Hamilton, Bermuda - November 19 and 20, 2010

Eugene Vickers and me

One of Bermuda's beautiful pink beaches

The world's smallest drawbridge

The oldest, smallest active Catholic Church

Hamilton and the Government House at night

We arrived in Hamilton Friday morning at 9 AM, 5 hours earlier than scheduled because of the smooth seas during our crossing. The entrance to Hamilton is pretty spectacular; the channel through which we passed was very narrow and we were kicking up a lot of sand. It’s clear that larger cruise ships cannot dock in Hamilton, but instead must stay out on the West End.

A little about Bermuda is in order. There are actually a couple of hundred little islands. The largest is 22 sq. miles with a width no greater than 1.5 miles. The population is around 65,000. The island was originally found by a Spaniard, Juan de Bermudez, but he didn’t settle it. He did however release some pigs. The English under an Admiral Somers were on their way to resupply Jamestown in 1609 when they were blown off course by a hurricane and shipwrecked on the island. It was uninhabited except for the pigs. The intrepid sailors managed to build two small boats from the wreckage of their original craft and continued on to Jamestown. The Admiral ordered that a new expedition settle Bermuda and it has remained in English hands ever since.

It is a truly beautiful place characterized by the brightly colored houses all of which have white limestone roofs. They are designed this way to capture rainwater which is channeled down to a cistern below the house. Today as houses are being built, the limestone blocks are dug out to form the cistern, a concrete floor is put above that and the limestone which has been excavated is used to build the walls and the limestone plates for the roof. The roof is attached to the building with native cedar beams which allow the roof to flex in the wind.

We spent Friday walking around Hamilton. It’s a lovely town with many shops and restaurants. The primary industry in Bermuda is reinsurance (tourism is second) so there are also many office buildings. We had lunch in a place recommended to us by a shopkeeper. We had a dish unique to Bermuda called Bermudan Guinea Chicks. It sounds like it should be chicken but it’s actually a spiny lobster native to Bermuda. They were served stuffed and grilled and they were delectable!

Today, Saturday the 20^th, we took a tour to the southern shores of the island and to the Dockyard at the West End. Eugene Vickers was our driver in a taxi for four. Eugene is a retired Deputy Police Chief having spent 40 years on the police force and he knows everyone and every place on the island. Our drive took us along the southern shore where we could see some of Bermuda’s beautiful pink sand beaches. Our first stop was the Gibbs Hill lighthouse which is 117 feet high, 362 feet above sea level, and the oldest cast iron lighthouse in the world. The view from there across the island was spectacular, even though we didn’t climb the 185 spiral steps to the top.

We drove through the grounds of the famous Southampton Princess Hotel whose rooms have spectacular views. Next we headed out to the West End and the Royal Naval Dockyard. This is where large cruise ships dock. The area used to be the home of the British Navy when it was here. Parts have been converted to a shopping mall. Some of the housing is being torn down and replaced for public housing.

As we made our way back around the island, Eugene took us to some unplanned stops. The first was a really unique place. It’s the oldest and smallest active Catholic Church maintained by two nuns. It gave us an opportunity to see what an old (1700) Bermuda house was like. We also saw the world’s smallest drawbridge which opens just wide enough for a sailboat’s mast to pass through. We also stopped at a lovely new hotel across the harbor to get some photos of Hamilton. Finally, Eugene took us to the Botanical Gardens where we saw one of the world’s oldest rubber trees. The Gardens and associated parks are a beautiful area which people use for horse and dog shows, picnics, cultural events and many other things.

Then, sadly, it was time to get back to the ship for our final sailaway of this cruise. We have some 950 nautical miles to go before we arrive in Ft. Lauderdale on Tuesday.

I hope I’ll come back to Bermuda some time in the future to spend more time on this lovely island.