Greetings from Guernsey!

Finally, today I feel human! After 11 hours of sleep, I arose to look out on the beautiful island of Guernsey. I was going ashore with Alec and Diana but woke up at some point and told them to go without me, I still needed more sleep. I'm glad I made that decision so I could enjoy the island when I did go ashore. So once again, I headed to shore alone. We had to tender in, which means a wait until it is time for your ticket to be called. I have been a little spoiled in the past, when on César's ship he always let me go on the tender when I wanted, it pays to have friends in high places. Now I have to wait my turn just like the other 3,000 passengers. Once ashore I didn't want to just walk around the little town, I wanted to see the island. I'd read the "Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" and wanted to see where the characters lived. I waited at the taxi stand and finally a man came up and I was able to take a taxi ride around the island for about an hour and a half for 30 pounds. Les, my driver, was from Manchester, lived here for 26 years and moved to France 2 years ago but comes back every year to see his son and drives a taxi for his friend. He hadn't read or heard of the story so didn't know where to take me to see that part of the village, but what a delightful ride it was and what a kind man. He fought in the Falkland war and is quite happy to not go near either of the Americas again. His parents live in Warrington, Terry and Peter, it is a small world! He took me to the first mail box in guernsey, one of the scenic places here, which tells you about the island I think. We went to the home where Victor Hugo lived when he was exiled and where he wrote "Les Miserables". There was no time to take a tour of the home, but on peeking in the door, it was amazing inside, things were so old! I did go out in his garden and tried to imagine a famous writer sitting there creating, what a lovely place it was, although small and green, quite unlike Monet's garden in Giverny. We went up to the top of the cliffs to look down at the area where Renoir painted, but we were met with thick fog, so that sight will remain a mystery to me. We drove to the other side of the island and there was a group of kidsat the Guernsey Surf School, waiting for the tide to come in. This is a charming place and one to put on the list of places to return to! I even saw a Guernsey cow along the way. There is a little chapel, which is quite small and made of broken plates and other pottery, built by a monk. My thought, they must have been clumsy to have broken that many things to be able to build a miniature chapel with pieces. After the wonderful taxi ride I walked through the main part of town. I was in a little store and asked the lady if she had bookmarks, and a young man said he'd seen them at another store so he walked through the town with me to find the store. He saved me a lot of work by taking me there. What a nice young man, he was from Canada visiting a friend who lives here. I stopped at a market in town after buying the bookmarks and got a little snack. I asked the server what he recommended and he suggested potato wedges with bacon and Guernsey chedder cheese. How could I resist? Bacon here is not like bacon in America, it is more like what we call Canadian bacon, and it was delicious! And that, my friends, was a day in Guernsey, the 2nd largest of the Channel Islands, occupied by over 90,000 german troops in the 2nd world war. The sun shone the whole day with just areas of fog in places, which is quite normal I was told. And in about an hour we sail away to Cork, Ireland, where I will have a tour for the entire day around the area, including the Blarney castle, where the Blarney stone is.

Small world, last night in the elevator going to dinner there was a young boy and it turned out he is from Aurora! The first person on the ship I talk to, all the way in England and he is from my home. Amazing! Having dinner with Diana and Alec and other table mates was quite an enjoyable experience. I am going to love having friends to share this adventure with!

My day in London was a delight. I saw the concierge who I have known since my first trip here, so that was a nice welcome, what a kind man he is! I took the tube all alone to Covent Garden and walked around the area where "My Fair Lady" was filmed. that was exciting for me, one of my favorite movies when I was young. When I arrived in Southampton, Pat and Ernie picked me up from the terminal and we went out and had a nice lunch, and Diana and Alec joined us when they got to town. We were all on the Antarctica cruise together, so it was a nice reunion! We missed Terry and Peter though.

Well, time to nap. Tomorrow, Cork, Ireland.