Random things about Guernsey

Wandering around St Peter Port I have found some things which make me stop and look twice - then take a photo, so here are some of the photos.

Chimneys:
There are chimneys on most of the houses and for some reason I find them attractive - especially the way there is more than one per house, all stacked next to each other.  My first response was, and this is true, 'Those will come straight down in an earthquake', then I realised they don't get earthquakes here.  Weird.   I look up at them and wonder how many fireplaces there must be in each narrow little house, how many bedrooms and 'parlours' with a fireplace.  I love the way they are square at the base with the little individual terracotta pots on the top, the pots don't always match either.  Still - wouldn't want to be standing under them if the big one comes....just saying...

Every home should have at least three

This one holds the record to date - 10 and none of them matching

Boats

OK - I spent a few days on a boat sailing over Christmas so I'm a bit more aware of them than I was before Christmas but there is no escaping boats on Guernsey once you are on the waterfront in St Pater Port town.  They are everywhere, there are several marinas and they are chocka block with all sorts of sailing vessels from dinghy to yachts to launches and fishing boats.  It is an island nation and boats are still very much part of the life and scenery of the island.  When the fog closed the airport over the weekend the only way on and off Guernsey was by ferry ( and they booked up real fast).   On a beautiful spring day like today as I wandered down the waterfront I couldn't resist snapping a few shots.

Dinghys resting in the sunshine

A wee working fishing boat

A few not-so-much-for-work boats

Looking back to St Peter Port

More boats than you can poke a stick at

Chimneys AND a boat!

Tiny hidden streets:

Walking anywhere in the town you come upon little streets, tiny streets the width of the average driveway in NZ, you stand at the end and look up to see rows of houses, both sides of the street, where many St Peter Portians  live.  Of course I know that this is how much of Europe lives but they still take me by surprise  - the scale and size of the houses is so different to anything we have at home - not tiny but small, often 3 stories high and all attached to each other.  Their front doors are right on the footpath and half a metre from the street or actually right on the street. They are painted in various shades of yellow. blue, grey and green, with some brick and stone houses thrown in for variation.  Its such a different way to live but the only way to live when space is so limited and people have been living in a place for so long.  Its like a pastel rainbow version of Coronation Street  but without the factory, Rover's Return and Ken Barlow.

 Coro Street - not

One way and a footpath on one side - luxury