Gallivanting Grandma

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

It was another beautiful bright blue morning! We considered ourselves lucky with the good weather this week.  It was supposed to be a rainy week at home.

In the hotel literature, we had read about the Princess’s sister hotel on the other side of the harbor. We could take their ferry to visit the South Hampton Hotel to visit the beach or play golf or have lunch. So at the scheduled time, out we went to the private dock to catch the little ferry.

We sat on the top deck and it was a very enjoyable leisurely half-hour ride across the Hamilton Harbor. We sat, with just a few other guests, and watched the shoreline gently pass us by.

Most of the houses were pastel colors with gleaming white stucco rain-catching roofs. We soon passed the huge South Hampton Princess Hotel on a hill. It looked very out of place!  After a while, the boat pulled into a small harbor near the Bermuda lighthouse.

The ferry pulled into their private dock and we were welcomed to the South Hampton Hotel and invited to have lunch at the dock or relax there later and watch the sunset before retuning back to the Princess. Nice…..

We walked up to the road and saw a blue trolley-type bus waiting for the ferry passengers. We rode the “blue trolley” up the hill with a few other people and were let out under the canopy of the South Hampton. There were many attendants scurrying around helping people in and out of cars and vans. It reminded me of the activity on the streets of  NYC hotels.

We walked into the grand lobby and were amazed. It was multileveled with a huge wooden staircase dominating the center of the space. The reception area and concierge were on one side. Signs to the pools, restaurant, and elevators were to the rear. A large casual restaurant was located to the left near the large meeting rooms.

There were several shops located down the wide stairs on the lower level and more shops on the upper level. We walked down to have a look. They sold everything someone would need to swim or play golf or to buy souvenirs of Bermuda. Not being a shopper, I couldn’t imagine staying at this hotel to shop.

We decided to see the beach. So we went back outside and caught the next blue trolley down the other side of the hill to the beach. On the ride down, we passed the sizable golf course. We were the only people on the trolley and the friendly driver told us about some of the economic and political issues on the island. He said that generally tourism had decreased in the last year or two because of the world economy. Also, the large number of cruise ships coming to the island was detrimental to the hotels, restaurants and shops. The Bermudians were feeling the pinch of the recession.

We wished him well at the bottom of the hill and walked out to the small private beach which was owned by the Fairmont Company. It was quite lovely. The beach had fine white sand along a horseshoe-shapped small inner cove with barrier rocks protecting it from the ocean. There was a dive boat bobbing on the turquoise water giving people diving lessons. A little while later, the boat drove out to slightly deeper water.

We walked around to the Cabana restaurant overlooking the beach and decided it would be a nice place to have lunch. Our lunches were surprising good and we relaxed and enjoyed the scenery. The trolley-bus driver recommended the public beach on the other side of the parking lot, so after lunch we walked over to see it. That beach was bigger, noisier, and more crowded with more people and activity. 

We walked back to the Fairmont parking lot and caught the next bus to the South Hampton Hotel. Then we got another trolley-bus back down the hill to the main road where the ferry had docked.

Our intention was to take the ferry back to our hotel, but according to the schedule, we would have had to wait almost 2 hours for the next ferry. We saw a public bus across the street and we ran to catch it. Since rental cars are prohibited for tourists, the Bermuda buses are a great way for non-residents to see the island! I should mention that the exterior of the public buses are pink! They are clean, reliable, and well maintained. An added bonus is that the drivers are very experienced in driving on the narrow winding roads of Bermuda.

We sat down and rode along in the air-conditioned bus admiring the scenery. After a short while, the bus turned into a middle-school parking lot and stopped near a curb lined with students in maroon uniforms. Polite and quiet students quickly filled the bus to standing-room only capacity. The kids spanned a wide range of ages, from about 8 year olds through 12 year olds. The bus returned back to the main road, and continued along, making stops to discharge and pick up more passengers. We were surprised to see the students give up their seats to adults who boarded the bus. As new people came aboard, a child stood up and pointed to his/her seat to relinquish it to the adult. Amazing! During the ride, the kids spoke quietly to their friends or looked out of the windows. We also noticed that many of the students had Blackberrys.

After a while, the bus seemed to be laboring up a hill and the driver pulled off the road. She then announced that we had to change buses. The standing students quietly pulled their Blackberrys out of their pockets to call home and quietly began to file out of the bus. We sat there giving the students standing in the aisles a chance to leave the bus. But a woman who had been sitting across the aisle from us, stood up and held up the line of kids. She acknowledged us and told us to go out first. When I protested and said that the children could go first, she said, “Oh no. You are our guests! They can wait.”

Wow! We were speechless! We thanked her and we quickly got off the bus and followed the line leading to the waiting bus. What a lesson for the youngsters. Everyone on that bus had a high expectation of kindness, consideration and respect for each other and, of course, ultimately for themselves. I wished American kids could experience that bus ride!

The rest of the bus ride was uneventful. We admired the beautiful scenery outside the bus windows. The students on the bus calmly called their parents on their Blackberrys to inform them of the change of buses. After a while we recognized the harbor and we knew we had all arrived in Hamilton. We left the bus and walked back to our hotel along the harbor. It had been a full and interesting day.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

We were up and out of the Princess Hotel by 9:30 to catch the early ferry to the village of St. George’s, on the northern tip of the island chain known as Bermuda. We walked to the ferry landing and purchased our 3-Day transportation passes which gave us unlimited travel on all the ferries and busses in Bermuda.

We picked up a couple of cups of Illy cappuccinos at the breakfast bar near the ferry terminal and waited for our 10:00AM boat. While we waited, we watched a large cruise ship, the Norwegian Line’s, Veendam, make its way into Hamilton Harbor and tie up at the main dock in town.

It was a bright sunny and warm day; perfect for a ferry ride! We boarded the boat and sat on the exposed top level. The ferry slowly drove out of the harbor. Then when it was out beyond the buoys, it drove full speed!  What fun!!

The ferry’s first stop was at the Dockyards, where two more huge cruise ships were docked. We planned to visit this tourist attraction later in the week.

Then the ferry continued on to historical St. George’s. The village was discovered in 1612 by English settlers who were on their way to the British Colony of Virginia and became shipwrecked on the reef surrounding Bermuda.

According to the historic accounts, all the people on board survived and set up camp in the village which is now called St. George’s.

Several old buildings in the town have been restored and maintained to show what the town looked like in the 17th Century. It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The ferry left us near the main village square. Then we climbed a long flight of stone stairs and entered St. Peter’s Church which is the oldest Anglican Church outside the British Isles. It was built by colonists who arrived from Plymouth, England.

The first thatch church was replaced by one section of the existing wooden structure in 1619. The church was later expanded several times during its history. St. Peter’s Church had an impressive interior, which was shaded and cool.

We soon found a post office where I purchased stamps for some postcards. Down a small curving street, we found the perfect place for lunch right along the harbor: The Tavern-by-the-Sea.

We sat at a table three feet from the edge of the aqua-green water and ordered a couple of cold drinks to have with our fish & chips and shepherd’s pie.

After lunch, we walked along the dock toward a huge three-masted training ship. It was visiting from Sweden with a crew of youngsters. As we were looking at the rigging in the sailing vessel, a man approached us and informed us that his ship further down the dock was the ship that had located The Titanic five years earlier.

At first, I thought he was joking, but then he explained the journey of The Knorr and how they had finally located the sunken ocean liner. The man and his ship were from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute currently on another research project with some Harvard professors who are examining rocks near the continental shelf.

We walked down to get a closer look at the famous Knorr and all the electronic and scientific research equipment on the deck. He explained that the two shipping containers on deck were scientist’s laboratories which could be lifted on and off the ship easily when necessary.

He told us he was eager to go on vacation to Toulouse, France with his girlfriend after he finishes another month at sea “catching rocks” for the scientists. We bid him good luck and continued back to the Main Square of St. George’s village.

We sat on a bench in the shade, near the village square, listening to live Calypso music for a while, then caught the 3:45 ferry back to Hamilton.

After a short rest  in our room, we walked back to town for an Italian dinner at a restaurant named, Portofino. It was another beautiful evening: 66 degrees and calm with lots of twinkling stars in the dark sky.

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!