Return to The Rock

Return to The Rock
Jersey, United Kingdom

Jersey, United Kingdom

Having been on the road and away from our family and friends for nearly 2 years, Tim’s dad very kindly offered to buy us flights home to see the family. With our Australian visa ending and no real plan of action until May, April seemed to be the perfect time to pop home and see everyone.

This blog is for our friends that we have met on our travels so we can show you and tell you about our little island home, so where better to start than with some factoids!

Jersey is the largest island in the Channel Islands consisting of Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, Alderney, Herm, Jethou and Brechou. Jersey is 9 miles by 5 miles in size, it is 14 miles from the coast of Normandy in France and 100 miles from Great Britain.

Jersey is a Bailiwick so it is independent from the other Channel Islands, it is self-governing with its own legal, financial and judicial systems.

Jersey has pound notes which are not legal tender in the UK, they can however be exchanged in banks in the UK.

According to the 2011 census, the total resident population was estimated to be 97,857. Only half the island’s population was born in Jersey; 31% of the population were born elsewhere in the British Isles, 7% in continental Portugal or Madeira, 8% in other European countries and 4% elsewhere.

34% of the population live in St Helier, one of 12 parishes and technically the capital of Jersey.

Jersey is renowned for:

Its Cows. Jersey folk consider them to be beautiful girls who produce the richest creamiest milk.

Jersey Royals. The best spuds in the world, which need to be boiled and served with lashings of Jersey butter and fresh mint.

Wonders. Little donut type treats coated in sugar and cinnamon.

Cabbage loaf. Delicious fresh bread baked in a cabbage leaf.

Jersey was the only part of the British Isles which was occupied by the Germans during the second world war from the 1 July 1940 until 9 May 1945. The Channel Islands were one of the last places to be liberated. During the occupation the Germans constructed many fortifications using Soviet labour and the coast is still dotted with bunkers and the Underground Hospital is one of the main tourist attractions during the summer.

I could probably go on all week with odd facts about Jersey, but I think that is enough for now.

Our trip home was just perfect, with my parents treating us like king and queen with a kitchen and bathroom stocked with everything we could ever want or need and enough to last us 3 months not only the 3 weeks we had at home.

We were spoilt with an overnight stay at a local hotel called La Haule Manor with the most beautiful sea views you could want.

We had a day to night party with our friends to warm their house that they bought whilst we were away and of course I had to partake in the obligatory Cream Tea Mondays with my best friend Lulu, which had become a feature of my redundant life before we set off travelling.

Whilst we were home, Tim’s granddad became a local celebrity with two articles in the local paper the Jersey Evening Post. First in the run up to the Liberation Day celebrations he was interviewed about his time in Jersey as a teenager during the occupation when he and his family fed and sheltered a Russian Prisoner of War and Tim’s pops gave him a duplicate of his ID card to allow him to freely move around the island. The Russian was caught with Pops’ ID however thankfully shortly after the Island was liberated and Pops never faced any repercussions. Next up Nan and Pops were in the paper again to celebrate their 65^th Wedding Anniversary. Wowsers, what an achievement!!

We were so lucky during our visit that the sun was out and we had beautiful warm weather which is pretty unusual for April. Whilst Jersey claims to be warmer than the rest of the British Isles, this was unseasonably warm, but I was not going to complain. However with brunches, lunches, dinners, drinks and coffees to be had with as many friends and family as possible we had set aside one day to go on a round island drive to get some photos for the blog. Would you believe that it was the only cold and rainy day we had during our visit. But we dried our eyes toughened up and here are the photos of our little rock. It is not looking its best in the rain but you get the idea.

Thank you so much to all our friends and family who spoilt us rotten and found the time to see us whilst we were home. It was lovely to be home to see everyone but unsurprisingly we couldn’t be convinced to stay, we still have half the globe to explore and we really don’t fancy going back to work or real life any time soon. Sorry mum’s!!