Travel: Guernsey is first stop for Redlands women on a cruise around the British Isles

• Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, with a cruise boat on the Thames in the foreground. (Photo courtesy of Janet Landfried)

• Christina Rivera, left, and Janet Landfried in front of the gates of Buckingham Palace. (Photo courtesy of Janet Landfried)

• Tower Bridge in London (Photo courtesy of Janet Landfried)

• Saint Peter Port on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel (Photo courtesy of Janet Landfried)

• Guernsey cows on their way to a watering hole on the island of Guernsey (Photo courtesy of Janet Landfried)

• The Little Chapel in Guernsey, studded with pebbles, seashells and pottery shards. (Photo courtesy of Janet Landfried)

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By Janet Landfried

There are so many ways to see the world and so many places to go. Every trip brings new experiences and new friends. Many of my trips have been to exotic locations but that doesn’t stop me from going to familiar places.

Princess Cruise Line has trips all over the world, but one caught my attention – a circumnavigation of the British Isles on the Caribbean Princess. Every summer Princess and other lines do these cruises, but I chose this one in particular because it would stop in Orkney, islands north of Scotland. Christina Rivera and I signed up for this cruise months ago and planned together when and where to go.

Christina retired as the principal of Redlands High School a couple of years ago and now has time to travel. I had already left Redlands High to teach at Redlands East Valley High School when Christina came to RHS, but I was hired after my retirement to help coordinate the school’s accreditation process.

I have been to London several times, but Christina had never been there, so we booked a three-night stay in London before the cruise. One is able to arrange with the company to schedule air tickets, transfers, hotels and tours before boarding the ship. It may seem pricey, but there is a certain satisfaction in having it all arranged for you.

Over the years I have done that as well as planning every aspect of a trip by myself. There are positives and negatives to both. Just weigh your options and choose what is best for you at the time and consider your budget of time and money.

We flew non-stop from LAX to London Heathrow Airport on American Airlines. A car and driver were waiting for us and we were whisked to the hotel. Princess also had an agent at the hotel each day to answer questions and to prepare us for pickup when our stay was over.

In order to maximize our time we chose the Hop-on Hop-Off bus so Christina could see the city and decide where she would like to come back to some day. We also used it as our primary transportation.

That first night we took a short circuit of one line and decided we were too tired, so we left the bus in search of a pub. We had fish and chips and of course our dinner was less expensive than our dinner at LAX was the night before.

It was summer and despite the threat of terrorist activity, London was crammed full of tourists. Combined with the hordes was the navigation of the narrow streets by bus. It was slow going but it gave us an opportunity of see all that we wanted.

Anyone familiar with these buses know there are several routes and we did them all to get an overview. Near the Tower of London we took the included short cruise on the River Thames.

The ride through Hyde Park area was enlightening. Oh, what money can buy! We didn’t pause to shop at Harrods or stop to see the queen. We did walk up to the Buckingham Palace gates to take our requisite “I was in London” picture and took time to enjoy the interior of Westminster Abbey. The crowds discouraged us from standing in more lines.

Christina has friends out in the suburbs and we wanted to visit them. Most European countries have an excellent system of rail transport. With information by text message from Christina’s friend Melanie, we made our way to Waterloo Station where we bought our tickets and hopped on the train.

Melanie and David were delightful. We were served tea and scones and enjoyed lively conversation. After dinner, David took us back to the train station and told us what platform to stand on. Soon we were back in London and found our way to the Underground. We studied the map, asked the right questions and, sure enough, popped out of the tube next door to the hotel.

The next morning we were picked up at our hotel and made the bus trip to the port in Southampton in about two hours. From the bus to our room on the ship it took about 20 minutes. Our luggage had been picked up at the hotel and was delivered to our stateroom before dinner.

The Caribbean Princess is a 3,000-passenger ship that was built in 2004 but refurbished this year. All the amenities you would expect to find on a cruise ship are here. The ship was full but never felt crowded, except it was standing room only during the large production shows that were sometimes offered three times a night.

We were seated at dinner with two couples, one from North Carolina and one from Southampton. The English couple’s trip to the dock was a 10-minute taxi ride. We looked forward each evening to lively conversation and critiques of our dinner selections.

Our first stop was the Channel Island of Guernsey. It is part of the British Isles but not part of the political entity of Great Britain. The queen is referred to there as the Duke of Normandy. Go figure – it’s too complicated to explain.

Guernsey and the nearby island of Jersey were the only British soil to be occupied by the Nazis during World War II. That history is what drew me to want to visit here. The islanders suffered many hardships during the five-year occupation and the island is still dotted with German fortifications and other remnants, much built by imported slave labor.

Many of us read the book “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society” and so are familiar with what happened there during World War II.

We took a highlights tour and learned that the island was settled from Neolithic times and was invaded by groups such as the Romans, Vikings, Anglo-Normans and Germanic tribes over the centuries. After World War II it regained its charm with narrow cobblestoned streets and colorful buildings. The port was full of water crafts, from fishing boats to yachts.

In addition to the still remaining concrete bunkers of the Nazis, along the shore was a series of English-built defense towers left from the Napoleonic Wars. We later saw these Martello towers in Ireland and Scotland.

It was summer and the town of Saint Peter Port was rampant with flowers — baskets and pots of geraniums, petunias, fuchsias, lobelias, begonias and salvias in every color. There were also lush agapanthus, hydrangea, montbretia, lilies, gazania, crocosmia and buddleja. Interestingly there is a palm tree at the port.

On our tour of the island we stopped at a little chapel built and rebuilt three times by Brother Déodat starting in 1914. Over the past few years it has undergone engineering work to stabilize the century-old building.

The structure and surrounding walkways were studded with shards of pottery, pebbles and seashells. The chapel was nestled against a hillside amid towering trees. It could hold only about 10 people at a time.

There were Guernsey cows grazing in the meadows across the way and later we saw golden shaggy Guernsey goats in their pens.

Join me next week as we sail to Ireland.

Janet Landfried taught social studies at Redlands High School and Redlands East Valley High School for many years and retired in 2001.