Monte enjoyed my motion blur photo from a couple of days ago so I thought I would serve up a few more. Sometimes the camera moves, sometimes the subject moves.
Lots of motion blur here today as we await Ian’s arrival. It’s been rainy, breezy and chilly – a good day to work on photos and watch Formula 1 practice! Ian keeps angling further east of us, which is good for us but unfortunately not so good for someone else. Should be by us by morning, hopefully!
On the day we left Bermuda, we along with “several hundred of our closest friends” were invited to experience Sail Away from the helipad. It is the second time we got to do this, the previous time was on a cruise sailing from Barbados.
On most cruise ships, the helipad is off-limits to everyone but crew. A few of the larger ships do allow passengers on the helipad when conditions are safe. Someone always has to do the “Titanic” thing on the bow.
Generally though, sail away is by invitation only. I asked the Captain’s Club hostess how people were chosen, and she kinda answered that there was no magic formula and that the number was determined by the captain. But I do know that our past-passenger status with Celebrity – high but nowhere near the highest! – had to have helped. It was a fun time, I got a few photos and we had some free champagne-like wine. It is always a treat, and we enjoyed the experience!
The National Museum of Bermuda explores the maritime and island history of Bermuda. The maritime museum is located within the grounds of the fortress keep of the former Royal Naval Dockyard.
The Commissioner’s House is used to display a number of exhibitions. The basement shows Bermuda’s Defence Heritage, a display about Bermuda’s defenses and fortifications since 1612, and the role of local forces in World War I and World War II (this is devoted only to the British aspect of Bermuda’s naval and military history, although there is a separate exhibit devoted to the United States bases). The pillared hall is site of a two-story History of Bermuda mural by the Bermudian artist Graham Foster. The main floor has a number of themes related to Bermuda’s history including slavery, immigration, and tourism. One room is dedicated to the history of the Bermuda Race. The upper floor contains collections of maps, books, coins, maritime art, and exhibits concerning activities of the Royal Navy and the US Forces, specifically during World War II. Other buildings show shipwreck artifacts, local watercraft, or are under renovation.
Other outbuildings house various exhibits. The Queen’s Exhibition Hall/1850 Ordnance House contained a display pertaining to underwater archeology. The building known as the Boat Loft contains historic local watercraft, a collection of vintage outboard motors, and a fascinating two-story clock mechanism.
Most cruise ships that visit Bermuda dock or tender at Royal Naval Dockyard, which sits at the very northwestern tip of the island. Originally established as a base for Britain’s Royal Navy, the Dockyard occupies a strategic location in the Atlantic and has played a role in many naval operations, including a key role in the War of 1812, when the British blockade of American ports was orchestrated from Bermuda.
Today the Dockyard is primarily a marina and shipping port, complete with a requisite shopping areas and restaurants, including the ubiquitous Diamonds International. The “shopping mall” was a disappointing collection of t-shirt shops and souvenir stands, a far cry from the high end shops on Front Street in Hamilton. We wasted too much time there, missing out on visiting the Bermuda Transport Museum as well as a potential lunch at a restaurant that one of our guides recommended. Next time!
Adjacent to the Dockyard is the National Museum of Bermuda, including the former Commissioner’s House which sits atop a hill overlooking the bay. I’ll detail that in another post as it is a destination unto itself.
Here is a brief look at a few of the forms of transportation on the island of Bermuda.
Small cars are big in Bermuda. Buses only hold a dozen or so people. Even the garbage trucks are small. Much more practical cars than we have here in the states. Electric vehicles are also very popular – the island is so small that you don’t need to worry about range, and with the tiny cars they are easy to park. Just don’t bring a lot of luggage!
The guy in the wheelbarrow? No idea! He might have been injured, but more likely had overindulged on Dark & Stormys. 😉
Our cruise ship docked in Bermuda at the Royal Naval Dockyard, which is located on the northwest side of the island. We were there for essentially three days – from 8am on Wednesday until 4pm on Friday. The ship acted as our hotel – we could come and go as we pleased. No having to be back on board at a given time at night. As long as we made it back to the ship on Friday afternoon we were good! In fact, if we had friends there or otherwise wanted to stay at a hotel or a resort on the island we could have done that. Of course Kathy & I returned to the ship each night. Why, when we already had a place to sleep? 😉
We booked a tour on the first day that took us around the west side of the island and included the capital of Hamilton. Hamilton is a busy little town, with a Front Street full of shops and restaurants, and the side and back streets occupied by the offices of multinational insurance and banking companies that take advantage of favorable legal and tax regulations. We spent a short time walking around the town, mostly ducking into shops to take advantage of the air conditioning – it was hot!
Our tour took us back to the ship in the early afternoon. We had a dinner reservation back in town that evening, so returned via ferry from the Dockyard to downtown Hamilton.
These photos are specifically from Hamilton, and I’ll do a series of posts from some of the other locations we visited. We did another tour on our second day, and spent the third day exploring the Dockyard. I’ve got photos from those days, too! Should provide plenty of material for a while. 🙂
I’ve been feeling incredibly lazy and uninspired lately. Must be the heat. I thought I would break the posting drought with a few more photos from our last outing. We’ve got a couple more things planned over the next few weeks, hopefully to cooler and photogenic places.
More from our walking around town a few weekends ago. Perhaps channeling Kirk Tuck here with the pointy-uppy building shots. The clouds were pretty nice that morning.
One of the items on our agenda for our time in Charlotte was a photography show titled ‘Annemarie Schwarzenbach: Departure without Destination’ at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art. (link)
Schwarzenbach was a Swiss writer, journalist and photographer with an interesting history. Her lifestyle would probably fit in pretty well today, but between that and her anti-Fascist campaigning made her an outcast forced her into exile. As a result she spent much of her time traveling the world, writing and photographing. Her work as a journalist, coupled with her upper-class background and her status as the wife of French diplomat Claude Clarac granted her extraordinary freedom of travel for the period.
The Bechtler exhibit represents work from her travels throughout the world, including the southeastern US in 1936-1938 and features archival material, film, and 200 photographs drawn from the approximately 7,000 photographs in the Schwarzenbach’s estate, which is held in the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern, Switzerland.
I had never heard of Schwarzenbach before learning about this show, and found it to a fascinating look at the world of her time. The show runs through 7/31/22.
Sayings on the steps of the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte.
