After a quick breakfast at Windjammer Market (the buffet), I left the ship at 9. There were four cruise ships docked, so quite many people in circulation. At least one ship had this as its home port, so people were checking in and out. I had to walk around that operation, but just a couple of minutes to the terminal. When I saw signs saying customs, I got worried that I would need a passport to exit. However, I followed the signs saying “just to exit” (the other said, “to shore excursions”), and I ended up at a customs desk, but they just waved me through when I asked if I needed to present something. Another couple of minutes to leave the port area, and then just follow the coastline into the town.
After half an hour, I had reached the destination I had in mind, the Exchange Museum. It’s next to the central bank, so there were a few guards outside from G4S. Even though it was cloudy outside, it was still quite warm, so stepping into the AC-controlled environment of the museum felt pretty nice. Paid the entry fee of BDS$20, and then she escorted me up to the second floor. I guess they don’t get that many visitors. I was alone the whole 45 minutes I spent there.
It was quite interesting to learn about their history of sugar plantation, exports, and slavery. The third floor had a small exhibition about Freemasons in Barbados. I stayed a bit longer just to enjoy the temperature and a bench I found. Even though the day had just started, my feet felt pretty tired.
Which from the Devil doth proceed,
It stains your fingers, spoils your clothes,
And makes a chimney of your nose.
I left the museum and kept walking around in the city center. There are a few more expensive cars here like BMW, Mercedes, and a couple of Audis, but many of the buildings seemed pretty worn down, and except for 100 meters of Broad street, no clear main street with shopping or alike. Or maybe it was further in.
I saw three Volvos on this island, the first ones in the Caribbean!
I had planned to go to The Boatyard Beach Club, mainly for practical reasons, and the entry fee of USD$40 included a trip back to the ship. However, when I got close to the beach, I saw a sign for access to the public beach, and since it was still cloudy, I didn’t really know how long I would stay and if it would be worth the money.
So I followed the signage to the public beach. Seemed a bit weird how it was closed off, but some might be construction. But when I got to the sand and water line, it was rather empty, and I could easily put my stuff on the beach and get into the water while keeping an eye on them.
I spent an hour in the water. First, I tried to sit down and read, but the waves hit too hard and splashed water on the screen. The eReader is waterproof, but the water drops started to flip pages for me, and that got a bit disturbing. There were two different sets of horses, one group that you could pay to get on and then ride while the horse was swimming, I guess. Then another guy who had two race horses and one part of their training was apparently to have them swim. The trainer was very polite and told me I had a safe distance, and he took his horse around me.
I left the beach around 12:00 and started to walk back towards the ship. Didn’t feel like negotiating with a cab driver about what fare would be fair, and if they took credit cards, so I just walked. Ended up with about 15k steps on the walkabout in Bridgetown.
In an intersection that I had been at earlier, I saw a car parked in the middle, and when I walked passed, a police officer noticed it and pulled out her ticket book and started writing. Before I had left, the driver arrived and started to plead his case. Couldn’t hear them, so unclear if he was successful. She didn’t seem to be very forthcoming.
At 13, I walked through the port entry and its security checkpoint. Went to the shops that were there in hunt for a mug. I hadn’t found any in town. In the last shop, I finally found one that (at least looked like it) was handmade.
Got on board and took a shower. I needed to get rid of the sand I collected in the waves at the beach 😀 I brought my laptop and went up ot the Solarium to watch the game between the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers. At the pizza stand, I recognized Tom from Sunday and asked if he would watch the game, and he told me they showed it on the big screen at the pool. So I quickly packed up my stuff and went outside, and grabbed myself a seat at the bar.
During the second quarter, it started to rain, quite intensely but rather short time. I had to take cover under the roof with my laptop, which I had wrapped in my towel to protect it from the heat. After the rain stopped, the staff walked around with some sort of vacuum and rakes to get rid of the water. I was half expecting signs everywhere with “Warning, the floor might be wet!”
At halftime, I quickly went down to my cabin and dropped off my stuff, so I could get into the pool. During the second half, a couple of Lions fans made themselves known, and especially a woman was quite loud with her “Let’s gooooo!” every now and then.
During the final minutes of the game, I moved up one deck to find some more late sun. It almost got chilly, while being a bit wet, some wind hitting, and not sitting in the sun.
The view from the ship in this port wasn’t as good as in St Croix, but we found a navy vessel as in St Thomas.
When the game was over (Packers won!) I went back to my cabin and checked in with Mom. Spoke for about 1½ hours. She’s been alone since Dad is in the Caribbean. Then another shower followed by dinner in the Windjammer.
After dinner, I hung around in the bar, The Pit Stop, and watched some football, but I was pretty tired, so at 22, I was in my bed, finishing up this post. Tomorrow is just a sail day on the way back to Puerto Rico and San Juan. We’ll see how much the ship moves during the day.
