Alderney - in pictures

I'm back!

I had a wonderful week in Alderney, staying in a beautiful 13 bed fort in surrounded by sea. We cycled to every beach on the tiny island, drank many mojitos by sunset and travelled in a miniature plane. I was absolutely terrified about the plane but it was actually really quite enjoyable! It only had 16 seats (including the one pilot, whom I sat behind on the way), and had no aisle so the seats had to be folded down to allow people to get in.

Alderney has a lot of history. It was taken over by Germans during the Second World War and their presence still remains strong. There are reminants of German bunkers scattered all over the island, which we explored with torches. Some of them sent a shiver down my spine, especially the one with German writing on the walls. There were also concentration camp remains, which we didn't look for. There is a total of 14 forts around the island, some are simply remains (one of which can only be reached by swimming) and others are done up properly. Ours had a central living quarters and then bedrooms scattered around the courtyard and up rocks. I was lucky enough to share the only bedroom attached to a bathroom with my sister and cousin!

It had a lot of history to my Mum and her brother and sister too, who stayed in Alderney once or twice a year for seven years in a row as children. They were amazed with how little the place, and people, had changed.

It was lovely to get away to a place with little tourists. What struck me was the lack of people, which was nice. Apparently there are only about 2,000 people, which is really not very many.

I also had plenty of time to practise with my new camera. Though all the settings, shutter speeds etc continue to baffle me!

I am going to France on Saturday, but I will be blogging a lot until then to make up for it! :)

I have... not one, not two... but THREE "before and after"s that I have been working on this summer to show you over the next month! I will blog one or two this week and the rest when I get back.

I hope you are all having a lovely summer,

lots of love,

Polly R xxxxxxxxx