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Bermuda - 2010

We returned to Bermuda after a ten year absence.  On our first visit, Bermuda was just one of several stops.  This time we got to spend four days in port which was great because the ship docks on the main thorough of Hamilton, the capital.  Timing continues to be everything - we were graced with beautiful weather , while just a week earlier the island was hit by a hurricane.  We saw very little damage.

We traveled from NYC to Hamilton on a Holland-America cruise ship with our good friends Nancy and Pack Maxwell.  We arrived early in the morning and saw some beautiful houses as we approached the dock.  All the roofs are white and are grooved to collect rainwater.  There is no fresh water in Bermuda.  Buildings which are not white are painted in various shades of pastel.  Pat found some that matched her outfit.

Fort Hamilton was constructed in the late 1860s to protect the British Colony from an anticipated attack by the US.  Bermuda sided with the South in the US Civil War.  The attack never came.  Bermuda's history goes back to 1609 with the arrival of Captain George Somers and his crew who crash landed on a reef, but was able to salvage enough material from the wreck to build two new ships, one of which was used to take supplies to the Jamestown colony in North America.  Models of Somers' ships are everywhere.  In St. George we arrived in time to see a reenactment of a public dunking for the crime of spreading rumors.  Very funny.

There is much history to be found at the Royal Naval Docklands where we spent the better part of a day.  There are extensive fortifications where even rusting ammunition can be found.  Shorn sheep also live there but we never did learn why.  Spectacular views are everywhere.  But the best views in Bermuda can be seen at Gibbs Hill Lighthouse.  This is a long uphill climb from the nearest bus stop so when we arrived we didn't have enough energy left to attempt the stairs to the top of the lighthouse, but contented ourselves with the view form the base.