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. 

Hamilton, Bermuda

Monday, April 14. Hamilton, Bermuda. We enjoyed a leisurely day at sea and arrived in Hamilton, Bermuda, on a sunny and brisk morning. We have had surprisingly strong winds on this cruise, and today in Hamilton was no exception. They kept us cool, so that wasn’t all bad, but it would have been cool anyway since Bermuda is pretty far north. Hamilton is clean and spiffy with pretty pale pastel buildings and a decidedly British influence in the orderliness of the islands, of which there are 150, with 8 of them being big enough to acknowledge. These are connected by bridges and causeways and form the main part of what we know as Bermuda. 

We soon set out on a minivan tour with several other passengers from our ship and a knowledgeable guide who enjoyed showing us the sights. We drove out along one shoreline and came back along another. The first featured some of Bermuda’s famous pale pink sand beaches. 

Our tour eventually arrived at the former dockyard where the British and US ships were berthed during WWII. The main buildings there are now a shopping mall, but it is so far out of the way that it seems to be primarily devoted to tourist goods and seemed pretty pitiful to us. 

The marina near the Dockyard Mall

On the way back we passed barrack buildings that have been turned into affordable housing units for the local people. It may be a bit of a coup to live there, but again, it all seemed pretty far from the action, not to mention jobs and real shopping. There IS a nice marina there where sailboats dominate. The big cruise ships come here, they told us, because they can’t get in to where we were docked near downtown Hamilton. Another reason to be happy with our smaller boat.

Our guide pointed out many examples of the distinctive Bermuda-style roofs. The settlers quickly learned to cover their steeply pitched roofs with stepped rows of limestone, whitewashed with more limestone. Channels direct the rain runoff into holding tanks, providing each dwelling with lime-purified water for all the needs of daily life. Pretty amazing, actually, and the roofs give this part of the world a distinctive appearance as well, especially when coupled with the attractive pastel colors we saw everywhere.

Very typical roof--fresh and white

We toured the Anglican cathedral in Hamilton, an impressive old building. We also saw the houses of parliament. 

The Lower House, I think

From there we drove to the town hall, now a museum, where we saw relics of the early British settlers as well as some current art and a row of portraits of the town mayors. 

Eventually we arrived back where we started and set out on a walking tour of historic sites in the downtown area, including some quaint older buildings, so modern office buildings, and ending in Queen Elizabeth Park, which was low key but nice. Everything here is clean and well maintained—a very pleasant place to visit. 

Is he homeless or just tired? He's certainly the best kept homeless person I've ever seen.

I eventually went back to the ship while John went on a hunt for ANYONE wearing the famous but elusive “native” costume—Bermuda shorts. He finally found someone at the Princess Hotel. We were told that local business men and government workers do wear these, but they must have all been indoors working!

Our last activity for the day was another glass bottom boat ride to see the fish and coral that abound here. Along the way, we were also able to see Bermuda from the water. 

Lots of nice homes here!

A famous wreck posted with warnings to stay away

They feed the fish so we can see them.

Tonight on board we were treated to a huge barbecue buffet, the most interesting feature of which was the wind on the open deck where it was held. It was so fierce that food, baskets and bottles were continuously blowing over!