Left to Right

This morning, we toured Hugo's Guernsey home, Hauteville House. Not only was Hugo a great novelist, poet, and artist, but he literally designed every inch of this fantastic home filled with symbolism relating to his life and political/spiritual beliefs. During his time here the dining room was open once a week to poor children who were fed and given a glass of wine, but they had to listen to Hugo expound on the necessity of reading and learning!

The pictures attached can't do Hauteville House justice.

This afternoon, we flew to Jersey (10 minutes away, possibly the shortest flight we've experienced), but it's a different world here. Where Guernsey is progressive, UK oriented, and left leaning, Jersey tends to be very conservative and takes its cues from nearby France----and they have McDonalds and KFC. Our Guernsey acquaintances suggested we not linger long in Jersey. Now that we are here in Jersey, we learn that locals are not terribly fond of the Guernsey folk. We are just here overnight so we won't be Jersey experts although we have learned to avoid picking up Guernsey or Jersey currency: once we get to London, we'll have a hard time ditching either banknotes, although theoretically they are supposed to be accepted everywhere in the UK. We learned that lesson the hard way on the Isle of Man and North Ireland which likewise have their own currencies.

Tomorrow we head to London for a very different change of scenery.

[Now that we've been in Jersey for a bit, we've discovered there's a huge Portuguese community here so we are now happily chomping on pasteis de nata in a Portuguese bakery, right outside a Portuguese church. Kevin's on Cloud 9]Read more