Travels with the Trouts - Part the Last - Things We Saw

Even though it's a fairly small island, there is a lot to see on Bermuda. The Tourist Board published a brochure listing 3 or 4 activities or sights you could see each day of the week.  Some, like a walking tour of Hamilton, only occurred once a week so there had to be a bit of planning involved.  Sometimes it felt like every minute was accounted for. And since we were only there for a week, the days were jam-packed with sight-seeing. 

We trundled out to the Royal Naval Dockyards on Saturday to see the dolphins. This is a huge area with an assortment of shops, artisans and the National Museum of Bermuda.  You could really spend a whole day here but we were just there for the dolphin show.

They did tricks and stuff but I could never get a good picture. This was the best one, taken by LB as we were waiting for the show to start. 

There are feral chickens which roam the island. I saw others later in the week at the other end of the island.  I never did find out how they came to be feral or why.

We did have a few minutes to look at the shipwreck display at the Museum which was interesting.  That's how the island was discovered;  a couple of ships crashed into the rocks on their way to Jamestown, Virginia in 1609.

I had a chance to go to St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church on Sunday. 

This church is in our Synod and when I was a kid, our church used to get regular news and updates from this church.  How cool is a pink church?

On Sunday afternoon, a few of us walked to Elbow Beach.

Very steep stairs down to the beach

 

 



The stupid brave among us ventured into the water which was way too cold for me. 

This is as far as I got in:

 

 Our next outing was to the aquarium/zoo. 

 

Because my memory is dodgy, I was being Very Clever and taking photos of the descriptions that went with each animal. But I was too busy trying not to wet my pants to take a picture of the actual fish that went with this sign.  Nobody else got the joke.

 

 

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This was along one of the paths through the zoo.  One of my better shots of the week.

We took a lunch to eat at the aquarium before venturing off to the next sight.  This Very Cheeky Peahen snatched the remains of my sandwich right out of the wrapping and scuttled a short distance away to kulf it down before the other peafowl figured out there was a buffet on offer.

You walk through the animal enclosures at this zoo which was a bit unnerving.  I was afraid they were going to poo on my head or jump down and attack me.  There were a few lemurs perched in the branches of the trees mostly ignoring us except this one who was glowering down at us wondering how we had the nerve to march through his house uninvited.

We had another day at the beach - this time Horseshoe Bay Beach, which I think is the main beach that the residents use as well.  There is a really nice building with showers, change rooms and toilets.  The concession stand didn't sell ice cream yet but we did get a cold drink and, if you were going to be there for the day, you could rent beach chairs and umbrellas.  There was hardly anybody there; just a few mad tourists.

It was glorious - my favourite day of the holiday. There are several beaches linked together and you can walk for ages.  LB and I got seriously sun-burned - my feet were swollen for a couple of days.  Oops.  And there were no seagulls to pester us. 







This was the view from my porch.  I did not get nearly enough time to just sit and enjoy the view.

Looking back from the ferry. 

If you look closely, you can see 2 turquoise chairs.  To the left of those chairs is a hammock where LB spent all his free time.

 

LB and I noticed this sign  on a great expanse of stone wall as we were on one of our many long bus rides and thought it was uproariously funny.  Again, nobody else got the joke.

 

We went on a walking tour of St. George's.  This was the first place in Bermuda to be settled in 1612 and is the oldest continuously occupied town of English origin in the New World.*  In 2000, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It has the oldest Anglican church outside the British Isles.  The place is dripping in history and you can't turn around without bumping into some historical plaque or building but do you want to know what I took from it all?



 

This.  Someone had yarn-bombed a tree right in the centre of town.  There was no sign, no explanation, just a random yarn-bombed tree.  I thought it was hysterical;  again, nobody else did.  I'm beginning to think my family has no sense of humour whatsoever.

 

It was a good but very busy trip.  Would I go again?  Yes, but I wouldn't go with the same people and I wouldn't pack my days so full.  I'd take more time to sit and enjoy the view.

 

 

 

 

*Facts and figures all taken from  Bermuda Tourist Authority