July 11 - Day Five: Exploring in Bermuda (Part I)

“We wander for distraction but we travel for fulfillment” – Hilaire Belloc

The problem with only having a few days in such an amazing place like Bermuda is not having enough time to take it all in or do all the wonderful things you'd like to do. We made the best of the time we had and we took in sights from the west end all the way up to St. George and Fort St. Catherine. In fact there's just too much to report on in one blog post, so I'm cutting it into parts...part II will come later.

Our first stop...actually our first stop yesterday was Somerset Bridge. It's a small bridge connecting Somerset Island with the mainland of Bermuda. With an opening of just 22” it's said to be the world’s smallest drawbridge. The bridge is just wide enough for the mast of a well-sailed sailboat to pass through. Boats have to either have an appointment or wait for a kind passer by to help out by lifting the gate.

The original bridge dates back to 1620, and although the bridge was largely rebuilt in the mid 20th century, much of the original stonework remains. The bridge was originally raised using a hand crank, but now consists of two cantilevered half-spans made of thick timber panels. The panels can be grabbed by the sides and lifted to create a narrow gap just wide enough for the mast of a sailboat to pass through. Judging by the size of the gap, I believe it would take a lot of skill to navigate the gap without mishap.

Our next stop was Gibbs Hill Lighthouse. It was first lit on May 1, 1846. It's one of the oldest cast iron lighthouses in the world and stands on a hill 245 feet above sea level. While ships now use advanced navigation methods, the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse offers a backup method of shoreline navigation and is still appreciated by modern mariners. The light can be seen from 40 miles away and airplanes can see the light from a distance as far as 120 miles away. 

The lighthouse is 117' high and gave us a panoramic view of Bermuda and its shoreline, but to get this view we had to climb 185 steps. It was well worth our effort.

Looking north toward the Royal Naval Dockyard and our ship.

Looking west towards Southampton Parish

Looking south

There are 34 fabulous beaches in Bermuda that offer 75 miles of dramatic coastline. Some have long expanses of sand, while some are just tiny coves separated from one another by rocky cliffs, and several beaches have beautiful coral reefs surrounding them, but  the best thing about beaches in Bermuda...they all have pink sand. Some are pinker than others. The best "pretty in pink" beaches are found along the island's south shore between Horseshoe Bay Beach and Warwick Long Bay Beach.

 Warwick Long Bay Beach 

Jobson's Cove is a beautiful, secluded, small beach surrounded by cliffs and is completely separated from the sea. The perfect place for kids to play.

Stonehole Bay

Long time followers of the blog know I love to hunt for beach treasures...all kinds of treasures, but one of my favorites is sea glass. Bermuda has two glass beaches and we made it to both of them. There wasn't much variety in color, but the pieces are large and well worn. Very impressive.

What makes the sand look pink? Well here's the answer...the sand in Bermuda is not volcanic but formed from finely pulverized remains of shells and skeletons of invertebrates such as corals, clams and forams. The south shore of Bermuda is lined with coral reefs, which are home to red foraminifera that are the minuscule marine organisms behind the stunningly pink beaches. The single-celled foraminifera live in shells made of calcium carbonate with a red color. When the foraminifera die, their shells collect on the ocean floor and get washed ashore by the continuous tide. The red hue gets exposed to the sun and mixes with the sand, thus Bermuda's beaches take on their famous pink shade.

Here's a map of the places we visited and some that were on the list and we didn't have time to see while we are in Bermuda.

July 10 - Day Four: Hamilton, Bermuda

“The impulse to travel is one of the hopeful symptoms of life.” ― Agnes Repplier

We arrived in Bermuda around 8:30. After docking at the Royal Naval Dockyard we walked over to Oleander Cycle center to rent a scooter for the next two day. It'll give us the freedom to explore on our own and at our own pace. We spent the day in and around Hamilton. We did a little shopping and a little sightseeing. 

Hamilton is a port city located in the middle of the island. It has been the capital, administrative, commercial, entertainment and shopping center of Bermuda since 1815. It has great harbor views, and an energetic, cosmopolitan vibe. Front Street runs along the water edge and is the life and soul of Hamilton. It's lined with jewel-toned shops, restaurants and museums and bustles with energy, especially at night. 

The Cabinet Building and the Bermuda War Memorial

Queen Elizabeth Park

Map of Hamilton

After lunch we went in search of Admiralty House Park. It's located near Spanish Point just a few miles north of Hamilton, it has walking trails, ruins, underground tunnels and a secluded beach ringed with limestone cliffs. The cliffs are popular with locals for cliff jumping. The park was once the site of a grand home for admirals in the British Royal Navy. Little remains of the structure, but the underground tunnels are still there. These tunnels were built in the 1850s to get from the house to the Clarence Cove, joining several underground caves and lead towards the seaside limestone cliffs.  

Looking toward the Dockyard from Spanish Point Park...a little north of Hamilton. (our boat is on the left)

This evening we took the ferry back to Hamilton to check out a festive street party they host on Front Street every Wednesday night during the summer. It's called Harbuor Nights, they shut down the street and it is filled with vendors selling street food, homemade desserts, artwork & crafts and many other things. There's lots of entertainment including Gombey dancers who take to the street with bands playing loud music.

I'm glad we went and checked it out, but if we would have known how long the wait for the ferry coming and going would be...we would have stayed closer to the boat this evening.

History Lesson: The Gombey is an iconic symbol of Bermuda, a unique performance art full of colorful and intricate masquerade, dance and drumming. This folklife tradition reflects the island’s blend of African, Caribbean and British cultures. Gombey’s costumes cover their bodies from head to toe and are decorated with tassels, mirrors, bells, and other small items and symbols. The peacock feather headdresses, the painted masks, and the capes are distinguishing features of Gombey costumes. 

Historically, the Gombeys were not viewed as a respectable art form by the island's ruling class and were banned by the slave masters. Slaves were allowed to dance only once a year and did so in masks in order to protest, without fear of retribution, the injustices done to them by their slave masters.  

July 9 - Day Three: The Island

“We travel for romance, we travel for architecture, and we travel to be lost.” – Ray Bradbury

It's another sea day...relaxing, eating, listening to music, eating, relaxing and eating are the things that are keeping us busy. We'll be in Bermuda tomorrow morning, so today I thought I'd share a little info on the island. Bermuda offers visitors a large range of things to do from natural places to explore, like beaches and caves, golf courses, museums, art galleries, nightly entertainment, snorkeling, diving, fishing trips and sunset cruises just to name a few, but the one thing Bermuda offers that other places we've vacationed in lately is shopping. Bermuda prides itself in offering a great selection of beautiful items from around the world (jewelry, crystal, china, perfume, clothing). The best thing about shopping in Bermuda besides the wonderful selection...no sales tax. I'll definitely be spending some of my time shopping.

The mid-Atlantic archipelago of Bermuda is a land of pink beaches, pink houses and pink shorts. Bermuda is not, as many people think, an island in the Caribbean. In fact it's not an island at all, but a hook-shaped archipelago, 640 miles off the coast of North Carolina in the empty Atlantic Ocean. Sir George Somers and his ship's washed ashore during a storm in 1609 en route to Jamestown, Virginia. It was a miracle they washed up on the only speck of land between the Azores and the Americas. The castaways established a camp while they built two new ships so they could continue their voyage. Bermuda has remained British ever since, recently marking it's 400th anniversary of its inclusion into the British empire. 

Pink is the defining color of Bermuda. Many of the traditional bungalows, with their white stepped roofs, are painted pink: carnation pink, fandango pink, bubble gum pink. Mark Twain once said that the roofs in Bermuda look like icing on a cake and it's true because along with pink homes many are painted other edible colors like pistachio green, custard yellow and cranberry red. It's an unmistakable architectural aesthetic: you could take a Bermudian house, transplant it anywhere in the world and you would still know where it was from.

Fun Facts:

• Bermuda has a subtropical climate, the average temperature is 71.6°F 
• Bermuda has more golf courses per capita than anywhere else in the world
• Bermudians speak English, but the second most-spoken language is Portuguese
• Bermudians are over-the-top friendly
• Bermuda has a robust history of pirating
• Bermuda’s national drink is the Rum Swizzle
• Bermuda has no restaurant franchises  
• Locals Bermudians are called an onion
• Rainwater captured from the roofs is Bermuda’s only source of fresh water
• Bermuda has no corporate income tax
• Bermuda is only 21 square miles
• You are never more than a mile away from the ocean in Bermuda
• Bermuda's flag is the only one in the world to depict a sinking ship
• Bermuda is the shipwreck capital of the world
• St. George, is the oldest continuously inhabited English town in the Americas.
• Bermuda is not in the Caribbean

Bermuda is roughly the same latitude as Charleston, South Carolina, and is over 750 miles from the nearest Caribbean islands in the Bahamas. Bermuda stays warm due to the Gulf Stream and has the northernmost coral reefs in the Atlantic.