St. Peter Port, Guernsey, United Kingdom

 We were here in Guernsey 12 years ago and it seemed different to me, as would be expected.  There were more high-rise buildings, presumably condos, than I remember.  The population is around 63,000 so it's relatively small.  They are part of the UK, but print their own Pound notes and rely on the UK for military and national policy things only.  Otherwise they are self-governing.  They were never part of the EEC so Brexit was not an issue for them.  To move here isn't easy; you have to have a job in a field that they need and you have to purchase a house outright.

Today's tour took us to locations related to the German Occupation which was from 1940-45.  It all started when the German reconnaissance planes saw lots of trucks lined up to deliver their tomatoes to the ships for export.  To protect the tomatoes, they had them covered with green or brown tarps that made the trucks look like military vehicles.  The Germans bombed them and thus started the German Occupation a few days later.  The island is about 30 miles from France and 80 miles from England so it is a good spot for a military base.  

The museum is in an abandoned fuel storage bunker.  This is the entrance.

Original notices were scattered throughout.  It's hard to imagine what the residents went through.

The collection of memorabilia was amazing.

Despite the Hague Convention agreement, Hitler routinely used POWs as slave labor.  We learned about the British using Italian POWs to build their bridges/defenses in the Orkney Islands

This actual truck was used in the Indiana Jones movie The Last Crusade.  After it was "blown up" the museum owners bought it and repaired it.  It is an authentic WWII truck.

This manor (now hotel) was taken over and used for the German headquarters on the island.

This house has a bunker underneath that is larger than the actual house.

One of the many trenches still on the west side of Guernsey

Peace at last after 5 years of occupation.

The tides in Guernsey are among the largest in the world and they take advantage of that by having 3 bathing pools built into the rocks at the water's edge.  The tides regularly flush out the pools.  The water is rather cold, but people swim year round.

This was a tender port and when we arrived for our tour at around 1:00 pm there was a huge line for the Princess ship (3,500 passengers) for their tenders.  I think a lot of their tours had just returned.  By the time we returned to the port, it was quiet because they had already sailed.

We had dinner with the gang but we missed trivia because of our late tours.  It was into show time when we were finally done, but we decided to just go "home".  We lose an hour again tonight.