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| The view of Port Stanley from the water. Christ Church Cathedral stands as the tallest building. My husband recently re-retired, and we are front-loading travel. My #AtoZChallenge posts this year will explore our adventures--some pre-retirement, some post. Today's location: Falkland Islands. I'm old enough to remember the war in the Falklands, but being able to learn more about it while on the island made it really come to life to me. The population of the Falkland Islands is only around 3500 people. (The sheep and penguin population is higher that that, I think.) The islanders overwhelmingly favor their designation as a British Overseas Territory. To wake up one morning to foreign troops taking over their little island must have been quite a shock! With British help, the war was over relatively soon, but 74 days of occupation had to have felt much longer at the time. There is an excellent museum in Stanley (the Falkland Islands only town) that is a must-see. A short film gives first-hand accounts of what it was like for the children in 1982 to wake up to soldiers in their streets. The photo below shows the sign for the Historic Dockyard Museum, which includes The National Museum of the Falkland Islands.  The town of Stanley also has the Christ Church Cathedral and its whale bone arch. The photo below shows the arch in front of the tall stone church.  While the town was lovely to visit and taught us much about its history, a major highlight of a stop in the Falkland Islands is penguins. We visited both Bluff Cove and Gypsy Cove to see penguins. We were fortunate that the weather was beautiful on the day of our visit; apparently that is not always the case in the Falklands. If it weren't for the fact that there were penguins on the beach (and the temperature wasn't balmy), I might have thought I was on a tropical island. Just look at the gorgeous blue water, white sand beach, yellow flowers, and blue sky in the photo below. Those little black dots on the beach are penguins.  Below, a penguin walks toward the camera on the beach at Bluff Cove:  A baby Gentoo penguin gets ready to be fed by its mom:  King penguins congregate at Bluff Cove:  Though a bit tricky to get to (most visitors arrive by cruise ship), a visit to the Falkland Islands is definitely worth the effort. Come back tomorrow to see where in the world we'll visit next! |
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