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!

Nassau, the Bahamas

Saturday, April 12. Nassau, the Bahamas.  Sure enough, morning found us docked in Nassau, ready to explore a little bit and enjoy a visit to the beautiful clear waters aboard a glass-bottom boat. Tourists from some of the five BIG ships in the harbor joined us, but not in large numbers. 

A few of the ships in the harbor

We enjoyed seeing Nassau from the water, the nice waterfront homes, and eventually the reef with its varied corals and fish life. 

fish and coral

Harbor ships from the other direction

The pink hotel is the Atlantis

This is a mecca for second homes in the tropics

After we returned to shore, there was plenty of time to explore downtown Nassau on foot. We ended up walking down busy Bay street with its many tourist-centered shops, the most interesting of which was the Straw Market. This is a very large open warehouse-like building crammed with tiny shops where local entrepreneurs were busy hawking all kind of souvenirs. We resisted.  

The Straw Market

We enjoyed seeing the clean streets, pretty pink government and historical buildings, horse-drawn carriages, and some of the local citizens. These included a very spiffy unarmed policeman and a “rastah man” type who I was reduced to sketching later because I couldn’t get my camera out in time. I'll spare you the sight of my really BAD sketch!

Majority Rule is important here, as this museum attests

We strolled the colorful waterfront tourist traps for a little while, but really, that’s not our thing. Heading back to the ship we again marveled at the size of the other ships in port and congratulated ourselves for sailing on the Navigator. People think Regent is expensive, but when you compare, it really isn’t, because everything IS included, from tips to cokes to tours. The supposedly less expensive lines charge you extra for everything, and by the end, you have paid about as much as we did but spent your time aboard a crowded behemoth as part of a very large herd. 

The competition

The Navigator. It looks big, but the others dwarf it.

Bermuda via Regent Seven Seas

Better late than never, I suppose. This past April we took a cruise to Bermuda, came home, and promptly got VERY busy. I have promised myself I would get around to blogging about the trip for three months now, and today is finally the day! Here goes.

Friday, April 11, 2014  Our journey begins. We started our day with a Cruise Connection bus ride to Miami, a perfectly wonderful way to get there. No driving, no getting lost, no parking hassles. We had a chatty driver, who laid down the rules, entertained us with some bus driver stories, and even showed a movie, Dolphin Tales, to get us in the mood. Kind of a cute family friendly movie. I would have preferred to read, but this was fine, too. Naples is the last stop before turning east so we didn’t have to be at the Burger King until 9:15. People who got on in Tampa were on the road three hours earlier. Lucky us! We went to Ft Lauderdale first to deliver several passengers to a big Norwegian Cruise Lines ship. Then we pulled way forward to wait for a few more passengers who were joining us from another bus. Suddenly the older couple in front of us stirred and started wondering when we were getting to Ft Lauderdale. It was lucky for them that we had had to park and wait, because our driver was able to pull around the circle to let them out instead of delivering them to Miami with the rest of us. Not at all sure how they managed to zone out during the entire time the other Ft Lauderdale passengers were leaving the bus, but John and I both agreed that when we are THAT old, we will NOT be traveling any more!

Ours was the first ship in the Miami circle, again lucky for us. We arrived at 1PM, breezed through the boarding process, and were soon seated in the Veranda restaurant where we enjoyed a decent lunch before our stateroom became available. Our room was in our usual “low and amidships” location, which we later had reason to be glad about. Lovely quarters, and welcome champagne and orchids didn’t hurt either. We were a little bit concerned about our eating prospects after lunch, however, because my veggie burger had definitely been in the freezer too long, but we later confirmed that our fears were completely unfounded. More on that later.

We unpacked, explored the ship a little bit, congratulated ourselves on being on the Regent Seven Seas Navigator will about 450 other passengers instead of any of the behemoth multi-thousand passenger ships that were in the harbor with us. Some of them were following a similar route, and we were always happy to know we were on the smaller ship. Great food, excellent service, lots of fun entertainment, excellent tours, no crowds, and absolutely everything included. Nice!

Dinner, a show, a good nights sleep, and we will be in the Bahamas tomorrow.