They do this regularly.
Here’s the video:
photo
8
Jun 11
St. George’s, Bermuda
That’s my boat. We’re on the Celebrity Summit. Here it is docked at King’s Wharf, Bermuda. We got off of the ship and caught a ferry to St. George’s. Cruise ships used to go there directly, but modern ships, like the Summit, are too big for a narrow pass. And Summit isn’t even the largest vessel in the fleet.
That’s the wharf itself, which is dominated today by two cruise ships, many smaller vessels, public transportation and the Clocktower Mall.
This is in St. George’s:
Everything here is incredibly well-manicured. No blade of grass seems out of place. Life is good.
But this is troubling. The Yankee’s parents have been here several times and they notice what the locals have seen lately, part of the economy here is drying up. One part of the problem, they believe, is that there are fewer cruise ships — because of that narrow pass — and the other being general economic woes. A man we spoke with later in the day, though, said those cruise ships would return. The local government is widening that inlet to St. George’s.
Need a brick?
I’m guessing these bricks found there ways here like a lot of nautical towns: as ballast in ships from wherever. There are bricks stamped here from Massachusetts, New York, Australia and who knows where else.
St. Peter’s Church, in St. George’s Bermuda, is the self-proclaimed oldest Anglican church outside the British Isles and the oldest Protestant church in continuous use in the New World. Nice, cozy church. The walls are covered in monuments and memorials to dead church members.
In the back they store the historic silver.
Above is part of the famous St. George’s chalice set. Charles 1 silver is very rare, and dates to 1625. The engraving is the Bermuda Company’s coat-of-arms and the ship Sea Venture, striking a rock at full sail. This is functional art and history, really.
This is a piece from The King’s Set. It was a gift from King William III to the chapel and are engraved with William’s Royal Arms and Cypher. It dates to 1697 and is more pure and softer than sterling silver.
They know how to do mailboxes, don’t they?
The flag unfurled. This is a flag of the Bermuda government. Blue is unusual for British commonwealths, but keeps with former Canadian and Union of South African ensigns. British flags are too complex for Americans which is, I’m sure, part of the plan.
Our unofficial, helpful, drunken, mumbling tour guide. You could catch about every five thing he said while we traveled on the ferry. Who knows if he was right. But two or three of things you could hear did sound close enough.
More to come from St. George’s.
7
Jun 11
Another Sea Day
You could never get tired of this (on a cruise ship at least).
We arrive in Bermuda tomorrow. We’ll have three days on the island, which will interrupt my lazy reading, gym time and food with big doses of sun and fun. Life is so tough.
6
Jun 11
Sea Day
We’re just taking our time out here in the Atlantic. We’re cruising at a pace that makes Bermuda on the third day of the cruise. I don’t mind. I love the sea days. If you don’t know how to relax a few sea days will teach you. We’re on the Celebrity line — which is the line of choice, my cruise veteran folks insist — and they do a great job with pretty much everything, including giving you entertainment and distractions on the ship. But to just sit back in the shade, read, watch the waves go by, that’s glorious.
So we left yesterday, turned off the phones after we crossed under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York and started exploring the ship. We had the lifeboat drill, required by international law, but streamlined to 94 seconds by the efficient people of this vessel, the Summit. Essentially, go to your muster station, bring your life jacket. Put it on, velcro, snap, whistle and light.
I feel safer already.
As if anyone is going to be finding their way to the theater if the dreaded seven horn blasts are heard.
So we did that, saw a bit of the ship, got cleaned up for dinner and had a fine time.
This is my second cruise, our honeymoon last year and this week, both on Celebrity where you get top-notch service. And the food. My heavens, the food. Last night I had a lamb shank that could have fed an American family of six. Amazing. Tonight there was the barbecue glazed black salmon, which was nothing like you’ve pictured just now, but better in every conceivable way. In between there are restaurants, grills, cafes and all sorts of other places to embarrass you with their options.
Today, though we started in the gym. I rode 35 miles, had a piece of grilled and pressed chicken for lunch and then went to my massage. See? Celebrity. My masseuse was from Romania, where they train people with sharp elbows and brick-like knuckles in the finer arts of sublime muscle torture.
Then we hit the therapy pool, which is to say a warm salt water pool with random spouts swirling water at various angles splooshing you. After that I read the day away.
There is nothing in the world wrong with a sea day.
The Yankee and her parents, at dinner tonight.
5
Jun 11
On a boat
We’re departing from Bayonne, New Jersey for a cruise to Bermuda with The Yankee’s parents (see them in the background, there?). See you suckers fine people soon.
