Cue the Traveling Wilbury’s (I couldn’t get the YouTube link to work right – End of the Line was one of the songs I loved to play on guitar with John and Paul)
John and I had never visited Bermuda. The fishhook shaped island sits out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean at about the same latitude as Charleston, SC. We docked at The Royal Navy Dockyard, which would at the very tip of the barb of the fishhook. The easiest way to get to Hamilton, the capital, is by ferry ($5pp), but the ferry does not run often in the afternoon, which would run the risk of getting stranded. The other option is by bus ($5pp) – which is more reliable, just longer. John and I decided we wanted to go to a beach since we had a lovely day. There is a beach at the docks – but is private, so we took the bus to Sandglass Beach a little over a mile away (we weren’t sure where it was exactly so took the bus and walked back).
Sandglass Beach is a tiny strip of beach covered in – you guessed it – sandglass, which is pretty but you have to watch out for those bits that have not been smoothed by the sea.
We walked back to the Dockyards and meandered, shopped and relaxed.
History lesson:
The island of Bermuda was initially discovered in 1505 Juan de Bermudez, but was not colonized until English colonizers, led by Sir George Somers and headed for Jamestown, shipwrecked here in 1609. A settlement named St. George’s was officially established in 1612 – the oldest continuously inhabited English speaking colony in the Western Hemisphere (Jamestown was briefly abandoned but only for a day – so this is a long standing argument). Initially governed by the Somers Isles Company, it became a crown colony in 1684, which it remained until 2002 when its designation changed to a British overseas territory, responsible for internal self government but remains under the British wing for security and defense.
Our last day aboard the Serenade was spent at CocoCay.
Royal Caribbean made one of the private beach areas exclusive to us for the first few hours, gave us shows with a aerealist using a water jetpack and another that did stunts with a jetski. None of my photos were any good – so here are some good ones from my fellow cruiser/blogger Sabrina!
At the end of the day in Bermuda we posed for a group picture of the 630+ remaining world cruisers- and given the photo before leaving.
That last evening we had many “see you laters” – including Rick and Vicky – wearing the Steampunk outfits they wore on the first night.
And the night capped off with a fireworks display
As we disembarked (which was pretty chaotic – had trouble finding bags and then completely forgot about one which we had to have sent to us later) – we were greeted by some cheerleaders.
A journey like this could only be as good as the people you journey with – and the staff we shared the Serenade with truly made it feel like home. I did not get nearly enough pictures of the crew – but a small handful of the people I came to know and love.
And too many to post or truly show my appreciation.
It was an amazing journey, shared with fellow adventurers and executed by Royal- with some hiccups – but overall very well. I will be on hiatus likely until February when John and I head to Scotland, in the meantime, I am working on Book 2 of my zombie series -( Zapocalypse Pathogen )- which I should have ready to release by the time I leave for Scotland.
In the meantime – Happy Trails!