Day eight. . . continued. . . the occupation.

The bulk of today was spent on our "occupation" bus tour. It was amazing! It was so informative. We really enjoyed ourselves. Our bus driver and tour guide is a local man who’s parents lived through the war. His father stayed on the island during the occupation while his mother left for england (they were not married yet). He gave such a great perspective into what life was like on the island during the war. As we drove around he pointed out little things we would have never noticed. Things like slits cut out of stone walls to make room for a machine gun, cement bunkers left by the Germans that are now covered by moss and foliage and the letter "V" painted in random places painted by the locals to bug the Germans. The "V" stood for victory. He said the children were evacuated from the island and gone for 5 years. Can you imagine! Toward the end of the war everyone was starving and the red cross came to their aide with supplies saving them all. Anyway, the story of survival on this little island during the war was inspiring.
Oh, and mom stayed awake the whole time! I think she was two afraid to fall asleep actually. Like most European towns, the streets here are pretty narrow. Some places are only wide enough for one car to pass through let alone a gigantic tour bus! Our bus constantly seemed to narrowly shave past stone walls, ocean cliff drops, parked cars and pedestrians. Mom kept grabbing my knee and squeezing as if the more pain she inflected on me was some how directly related to whether we would live or die! I kept telling her there was no reason to be nervous. I have been on many such tours on my past travels. I always tell myself, "these guys do this for a living, they would not make much money if they were constantly killing tourists!"
Anyway, after the tour we followed the coast around on foot to the military museum that is now housed in some underground tunnels created by the Nazi’s. After that we spent the rest of the afternoon wondering St. Peter’s Port and shopping. This island really is beautiful. It is not as rural as I expected, but it has so many charms.
We have spent a lot of money here! Mainly on books. Georgina suggested some British cookbooks for my aunt to get so we have been on a quest to find them. I think Deb has found everything she wanted and I bought one myself (thanks again G!). My mom bought a published journal written by a lady during the occupation. We have had a lot of fun wondering through St. Peters Port. Tomorrow is our last day here. We have no set plans! Those are always the best days!
On a happy note, did you know that the UK’s version of Nyquil (Night Nurse) is 18% alcohol as opposed to 10% in the U.S.! Can’t wait to down two tablespoons of that stuff!