Our own tour which I did not realize I had confirmed before I left home, needed us to meet at 9:45 in the theater to go ashore. We got there on time and barely sat down before we made our way to the gangway on Deck 2. As I was reaching for my key card to sign off the ship I realized I did not have it. I had reminded us both that we needed our driver’s license for photo ID as most ports require that but then I left my key card, absolutely a necessary thing, on the desk or somewhere. I told Elva go ahead and I would go back as fast as I could.
Even though I didn’t think about the fact that I could not have gotten into the room to get it without it, I ran up the stairs to the Guest Relations Desk. There was a long conversation going on between two passengers and the only on duty so I excused myself to interrupt and they were kind enough to let me do it. I explained my imminent plight and the young lady made me a new card…or tried to. The machine wasn’t working properly. She tried again and said she would walk me down if it didn’t work so while doing that and then resetting the machine for the third try, she was frantically trying to call for assistance for the now long line at the desk. Luckily, three times was the charm.
I zipped back down one flight, picking up my go-cup of tea right where I had set it, excused and pardoned me through the line and met my tour group just as it was about to set out for the walk to our little boat!
We had forgotten we had booked this tour but were so happy we did. It was called Bermuda Highlights and Famous Homes Cruise. So delightful! We didn’t get seats on the open top deck as I did cause us to be further back in the line. The people just ahead of us were the last seats up top. That might have been a good thing. The broad, open windows downstairs were perfect and even then, Elva had to move from the window seat because the breeze was pretty strong. It is not the warm Caribbean where Bermuda rests but off the shores of the mid East Coast.
The most surprising thing which has been remarked on by so many people is the color of the water. Caribbean Blue is spectacular but is a color you find more common in clothing, wall paint, and the mind’s eye. Atlantic green-blue and sparkling is a thing to behold! Clear, clean, unique, maybe teal - maybe not, it was beautiful, it is cold.
seen through the boat window, this is the little home in which Mark Twain stayed about which he wrote Mark Twain in Paradise.
“When you die you can go to heaven but I will stay in Bermuda.”
Our tour was a couple of hours of fun facts and entertainment. Lately tour guides all sing. Robert had a beautiful voice and is actually a keyboardist in his real life and sings at some of the beach bars and restaurants in the evening. One story he told was just the kind of ‘in the know’ thing you like to hear. The actor Michael Douglas grew up in Bermuda. His mother, Diana, Kirk’s first wife, was Bermudan. So The Douglas’ have a relatively modest home on a hill overlooking a bay, of which there are many. When they were out and about one evening they heard our guide, Robert, playing. Catherine Zeta Jones, Michael’s wife, was looking for someone to help her prepare for a benefit back in Hollywood for the Actor’s Home. (That is the charity, not private home.) She tracked him down through the manager of the club where he had been playing and asked him to come to the house to accompany her practices so for two hours an afternoon, three days a week, for two months, Robert would play at the house on the hillside.
The second day he was there she asked if he would like something to drink and he asked for the most valuable drink on the island – water. Bermuda has no real natural resources and no fresh water source other than rain , which is gathered from the roof systems and stored in tanks. Catherine said, no. I mean would you like A DRINK? He asked for a Dark and Stormy which she brought to him. This is local rum and ginger beer with lime. He admitted that when he drank he would like to also have a cigarette. She led him to comfortable chairs and the beautiful view to the next island and joined him every afternoon for a Dark and Stormy and a cigarette. Who knew? Maybe that is what gives her that husky voice.
The houses have white roofs which drain the water into gutters, then tanks. If the roof isn’t white, don’t drink the water.
 |
| This is the home of the founder of the Piggly Wiggly chain. The house on the samne property is that of his first wife. Apparently the second wife doesn' mind the proximity. Funny, the hog is the symbol of Bermuda so maybe that is how the supermarkets got heir names. |
Back at the ship we had lunch on deck overlooking the small boats, kayakers, and also the tourists coming and going by tram and taxi. We went back out and took the little white tram but it did not go far. It dropped us at the little craft mall where we met lots of people we knew and stopped to chat a little. Lines were long at everything like the ice cream parlor. Lots of people were in chain restaurants enjoying the same thing they could have at home and probably for way less money! We did go into the pharmacy which is more like a general store. I succumbed to a couple bottles of Ginger Beer and a bottle of Gosling Rum. Now I have to scam some limes on board!
We had dinner at the buffet but found seats on the open deck. Then took our dessert to our aft cabin and watched the King’s Wharf Bermuda fall into the distant horizon. As the sun was setting we passed some land on our starboard side. I thought it might be St. George, the distant point, and the airport city of the main island of the Bermuda Archipelago. Elva thought since we had been sailing an hour that it couldn’t be. Since I thought I might still have cell service I checked and it was indeed St. George. The quarter moon shape of Bermuda made it to seem we had left her behind Temptation was to go overboard to the very peaceful looking and magically pastel spit of land. No. Never a good idea to leave a ship except by gangway!
The entertainer after dinner was Rick Novell. I have seen him perform before and may have told some of you that he is the best juggler ever. The uniqueness of his act is the audience involment in the juggling but especially his skill on the unicycle. I can’t imagine that a unicycle would be easy to ride especially those tall ones. Now add in a wooden stage on a moving ship and try it. When I saw him before I could see the cycle literally sliding sideways across the floor. He never lost his balance from that seat some six feet in the air!
And just for fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment