On Tuesday, we went ashore here in St Georges to see what the island was like.  For some reason, you can't rent a car here as a tourist, you need to use public transport, which is no problem as there are regular buses and ferries to anywhere you want to go, with the last ones running until midnight.

St Georges is quite a quaint town, it is UNESCO heritage site and most of the town is as it was 400 years ago when Bermuda was first discovered.  In 1609, the ship, 'Sea Venture', grounded on the reefs off St Georges in a storm.  If you have seen a chart of the area it is not surprising!! The chart we have has a small yellow bit (Bermuda), and surrounding this an area at  least ten times the size which is reefs.  The entrance routes are narrow gaps, which is why they have the guys at Bermuda radio guiding you in, and unless you have been before, you are not allowed to enter in poor light and definitely not after dark.  Anyway, the survivors of this wreck were the first settlers here.  As they had the new Governor of Virginia on board, they decided they ought to finish the journey and spent the next year building the 'Deliverance' to get them there.

 The 'Deliverance'

 The harbour at St Georges

There is quite a lot of British influence here, they have British post boxes and telephone boxes, and even a British 'Bobby'!! A lot of tourists from the cruise dock in Hamilton, come here for the day and they have a town crier, and a ducking stool where the nagging wife is ducked on a daily basis - we have missed this so far.

To get a better idea of the town and surrounding area, we got on the tourist train.  This was largely an out of town trip as it turned out, but quite interesting.  Land is at a premium here, and all the plots sold are relatively small, so people build the largest house they can fit on the plot, and surround it with a high wall for privacy.  The roofs of the houses are made of solid stone.  These are supposedly more wind proof when the hurricanes blow through.  They are also used to collect rain water as there is no central water source on the island.  The roofs are coated in limestone wash, and have a gutter half way down to collect the water and direct it into the underground cisterns.  The limestone coating on the roof purifies and filters the rain water so it can be used straight from the cistern.  One weird thing, as there is a limited amount of space on the island, cemetery space is also limited.  Each grave is dug 8 feet deep.  the first body goes in at the bottom, and then further bodies are added on top until the grave is full.  Once full, it is left for a few years and then emptied.  All that remains of each body is then re-buried, obviously in a much smaller hole by this stage, and they start to fill up the grave again.

  

Wednesday was a work day, we had a few jobs to be done, so decided to stay on board.  Yesterday we went out to Hamilton, the main city.  There is not a lot happening in Hamilton. It is a purpose built city, with limited character, but quite pleasant to walk around.  Today, the weather is horrid!!  It is raining and cold, I am writing this at 12 noon and it is so dark and overcast that our solar powered night light has come on!!  What has happened to the sun?  To  be fair, the weather has been forecast bad for the last two days, but tomorrow looks better so we will have a day out to the Dockyard and be tourists for the day, as this is also the main cruise ship terminal.  Later this afternoon the weather took a definite turn for the worse - we had 35k of wind, and torrential rain for a couple of hours!

 The view from the boat mid-storm this afternoon - not quite what we had ordered!!  If you look hard enough you can just about see a boat and the land in the background.

One of the nicest things about Bermuda so far is the Bermuda coffee with the local loquat liqueur, and orange-like taste - yummy.  Bermuda is also home to the famous Goslings Black Rum, used in a traditional 'Dark & Stormy' which we have yet to try.  Strangely enough, when I ordered fish chowder for lunch yesterday, they came over with the rum bottle and poured it in my soup along with sherry which had spicy peppers marinading in the bottom of the bottle!!  Got to love a place that puts rum in soup!!! 

Lastly, Bermuda shorts - not just a gimmicky item for tourists either - they are worn by businessmen all summer.  They must be no more than 6 inches above the knee, are usually brightly coloured, and worn with a navy blue blazer and dark coloured knee socks and stout brogues!