Monday, May 7, 2012
We decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary this week in beautiful Bermuda. The weather forecast for NYC was overcast & rainy in the 50s, but the Bermuda forecasters promised sunny 74 degree days.
The airtime is only one hour and 34 minutes to Bermuda from the NYC airports, so it seems ridiculous to spend the day traveling, but it’s the reality of travel today. We queued-up to check in and easily went through security and walked to the end of the corridor. As we approached our gate, we noticed a sea of navy blue blazers.
There must have been about 50 men huddled in small groups, chatting cheerfully. Several more men were off by themselves consulting their Blackberrys. All of them wore blue blazers! One man sported Bermuda shorts with his blue blazer. I commented that I had not seen so many blue blazers gathered in one place in more than 40 years!
Bermuda is known for its formality and formal dress codes, but we were unprepared for the blue blazers! You can imagine our surprise to see the growing number of blue blazers as more “blue blazered” men joined the ranks of people waiting for the plane to depart.
After a very short flight and equivalent waiting time to clear customs, we were finally out in the bright sunshine. We boarded a van at the taxi stand and it drove us out of Bermuda’s L. F. Wade International Airport. In a few minutes we crossed the causeway and drove along the North Shore Road.
We passed well-maintained bright-colored stucco houses which were painted pink, yellow, orange, lime green, and aqua-blue. The houses formed a visual rainbow of tropical fruit colors against the green foliage and bright blue sky.
The white rain-catching roofs of the pastel houses shone brightly in the sunshine. The sea was a gorgeous shade of aqua-greenish blue as we rattled along on the twisting narrow road toward the hotel. I was filled with the excitement of coming into a new town, eager to see everything and happy to discover a new place.
After a half hour, we arrived at the pale pink Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel. The luggage was taken out of the taxi-van, we were welcomed by the doorman, and we entered the impressive lobby.
We learned right away that everyone in Bermuda is friendly and welcoming. We were given a choice to be escorted to our room or find it ourselves. We confidently followed the easy directions and found our room in the new wing called The Bermudiana.
Like cats in a new place, we explored the large hotel which is located on a peninsula along Hamilton Harbor. We chose this hotel because it is a short walk to the center of the capital city of Hamilton. The grounds are beautiful. We found the salt-water and fresh-water pools, the dining terrace, the Princess Patio outside and walked along the harbor. We also located the dining rooms and sitting areas. It is an attractive comfortably decorated hotel and the people seem very friendly.
Then we walked out onto the main road to explore the city of Hamilton. At 6:00PM the city seemed deserted with very few people. The shops were closed and everything was very quiet. The buildings were mostly beige stucco modern architecture and everything looked new, clean, well maintained, and very orderly.
We had not eaten since the morning so we looked for an open restaurant. The menu looked interesting at the Hog Penny Pub, so we entered the dark woody premises. The interior had a British Pub atmosphere and Jeff ordered a rum swizzle and I had a dark & stormy hogito. For dinner, we had shepherd’s pie and lamb stew with fresh veggies.
Bermuda’s first money was called “hog pennys” as a tribute to the wild boars which were left behind by early Spanish explorers and still inhabited the island chain when the British arrived. The early coins had a wild boar imprinted on one side.
After a tasty dinner, we walked back to the Princess Hotel along the quiet streets. The temperature felt comfortable and the stars twinkled in the black sky. We had finally arrived in Bermuda!
