St. George, Bermuda

Tuesday, April 15. St. George, Bermuda. We had a surprise today! Last night our ship was supposed to have moved to its second Bermuda port, St. George. Again, this is a port larger ships can’t get into, but this time, we couldn’t either. It has been SO windy ever since we arrived here. We assumed this was fairly of normal, but it turns out it is not, and the high winds have prevented us from chancing the narrow channel we were scheduled to sail through to get to St. George. Not a problem, however, because St. George is actually just a few miles, maybe 45 minutes by road, from Hamilton. So once again, we boarded minivans and drove to our planned destinations for the day. By the way, minivans are just about the largest vehicles they have here. Streets are narrow and winding and land is at a premium, so that will never really change. In fact, families are limited to only one vehicle each because traffic is already heavy—nearly bumper to bumper sometimes.

We began our tour of St. George in the narrow streets near St. Peter’s Church, the oldest continuously operating Anglican church in the Western hemisphere, despite it’s modern-seeming clean lines.

St. Peter's Church

You would think it would be the cathedral, but after a bit of a war back in the day, Hamilton won out. Meanwhile, however, the relic of the unfinished St. George cathedral remains as a reminder of that old rivalry. We didn’t see that until the end of our day in St. George, and would have missed it altogether had John not insisted on a photo stop. 

The unfinished cathedral

In the meantime, we enjoyed strolling the narrow old streets and seeing the town, which seems much older and more quaint than Hamilton—the modern day business center for Bermuda. Twice as many people live in St. George as in Hamilton, but really, nearly all the population lives elsewhere on the islands. Apparently nearly all the residents of St. George are elsewhere during the day, because sleepy definitely describes the town we saw.

In the meantime, we enjoyed strolling the narrow old streets and seeing the town, which seems much older and more quaint than Hamilton—the modern day business center for Bermuda. Twice as many people live in St. George as in Hamilton, but really, nearly all the population lives elsewhere on the islands. 

Near King’s Square, we saw the Town Hall, a nice harbor, an old ship, and even a Town Crier. 

The harbor. This MIGHT have been the narrow passage our ship would have had to negotiate had the seas been calmer.

I don't know who this is, but he looks as windblown as we feel.

From there, we were driven to Ft. St. Catherine for a look at the old defenses of the islands. And at last, the Unfinished Church.

Better use of a gun port--a little planter!

Bermuda is British--which the residents have mixed feelings about.

 Our final stop was at a lighthouse where the wind was blowing more fiercely than ever but blue skies made even that seem fine. 

Summers here can be sultry, but we had none of that during our stay in Bermuda. In fact, we were cold much of the time and certainly windblown.