GETTING SHOT OF THE GUERNSEY POUND NOTES IN ST HELIER

Day 5 (still) of the Channel Island Hop-athon,

and on our return from Herm to Guernsey I had just enough time to wear Mrs RM out walking up and down the hilly bits of St. Peter Port before our fourth ferry of the trip back to Jersey.

“Shall we walk up that hill to the Cock & Bull ? It’s an hour till check-in.”

“ENOUGH !“

I know when enough’s enough.

Back in St Helier a second time at 19:30, we found to our delight the French-tinged Norfolk Hotel was targeting the gentlefolk coach party market with dire warnings about incontinence fines and strict instructions about a joyless breakfast.

I did have one more GBG pub I wanted Mrs RM to see, a classic, but the lady was not for moving so I set off on my own.

Before I get to the pub marked on the map as “The Pet Cabin”, I was distracted by the Prince of Wales, St Helier’s market pub.

By law you must never walk past pub with light in the windows and an open door.

I’d been here in 1999, scoring the beer highly, and I doubt it’s changed since that famous year when a Manchester club scored two never-to-be-forgotten injury time goals.

The beer range hasn’t changed much, either. Very Sussex/Isle of Wight.

Friendly, gorgeous, and unfussy. And that’s just me.

The Prince of Wales is the equivalent of Manchester’s City Arms or Sheffield’s Bath Hotel. Bench seating, net curtains, cool beer, the Supremes and Albert Hammond on the radio, mostly unrepeatable pub banter.

A group of sweary ladies chatted clothes and boyfriends and the Jubilee (probably the 2012 one, I’m that far behind on the blog).

One lady phoned her mate.

“What ya doing Saturday ?”

“Nothing“

“We’ve got fish and chips at the Prince of Wales. And a Jam tribute“.

“Fish and chips ! I’m in“.

Actually, they needed to rope in some more customers; it was a quiet Monday. An elderly couple whispered to each other, a noisy bloke at the bar the only other punter.

The Gales HSB was terrific; cool and foamy (NBSS 3.5).

AND the nice barperson accepted my Guernsey fiver. I didn’t fancy trying to get shot of that in Aberdeen.

Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

10 thoughts on “GETTING SHOT OF THE GUERNSEY POUND NOTES IN ST HELIER”

  1. You’d have been OK with your Guernsey fiver in Aberdeen, we’re used to strange banknotes in Scotland.
    Did you have a problem with Isle of Man notes back in Blighty? I had a devil of a job getting them changed even in the bank.

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  2. Loved the “and that’s just me” line!

    Am I right that the task of completing the GBG gets dramatically harder at the end? That the remaining unticked pubs end up being in hard to reach places, with limited opening hours, etc? Adds to the satisfaction when you get one of those places ticked, I must imagine!

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    1. Yes, my last few hundred pubs of the 4,500 include many islands like Jersey, the Isle of Man and the Orkneys. The problem with doing those pubs in the larger islands is that each year brings the risk of a new entry, and visiting the islands is expensive and time consuming, as Simon found out attempting the Scilly isles this week.

      Talking of Simon, he’s halfway. When the new Beer Guide comes out on 27 October they’ll probably be 400 new entries so he’s certain to drop down and only get halfway again by Christmas. It’s a tough job !

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      2. Brilliant ! Thanks Paul, I was looking for an analogy for completing the GBG, where you get closer each year but each year you have to revisit what you’ve already done, and painting the Forth Bridge will do.

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  4. There’s something a bit existential about that pic of the long corridor, disappearing into the distance, and “the garden beyond”.

    I love it.

    Keep it coming, Martin.

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