In Episode 22 of my travel podcasts I visit the Channel island of Guernsey for a spring break with my family. We enjoyed walking the cliff paths and stopping at beach cafes for a crab sandwich or a slice of Guernsey Gâche. We discovered how the German Occupation of the island during World War Two led to great hardship and about the film that's due to be made of the best-selling novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie society. We took the ferry to the Isle of Sark, where there are no cars and cycled around the island for the day, enjoying locally caught lobster for lunch and visiting the Seigneurie Gardens. On our final day we joined the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations at Castle Cornet for a 21 gun salute and visited Hauteville House, the amazingly decorated  home of the 19th century French novelist Victor Hugo. We found that Guernsey has a flavour of both French and English but a character that's all it's own.

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Day 1 - Our arrival on Guernsey
We flew into Guernsey from Bristol and spent the afternoon exploring the rocky southern coastline with cliffs and a few beaches, although the bigger beaches are on the north coast where the shoreline becomes flatter. You can walk along the cliff path from St Peter Port and find beach cafes where you can sit in the sun and have a cream tea or ice cream. Our first impression of Guernsey was that it was a bit like stepping back in time into a vision of England that doesn't exist any more, with picturesque countryside, narrow lanes and well kept old stone houses. As we drove along the road we saw hedge veg stalls where people sell their fresh produce outside their houses and you leave the money in a box. We spotted a sign for goat's cheese in St Pierre du Bois so stopped to find the Le Douit Beuval herd of Golden Guernsey Goats kept by Mandy and Peter Girard. We bought some goat's cheese from a fridge in the greenhouse at the back of the farmhouse and stroked the inquisitive goats in the field.

Finally, we ended up at Portelet Harbour on the south-west corner of the island and sat in the garden of the beach kiosk eating crab sandwiches overlooking the sea. There's plenty of seafood on Guernsey such as crab and lobster and if you look out to sea you can spot the orange buoys bobbing up and down with crab and lobster pots, waiting for the fishermen to come and check their catch. Later that afternoon, we checked into our holiday accommodation at Albany Apartments where a large merchant's house has been divided into holiday apartments with a large garden and swimming pool at the back.

Day 2 - A walk from Sausmarez Manor to Fermain Bay
As the sun was shining we decided to walk along some of the coastal paths we had seen the day before. We parked at Sausmarez Manor, that made a convenient starting point for our walk using my Cicerone guide to Walks on Guernsey. We followed the small wooded path down to Fermain Bay, a popular beach as it is one of the first beaches you get to if walking from St Peter Port. There's a cafe set above the beach beside the loophole tower with slit windows for all-round defence, built in the 18th century when Guernsey feared attack from French. The cafe has an excellent reputation for food, but it was a bit early for lunch so we had a coffee and then continued our walk around the headland. The cliff path passed through stands of pines, giving it a South of France feel, with the turquoise sea sparkling below. We reached Jerbourg point where there are gun emplacement and German fortifications and then turned inland along the lane back to Sausmarez Manor. In the tearoom I tried the local speciality, Guernsey Gâche, a fruit loaf spread with Guernsey butter. Sausmarez Manor is a beautiful Queen Anne manor house and there are guided tours on certain days,