Day 11 St Peter Port

We decided to have another car free day and visit the capital of St Peter Port on the bus.  We had seen a little of it the previous day but it is quite a big town.  It was cloudy as we left our hotel but soon brightened up and the sun came out.  We were surprised that it was not busier, being a Saturday, but it was very quiet.  We walked all around the pedestrianized areas and went into a few of the shops.  In Market Street we were surprised to see a dog training session in progress with the dog owners standing with their pooches in a circle and a trainer working with the dogs.

Parish Church of St Peter Port

Yellow Telephone boxes

Ship mast on roundabout at port entrance

Blue Post Boxes


The former market halls now housing a variety of shops

Former market hall, now a co-op

Narrow shopping street



Dog training session in market street.

We found a nice cafe called Terrace Garden Café overlooking the port and marina so stopped for a tea and sit down.  We noticed that they had a good early evening menu so we decided to come back later for our main meal.

Paul at Terrace Garden Cafe

Terrace Garden Cafe


We then walked along the harbour wall passing Castle Cornet, Guernsey’s main defence over the years and on to the lighthouse from where we had some good views of St Peter Port harbour front.

Castle Cornet

Harbour Lighthouse

St Peter Port from Lighthouse


We came back to the town centre and had an ice cream before heading uphill to see the towers that dominate the skyline of St Peter Port which were visible from the harbour.  These were the St James Concert and Assembly Hall, Elizabeth College and Victoria Tower.  

St James Concert and Assembly Hall

Elizabeth College


Victoria Tower was built to commemorate a visit by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to the island in 1846.  It was open to the public but you had to collect the key from nearby Guernsey Museum.  We did this and had half an hour to enter, climb and leave the tower which we just managed to do.  It was really eerie to be the only ones in such a historic place.  We walked up a series of spiral steps to 3 platforms and then up some wooden stairs to the viewing platform near the top.There were magnificent views from here.


View from top of Victoria Tower over Candie Cemetery with 
Commonwealth War Graves in centre.
Herm Island in background with Sark behind it to the right



View from top of Victoria Tower over Castle Cornet
and Port of St Peter Port

Inside the Tower


We visited the Candie Cemetery where there are some commonwealth war graves which we had photographed from the top of Victoria Tower and walked around Candie Gardens where there is the Victor Hugo statue and gardens.  Victor Hugo was living in Guernsey when he wrote "Les Miserables".

Queen Victoria Statue in Candie Gardens

Candie Gardens

Victor Hugo Statue

Victor Hugo Garden

Candie Gardens

Pond at Candie Gardens


We had an early meal back in the Terrace Garden Café before getting the bus back to the hotel where we had a rest then went to the hotel bar to listen to a couple singing who call themselves "Deja Vu".  This couple are clearly followed around by the locals who were up dancing straight away.  Paul joked that they will be line dancing soon and that is exactly what happened.  We listened for about an hour but needed to be up early as we are off to Herm tomorrow.

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