Brittany Ferries: Timings as Guernsey Commodore Clipper returns
Each year, ferries undergoes a dry dock - a process similar to servicing a car, but one that takes about a month to complete.The Clipper will be running services three times a week between Guernsey and St. Malo from 3 November to 4 December. During that time there will be no trips to Poole, but the Islander will be completing six trips a day to Portsmouth.Once she leaves the Channel Islands, the Clipper will resume services between Cherbourg in France and Rosslare in Ireland - a route she operated last winter.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
15 minutes ago
- The Sun
5 things every parent MUST know before taking their kids to the beach, from safety chiefs
AN URGENT warning has gone out to Brits heading to beaches next week, to bask in the incoming warm weather. Beaches, although fun, can become dangerous places if your child doesn't know how to stay safe in the sea. 3 3 The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) says that there are five key things for families to remember when they head to the beach. Following these instructions could save someone's life and it's important for your children to 1. Choose a lifeguarded beach Lifeguards are specially trained to keep beachgoers safe in the water. Last year, RNLI lifeguards helped 17,068 people on the beach who had gotten into difficulty in the sea. They patrol over 240 beaches in the UK and the Channel Islands, meaning that there will also be a beach nearby where they can help to keep you safe. Going to a beach without a lifeguard means that it will be much harder to get immediate help, should something go wrong. 2. Float to live If you are struggling in the water, kicking or trying too hard to tread water can lead to exhaustion. This heightens the risk of drowning. Instead, tilt your head back and submerge your ears while breathing normally. Use your hands to stay afloat and relax. Shock footage shows bikini-clad women brawling on a beach in Ukraine after group started 'playing Russian music' This will allow you to float safely until help comes. It is essential that children learn this vital skill too, so practice in a pool with them before you head to the beach. 3. Know your flags The RNLI also warns that it is important to know what each flag being flown at the beach means. If you want to swim or body board, then you must stay between the red and yellow flags. You cannot swim if only a red flag is flying as this means the water is too dangerous. Beachgoers planning to use surfboards, paddleboards or non-powered craft must stay between the black-and-white chequered flags. Swimming in that zone is strictly banned. 4. Know the risks It is important to teach your children about the risks they might face in the sea. Rip currents, for example, can drag you out into deep water, which could put your life at risk. If you get caught in a current, do not try and swim against it. Instead, go with the current until it eases and then swim back via a different route. Also, check that the water temperature is safe to swim in. Entering cold water too slowly or swimming when the temperature is dangerous low could put you into cold water shock. This is often characterized by an involuntary gasp, an increased heart rate and rapid breathing, all of which could lead to drowning. Water below 15°C is generally considered to be too cold to swim in, as it causes your body to constrict blood vessels, which increases your heart rate and blood pressure. 5. Call 999 or 112 in an emergency In the event of an emergency, you must call 999 so that the emergency services can help you. Alternatively, the 112 number - which can be used in any European country - can be called, if you need help. Take your phone into the sea with you, in a waterproof pouch, so that you can call for help even in the water. Inflatables at the beach Jo Talbot, commercial director at the Royal Life Saving Society, has also warned against using inflatables at beaches. She says: "We wouldn't recommend people using inflatables at beaches. 'You could get caught by the wind and taken out of your depth, which would be extremely dangerous. Jo added that buoyancy aids, like armbands, are still not enough on their own to keep your child safe. She added: "They can help a child stay buoyant in the water. "But the parent needs to stay next to the child at all times, in case those aids come off and the child gets into difficulty and starts to sink."
The Guardian
15 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Timetables, tricky tickets and high prices: the problems with European cross-border rail travel
At 9.55am every day since December, a German ICE high-speed train has left the Gare de l'Est in Paris headed, via Strasbourg, Karlsruhe and Frankfurt, for Berlin Hauptbahnhof, where – all being well – it pulls in just over eight hours later. Remarkably, the service is the first direct, high-speed, centre-to-centre rail link between the capitals of the EU's two biggest countries. Run by Deutsche Bahn (DB) and France's SNCF, it has been hailed as a milestone in European train travel. It is not the only new service linking Europe's cities. From next May, the ČD ComfortJet, operated by the Czech, German and Danish railways, will carry you all the way from Prague to Copenhagen, calling at Dresden, Berlin and Hamburg, in just over 11 hours. Major new routes are being built: a high-speed Alpine tunnel linking Lyon and Turin; the Fehmarn Belt connecting Germany and Denmark; Rail Baltica, which will join Tallinn in Estonia to Warsaw via Riga in Latvia and Kaunas in Lithuania. On the face of it, then, high-speed, long-distance rail travel in Europe seems to be finally taking off. But in fact, fast, efficient cross-border rail services between the continent's major urban centres remain, for all the media fanfare, very much a rarity. For a whole raft of reasons – inadequate infrastructure, unwilling operators, incompatible systems, incomprehensible timetabling and (last but not least) impossibly complicated ticketing – long rail journeys across Europe are all too often a pastime rather than a practical travel alternative. Imagine, for the sake of illustration (few except slow-travel aficionados would ever actually attempt it), a four-country trip from Spain's second-biggest city, Barcelona, to Marseille in France, then on to Italy's largest port, Genoa, ending in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. For starters, says Jon Worth, an independent writer and campaigner on European cross-border rail travel, while there is a high-speed line across the Spanish-French border, for most of the year it carries only four trains a day, and five in summer. 'Why?' Worth says. 'Because the new trains run by the Spanish operator, Renfe, haven't been approved to run in France, and SNCF has cut the size of its fleet capable of running in Spain. So the trains that do run are invariably packed, and prices are sky-high.' Next, only one of those four or five daily trains will run direct from Barcelona to Marseille, and it arrives in France's biggest port so late that you miss the last service to Nice, which is where you need to be in order to catch a train to Italy. So, you must then board a slow regional train the next morning for the hour-long ride to Ventimiglia, followed, with luck and good timing, by a relatively fast intercity connection along the Ligurian coast to Genoa. From there, things only get worse. Trains crossing the Italy-Slovenia border at Gorizia-Nova Gorica run at weekends only. Those doing so at Villa Opicina, near Trieste, are daily but very irregular. So the 370 miles (600km) to Ljubljana via Milan and Venice will take up to 13 hours and probably involve travelling via Villach in Austria. 'It's one of the worst borders to cross anywhere in the EU,' says Worth. 'Very few, very slow trains.' Moreover, although European night trains are making a much-hyped but in reality slow and difficult comeback, there isn't one on this route. (Actually, that's not strictly true. The Espresso Riviera, operated by Treni Turistici Italiani, is a delightful upmarket sleeper service from Rome to Marseille and back. Unfortunately, it runs only in July and August, and then just once a week.) Leaving aside the nonexistent connectivity, the obstacles facing the long-distance European rail traveller will have become apparent long before they actually get on a train. Planning a trip and buying tickets (as well resolving problems if things go wrong) are daunting challenges in themselves. Seasoned travellers recommend Deutsche Bahn's website as the best and most comprehensive planning tool for navigating the seemingly infinite complexities of Europe's train schedules, but few novices would describe even that as user-friendly. Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion It is also unlikely to be able to sell you all the tickets you need, which will have to be bought separately from the various national operators. Unlike plane travel, through train tickets are rare – and if they exist, they are often more expensive than a combination. Moreover, although services such as Trainline – which anyway only offers only a small selection of possible routes – can sell you a through journey from, say, Barcelona to Nice, it will be two tickets with two different operators, sold in one transaction. 'That means,' says Worth, 'if anything goes wrong – say, a train is late and you miss your connection – you have no passenger rights at all. Worse, few stations will be able to help. Unlike in an airport, you'll have to sort it out yourself.' Across the continent, similar issues recur, vastly complicating journeys that could, in principle, be smooth, practical, sustainable travel alternatives – and pushing even those willing to accept a longer and more expensive trip on to Europe's ferociously competitive airlines. Sometimes, infrastructure is the main obstacle. French TGVs and Italian Frecciarossas link Paris to Milan in seven hours, for example, but must crawl through the Alps until the new Lyon-Turin high-speed line and tunnel is completed, theoretically in 2033. Meanwhile, the current route is heavily susceptible to damage from increasingly frequent landslides: after reopening in April following a 20-month closure for mudslides, it had to shut down again for several days in July for the same reason. At other times, the issue is a lack of cooperation between rail operators. Astonishingly, there has been no direct train connection between Madrid and Lisbon – two neighbouring European capitals – since a Spanish sleeper service was discontinued in 2020. The 450-mile journey now requires two changes and multiple tickets and takes more than eight hours. Lines are being electrified but there is no guarantee that Renfe and Portugal's CP, which have very different strategies, will combine forces and deliver a through service. 'Operators still mostly think and work nationally,' says Worth. 'CP is old-style, regular, but has only just started work on its first high-speed line. Renfe is modern, high-speed connections between Spain's major cities. They're just not a good fit.' Different technologies and operating systems are a major block. In principle, that can be overcome with modern, multi-system rolling stock, but it is significantly more expensive. A pan-European signalling system, ECTS, is on its way but not there yet. Other obvious European rail connections badly in need of upgrading, Worth argues, could include Berlin-Warsaw, which still runs on slow tracks for much of its six-hour journey (though that may change, given Poland's ambitious high-speed rail plans). And in Scandinavia, a high-speed service linking Oslo to Stockholm or Copenhagen remains a pipe dream. A project that would slash travel times between the Norwegian capital and Gothenburg in Sweden to an hour has, so far, made zero progress.
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Is it safe to travel to France? Latest advice as wildfires devastate south of country
After firefighters battled to contain France's largest wildfire in decades, inbound travellers may be concerned about the safety of their summer travel plans. One person died, with thousands of residents forced to flee their homes in the Aude region during the country's biggest wildfire since 1949. French firefighters and local authorities are maintaining a high alert in the south of France, with local authorities urging continued vigilance throughout the weekend as temperatures exceed 30C. Here's the latest travel advice for France, plus all the key questions and answers. Where was the wildfire? The fire began on Tuesday (5 August) in the village of Ribaute in the Aude region of southern France and spread rapidly. It blazed for three days through an area one and a half times the size of Paris – across more than 160 square kilometres (62 square miles) – in the French wine region near the Spanish border. At least 36 homes were destroyed or damaged as the inferno swept through 15 communes in the Corbières massif. 'In the Aude region, the risk of fire spreading remains very real, although less severe than on Tuesday,' Meteo France said, adding that national temperatures could peak at the beginning of the week. As of 8 August, the UK Foreign Office (FCDO) has not issued any specific travel advice for the wildfires in France. General wildfire advice from the FCDO warns that wildfires are common in the country during the summer months, particularly along the Mediterranean coast and in Corsica. It says: 'Fires have become more frequent because of drought and high temperatures. French authorities may evacuate areas and close roads for safety reasons.' Travellers in high-risk areas are advised to seek advice from the French government if a wildfire breaks out. 'If you are caught in, or witness, a wildfire, call the emergency services on 18 (fire) or 112 (emergency services),' adds the FCDO. Will my flight to France get cancelled? Perpignan and Carcassonne airports, the closest to the blaze, are operating departures and arrivals as scheduled. No flights are currently cancelled in the aftermath of the Aude wildfires. Can I cancel my holiday? As the FCDO has not warned against non-essential travel to France, there will be no special circumstances in place to be able to cancel a trip for a full refund. The conditions for cancelling your trip will be dependent on your holiday provider, so it's best to contact them if you're looking to postpone. There is no obligation for companies to refund bookings if you wish to cancel, and you will not be able to claim on your travel insurance due to safety concerns unless government advice changes. Some travel insurance policies include natural disaster cover for an event that prevents you from reaching your holiday destination. Check your insurance policies to see where you stand.
