Bermuda Cruise - Day 4
Wednesday, May 9
We docked at Kings Wharf, Bermuda around 8:30 a.m. It was the first time we'd seen land since leaving New Jersey. I didn't realize that Bermuda is located in the middle of nowhere - 1,000 km from the nearest land! From our stateroom, we have a good view of the Dockyard area. It's a former military installation, turned into a tourist attraction in the 1990s. The Clocktower building has 2 towers - one to tell time, and one to mark the tides.
We started off at 10:00 with a bus tour of the island - a good way to get a quick overview of what's out there to see. while waiting in line for the tour to start, there was a very loud roly-poly gap-toothed guy behind us talking to complete strangers and telling them his life story. He was in the navy 30 years ago, but suffered from sea sickness on this cruise regardless. He's from California, and has been in a long-distance relationship with a woman from New York since 1985. They only see each other 2 or 3 times/year. Quite remarkable endurance for a long-distance relationship, but also understandable if you could see what these people look like. He also had the annoying habit of calling his girlfriend "babe" continuously.
Bermudans drive on the left side of the rode, like they do in the Eurpose (Bermuda is part of the UK). Bermuda is a rather small series of islands, about 30 km or so from tip to tip, connected by a few short bridges. We started out in Kings Wharf, at the northwestern tip of Bermuda. All of the roads in Bermuda are narrow and curvy - glad that we weren't driving! The island-wide speed limit is 35 (kph, I assume), but many people far exceeded that. Passing slower-moving drivers here is like a game of Frogger.
The architecture in Bermuda is very distinctive. Almost all of the homes are painted in bright pastel colours - blues, greens, pinks, oranges, etc. However all of the roofs are whitewashed, apparently by law. Bermudan roofs are ridged, somewhat like an Aztec step pyramid. They are designed that way to funnel rainwater into water tanks, and reduce reliance on the expensive Bermudan water system.
The first tourist attraction we came across was Somerset Bridge, billed as the world's smallest drawbridge, barely opening enough to allow the mast of a sailboat to pass through. However, our bus driver (a Bermuda native) had never actually seen it in operation. At the bridge there was a small beach. Bermuda is famous for its pink sand beaches - basically all of them are like that. I think it's from the crushed shells of little pink/red crustaceans of some sort. They didn't look particularly pink to me, but whatever... What is striking though, is the vibrant blue water colour. Our camera didn't seem to do it justice.
Our first main stop were the Crystal Caves. Shelley passed on the 83-stair descent into the cave in favour of lunch and a bathroom break. Not the most spectacular caves I've seen, but still pretty cool, and worth the trouble of a 20-minute tour. Plenty of stalactites and stalagmites to be seen, including some underwater stalagmites, since the cave was not always filled with water. One particularly large formation, known as the Iceberg, is about 1,000,000 years old. The caves were discovered in 1905 by a couple of curious kids who chased a cricket ball down into a hole. They never did find it.
Our next stop was the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo. Yes, 3 attractions in one! We were only allotted 30 minutes for our visit, so Shelley and I decided to abandon the tour and bravely set forth on our own. The highlight of the aquarium for me was the humourously-named fish, the slippery dick.
In the natural history museum, I learned that one of plays I made in the tournament (CAHOW 21) is a sea bird endemic to Bermuda! I'll have to go back and enter it for the best Bermuda theme word. Something that is exclusively found in Bermuda has to win the prize! [edit: it did]
The best part of the trifecta was the zoo. First, we watched the seals for a while. There were 4 or 5 of them in a water exhibit by the entrance, and it was feeding time! One of the seals (which we referred to as the Turvy seal) seemed as interested in others' food as his own, and repeatedly tried to join in on another seal's feeding. We got ourselves some good pics of those glumpers. Shelley and I concurred that we were certain that they would like the pat-pat-pat.
Moving further into the zoo, there were a variety of other exhibits, many of which were "open concept" exhibits where we entered a little biosphere and the animals and birds moved freely among us. In one exhibit, an egret flew up and landed about a foot away from me. Then, it seemed to follow me around. One exhibit that was not open concept was the alligator exhibit. This was one lazy gator. How lazy was it? Well, lazy enough that moss and other plants were literally growing on its back! I guess that's what happens when you have an alligator in a zoo enclosure with nowhere to swim!
We emerged from the aquarium/museum/zoo into tiny Flatts Village. There are only 2 villages in Bermuda (Flatts and Somerset), one town (St. George's), and one city (Hamilton, the capital). However, the whole island is quite densely populated, so I suppose people who live outside those 4 municipalities just say that they live in a particular parish. Bermuda is divided into 9 parishes, and during the tour we drove through all but one of them (St. George's).
We took the public bus from Flatts into Hamilton. We didn't get seats, so we had to stand for the full 20-minute ride. We had to hang on to straps coming down from the ceiling of the bus, and gave ourselves a good upper body workout as the bus wound its way through a series of tight curves and sudden stops.
In Hamilton, the first thing that strikes a visitor is the prevalence of motorcycles and mopeds. It wasn't unusual to see dozens of them lined up in their tiny parking spaces. The city is very clean and modern, with no chain restaurants to be seen. In fact, very few chain stores of any kind. The only ones I saw on today's trip was an Esso gas station, HSBC Bank (they took over Bank of Bermuda recently), and Marks & Spencer.
We walked the streets a little, and made our way to the ferry terminal. Along the way, we stopped for something to eat in a cafe (I hadn't eaten anything except a banana before leaving the ship in the morning). We could have stayed for a few more hours and explored Hamilton, but Shelley was reaching the end of her endurance for the day.
The ferry ride back was a speedy no-nonsense affair, and well worth the $4 price. In Bermuda, the official currency is the Bermuda dollar, but U.S. dollars appear to be used interchangeably with the local currency. Not sure if the 2 currencies are officially tied to one another?
Back on the ship, we made use of the thalassotherapy pool and hot tub, and Shelley got a foot massage. We were supposed to go on a glass-bottom boat cruise, but the time got shifted from 11:00 (after the late dinner seating) to 8:00, so we cancelled it.
We took advantage of the dinner seating again. Since we arrived a bit late, we got a table to ourselves, joined shortly thereafter by Shauna & Dave. We made plans to try Qsine restaurant on Friday night in lieu of the 2nd formal dinner. Qsine is an avant-garde gastronomic experience type of restaurant, where they bring out a series of wacky creative small dishes. Although this is one of the specialty restaurants that costs extra ($40/person prix fixe), we think it will be worthwhile to try. Carolyn and her sister tried it a few days ago, and they will likely want to go back.
Shelley went on search and destroy mode for the hokey cruise ship embarkment/disembarkment pictures, which did not meet up to her standards. Then it was off to bed. Nice not having to worry about the alarm, as tomorrow will be unstructured until the evening.