Going Ashore!

After two days eating, drinking and lazing about we were much more active today!
After our pre-breakfast breakfast we watched them lowering the tenders into the water just below our cabin, then we went for actual breakfast and then went to get our tender ticket to go ashore to St Peter Port in Guernsey. Mindful of our planetarium issue we went down early just after 9am in case there was a long wait. There wasn't!!!
In just a few minutes we were walking out of the ship and onto the tender. I was ridiculously excited to be sat in the tiny boat looking up at the ship towering above us. We had fab seats on top of the tender - it was amazing sailing around the ship as we went!
We were last in Guernsey when I was a few weeks pregnant with Miss E. It was our friend Mr R's thirtieth birthday party. We'll be back next year for his fortieth as long as the Cunard schedule allows!!
We had said we'd be arriving at around 11am so he was somewhat taken aback when we uncharacteristically arrived an hour and a half early!! But he came to get us, along with the lovely Mrs L and gorgeous three year old Mr E.
We went to the Museum of German Occupation which was really interesting. At first glance it seemed to be just display cabinets full of random objects but on closer inspection there were some fascinating displays. Swastikas on everyday objects were chilling - napkins and napkin holders. The front page of the local paper from the first days of the Occupation. It was taken up with the Orders of the Commandant of the German Forces. Order number 2: We will respect the population of Guernsey but should anyone attempt to cause the least trouble serious measures will be taken and the town will be bombed. There was a picture from the island school and there was an old lady looking at it pointing herself out in it to her friend! Amazing!!
There was an Enigma machine, hilarious - and sobering - recipes for potato cake, mousse made with carrageen moss and, my favourite, macaroni blancmange - you soaked macaroni in water for twenty-four hours and mixed the resulting gloop with sugar. Nice!
There were photos of local girls who married Germans, letters, displays about collaborators and the resistance. So interesting!
We had to laugh at Mr K when he noticed a Samsung device of some description and commented that the logo hadn't changed at all. In the whole museum that's what he notices!!!
We had tea and gâche (Guernsey fruit loaf cake. Delicious!) in the Lyon's tea room and then carried on to see a street set up as it would have been during the Occupation. Shops, workshops, garages, barns full of machinery and tractors, an original field kitchen,  For a small museum they've packed in a lot of stuff!!
From there we went back to Mr R and Mrs L's lovely house. They've been doing a lot of work to it since they moved in and it's very inspiring to see what a difference you can make to a house. We had a tasty lunch of bread and ham and cheese, chatted and drank tea. Lovely!!
All too soon it was time to head back to the harbour to be whisked back over to the ship. We headed straight to the Kings Court (because it was minutes since we'd last eaten!!) for cookies and tea and then headed out on deck to read our books and watch them winch the tenders back on board. 
Quite what Cunard would make of some of the Health and Safety infringements we observed as they attached the boats back onto the side of the ship would be interesting - at one point two of the crew climbed over the railings and were trying to push the tender out from the side of the ship with their feet while hoisting up a bumper guard thing. Very funny!
We managed cocktails before and after dinner. We're getting into the swing of it now!!