A Guided Tour
Beautiful Views and Short Visits
29.10.2018 - 29.10.2018
View
2018-Christmas and New Years Cruise
on greatgrandmaR's travel map.
Today we were to go out with Lewis Foggo, the guide that Bob and I had last time we were here. He promised me he would show her "his Bermuda". We got room service again and this time I asked for fruit yogurt, and a bagel and no tea and I just drank my cranberry juice. Barbara got tea and raisin bran and milk. But she wasn't hungry and mostly just had tea, but she took the banana from yesterday with her.
We were a little early for our 9:00 meeting, but Lewis was early too.
I asked why they did not take us by the wall of symbols from the various ships that came to Bermuda which were a highlight of the Dockyard on previous trips, and Lewis said that they had been erased. He took us to where they had been. There were one or two left and that was all.
When the Americas Cup came to Bermuda, they just painted over all the art work so that the sponsors of the Americas Cup would not have "competing" symbols. He said that Bermuda paid for the whole cost (taking money away from schools, health care and infrastructure) telling everyone that they would recoup on the visitors that would come, and that did not work because people didn't come that much - the hotels had full up reservations by the sponsoring corporations, but the people didn't actually come so the hotels were paid up but were empty and they laid off people. This was quite different from the story that Sidney told us on the train tour yesterday.
Barbara decided that she wanted to know about slavery in Bermuda, so she asked Lewis about that. He was showing us marvelous beaches and beautiful scenery and we were talking about slavery in Bermuda
He explained about the coral rock/limestone that the islands are mostly made from
He took us into the grounds of several of the exclusive hotels
We went up to a fort where there was a view and Lewis took down a part of the fence - he thought I could take the scooter up to the lookout point, but it was a bit too steep
There was a water catchment area up there
So my sister went up and took a photo
He showed us this piece of property for sale. They want $695,000.00 for 0.28 acres (a little over a quarter of an acre)
Lewis said no one had bought it because they were asking too much money for it. There wasn't even any view except of the road and the building next door
We were up near Gibbs Lighthouse
where there were several more overlooks,
including one called Queens View, where Queen Elizabeth II stopped for a look.
We attempted a little bit of trying to find photo requests (I do cemetery documentation for FindAGrave)
but it really didn't work that well because I couldn't get out in the cemeteries with my scooter and Barbara could take photos but we couldn't really cover the cemeteries that well.
We went on to St. Georges and had lunch at a place called
We ate inside and not on the deck, as there were steps to get out on the deck (patio) and I couldn't do them on the scooter
I had a rockfish dish with fried plantains, cole slaw and peas and rice (blackeyed peas).
Barbara had a creamer chowder with fish and potatoes which she liked much better than what she had yesterday
and also a thing called Bermuda triangle which had three kinds of fish done 3 ways, which was more than she could eat. There were also plantains with it but she didn't like the plantains because they weren't crisp like potato chips. I ate hers because I like them any way they are fixed
As we came out of the restaurant, we got to see the ducking demonstration.
Barbara walked right into the roped off section and had to be shooed out.
Then we went up to Fort St. Catherine to see what they were building up there (no local labor),
and to St. Peters so she could see that. We let her out in front and she went up the steps and through the church
and then we met her in the alley in the back
I wanted to see St. David's Lighthouse which I had only seen briefly before from the bus out to St. David's. The lighthouse is at the end of Texas Road on Lighthouse Road at Mount Hill.
Built in 1879 of Bermuda limestone and periodically refurbished, it still serves as a beacon for mariners. Its fixed while light enabled navigators to take cross bearings with the flashing beacon emitted by Gibb's Hill lighthouse in Southampton Parish. The object of the lighthouse was to defeat the activities of the local wreckers and salvagers who would put lights in other locations to lure ships onto the reefs. When the lighthouse defeated their illegal activities, they became fishermen and excellent pilots.
LIGHTS CHARACTER REMARKS
St. David's Island Lighthouse
32° 21.8'N 64° 39.1'W Fixed red and green sectored light below a group flashing white (2) every 20 secs.
Red sector:
- 135°T-221°T
- 276°T-044°T
- 044°T-135°T
Green Sector:
- 221°T-276°T
(Bearings from seaward)
Height 212 ft. Range - red and green
sectors 20 miles. White flashing light 15 miles.
Between 044°T-135°T both lights partially obscured by land.
Formerly all white, the lighthouse is now painted white with a broad red band in the center. The keeper's house is occupied by resident caretakers. The tower is open daily May through September It is operated/managed by the Bermuda Department of Marine and Ports Services.
From the lighthouse's balcony, 208 feet above sea level, there are panoramic views but we did not attempt to climb it
We stopped by the Moonlight church on the way back to the boat.
And Barbara stopped off and bought a Rum Cake to give to my husband.
We came back to the ship and tried to download photos. We went to dinner. Barbara had the
and I had crabcake with pickled mango and carrot slaw
and chicken breast,
and two desserts -apple crumble and ivory chocolate mousse.
We sailed away from Bermuda at 5 pm. We didn't stay out to see it - we were having dinner.
We got our disembarkation tickets and times in the stateroom on the 29th. We are to get off between 9:15 and 9:30. (Green 21) - the next to last time. I went up to ask about it. The customer service desk estimates 45 minutes to get our bags and get out to be picked up, which would be about 10 am. She says that my husband Bob who is picking us up will only be able to wait for a couple of minutes. Since he will be driving 100 miles to pick us up, and we are not really sure when we will be off the ship, this might be a problem. Fortunately, this proved to be false.
Posted by greatgrandmaR 17:21 Archived in Bermuda