ends sound a little filmy but it has exactly happened which scared me for some time and gave me the life lesson and memories. When you plan, you cannot think of everything that might happen.  

Indeed a wonderful experience for me!  

Thanks for reading the blog.