Gorey, Jersey

Can I give you some advice? Never watch two final episodes to two different series on the same day. I am a complete wreck. Both Grimm and The Vampire Diaries had their last ever season finales last night and I watched them before writing this.

Jesus Christ.

Deep breath and let's get on with some more of what we got up to in Jersey.

Our third day started the way the second did, with the hotel breakfast and a reasonably early start to pack as much in as we could.

I knew I wanted to visit a castle or two and what I didn't tell you about the day before was the afternoon, before our date night, was a bit of a failure. 

We'd originally attempted to visit Elizabeth Castle but it turned out it wasn't the right time of year and then we tried to go to the Maritime Museum as well, but it turned out that was only open on Sundays! What a palarva. So that's when we settled for the arcade.

Anyway as it was a brand new day, we thought we would try the Maritime Museum again which was thankfully open! We literally just got inside when the heavens opened and it hailed very very heavily. Lucky for us, we spent the next hour or two wandering round the museum looking at all the shells and sealife and boats.

It was quite interesting but rather expensive!

Again, as per our usual, we went back to the hotel for a quick break before heading back out again, this time to visit Mont Orgueil Castle in Gorey (the opposite side of the island - took about 20 minutes to drive to!)

I loved this castle. We drove past The Paper Fig restaurant and wove our way up and up these narrow twisting lanes to the castle on the hill above.

We got to the little hut where we had to pay for the entrance and the weather turned once more for the worst - only quick bursts of heavy rain but enough to keep us hovering inside a little bit longer.

The guy behind the desk gave us a map of the castle and challenged us to find the four hidden items on our scavenge through the castle as it had many many little hidey holes and so many tucked away crevices!

Once the rain had stopped the sun came out in all her glory and it was a beautiful day. The views were absolutely stunning and we had so much fun winding our way around all the rooms and completing our mission to find the secret items.

We were starved by the time we left though so we took a different, very windy route back to the hotel but came across this adorable little garden centre with a tearoom. The food was amazing. It was packed so it must be a good spot for a Sunday lunch.

After that we made our way back to the hotel, packed our bags ready for our departure the following day and made use of the hotel amenities one last time.

One last post to come for Jersey but that's all you're getting for now!

🏝

St. Helier, Jersey

My God, it has been the busiest of weekends again!

I don't know how people are constantly keeping themselves busy, I'm so exhausted it's unbelievable.

Anyway, I promised posts on Jersey so I've decided to split them up sort of by day/location.

St. Helier was where we stayed, there will be a subsequent post on St. Brelade and then a standalone post for a restaurant review as it deserves a special mention.

For today though, St. Helier.

The flight from Gatwick is only 45-50 minutes. By the time the captain tells you to take your seatbelt off, half the flight is over. It was funny because Adeel got up to pee and as there was a queue he didn't actually get to go because the captain announced not long later that seatbelts were to be refastened!

It was a very windy, rainy day when we set off. Our flight was at around 9 in the morning so we landed near 10 and the airport is so tiny in Jersey and we only had hand luggage that we were literally out straightaway (except for the minor wait for the rental car).

Oh my God, just the drive to the hotel was amazing. Jersey is such a beautiful island!

However, we did have a few hours to kill before we could check in to the hotel so we left the car there and got a pointer towards the town centre.

Wandering through the town at a leisurely pace was great. We eyed up some beautiful properties advertised - dreaming only of course - before grabbing a bite to eat. Burger King was our one and only naughty choice and probably the worst of the food we had (not a single bad meal for the entire trip!)

We meandered back to the hotel by which time we could checkin and found ourselves in what seemed like an upgraded room. We originally booked the budget room (with a warning that you could hear the swimming pool pump). BUT, we were on the second floor, the room was massive and not a single noise could be heard from the pool. It was amazing.

We had a somewhat planned, somewhat improvised nap as we'd been up so early, before heading out for a lovely walk along the beach.

With clouds a-brewing and a roll of thunder in the distance, we quickly scarpered back to the hotel for dinner in the bar. I think Adeel had a burger and chips and I had scampi and chips.

The portions were massive, I definitely could not finish it all. After a half hour or so we decided to test out the pool facilities which was a nice way to end our first day in Jersey.

Climbing between those fresh white sheets after was equally as perfect.

More to come soon...