PART THREE: BERMUDA AND NEW YORK

We chose this particular itinerary because it was one of the few cruises that includes Bermuda with other destinations. Bermuda is 26 miles long and 1 mile wide. The island in the Atlantic Ocean sits 650 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The current population is 64,074. It’s been on both of our travel lists for years.

The colorful houses, all with required white roofs, line most of the island. 

Many of the homes here are owned by Bermudians or relatives of Bermudians. Our guide said that Michael Douglas has a beautiful house on Bermuda because his mother was a former resident. He said that Douglas and his wife, Catherine Zeta Jones, spend several months a year on the island. This isn't their home but it could be similar.

As our ship approached the port of Hamilton, we saw some of the apartment/condo buildings in the capital city.

A typical street in downtown Hamilton.

There are two ports in Bermuda – Hamilton, the capital, and St. George, the oldest city founded in 1612. Some signs and information call the city, St. George and others call it St. George's with an "s". They are located less than 20 miles apart making any tour from either port able to easily cover the entire island. Our driver/tour guide from Hamilton was great!. We stopped at several sights not even listed on our tour including St. George.

A local park in the old town of St. George. 

The main street in the historic district of St. George was blocked off to vehicle traffic when we were in port. I don't know if it always a pedestrian street or they blocked it off because a ship was in port. Most cruise ships are too big to get through a narrow passage to dock in St. George. Our ship made it but we were told if the weather became too turbulent, we wouldn't be able to get out. The captain said we had about 15 meters on either side to exit the port. We made it!

There were many colors of hibiscus growing all over the island. Must be the perfect climate for them to thrive.

I don't know what type of flower this is but this whole bush was covered with them.

My primary reason to visit Bermuda was a desire to see the pink sand beaches I’ve heard so much about. The photos I’ve seen are incredible. Unfortunately, I think they were most likely enhanced or photoshopped because the ones we saw were NOT pink. While they are gorgeous beaches and amazingly beautiful, the sand is not pink.

John Smith Beach - one of the advertised pink sand beaches. Although tropical and inviting, it certainly didn't have much visible pink tint to it.

Warwick Beach - another of the beaches touted as having pink sand looked a tiny bit more pink but not at all what I was expecting. Our guide explained that all the coral reefs are pounded by the waves washing bits of it up to the beach giving it a coral color.

You can see the tiny specks of coral in the sand that Lou is holding. I'm hoping that maybe sometimes there is a greater amount of coral in the sand to give it more of the pink appearance.

It is mind-boggling to me that 64,000 people exist on a tiny island hundreds of miles from any other civilization. It is required that all roofs are white with solid stepped down design to capture rain water in the gutters and direct it to tanks under each house. Each tank stores between 15,000 – 30,000 gallons of water for drinking and household use.

Gibb's Hill Lighthouse on the southern end of Bermuda was built in 1844. It is the tallest of Bermuda's two lighthouses and is made of cast iron. It and some other attractions weren't supposed to be on our tour but our driver included them anyway since the rain held off. We saw so much that we cancelled our tour for the following day.

Somerset Bridge is billed as the world's smallest drawbridge opening just a couple of feet to allow the mast of a sailboat to pass through. It dates back to 1620 but has been rebuilt leaving most of the original stone work intact.

An egret enjoying the waters near Somerset Bridge.

Our ship, the Seven Seas Navigator, docked in the old town of St. George.

It took a full day of cruising to reach Hamilton from Halifax and another full day from Bermuda to Manhattan. However, the early morning jaunt from Hamilton to St. George took less than two hours for our ship to slowly maneuver between ports.

We enjoyed our 22nd anniversary dinner a couple days early in the Prime 7 specialty restaurant on the Navigator. Each stateroom can book one meal that is included.

The photo is a little dark but here we are celebrating 22 years of "unwedded bliss". Lou had the filet mignon and lobster. I had the salmon.

Couldn't pass up dessert. Lou had cheesecake and I tried the Chocolate Caramel Popcorn Sundae. It was yummy!

Although we have both been to New York many times, there is always something new to see or experience. Even though the weather didn’t cooperate with rain, fog and overcast skies, it was beautiful to view all the familiar sights from a different perspective.

I apologize for the poor photo quality. Wish I could control the weather better. This is Coney Island located on Long Island as we cruised into New York Harbor.

Our ship cruised under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge linking Staten Island with Brooklyn.

The Staten Island Ferry passed by our ship, mostly likely full of commuters. 

The Statue of Liberty guarding the harbor with her torch held high.

Our ship docked at Pier 88 (the low white buildings on the left) next to the aircraft carrier, Intrepid, berthed at Pier 87 and welcoming visitors to its museum of displays. It was Lou's first stop.

Lou took off on his own to visit some new buildings and walked himself silly while I parked myself in a tour bus for a guided drive around Manhattan. It was next to impossible to get good photos from the bus with reflections and poor visibility. I just sat back and enjoyed the expert commentary.

Our tour followed the west side of Central Park to the end before turning right then heading south down 5th Avenue along the east side of Central Park. We were stuck for about 20 minutes in a massive traffic jam.

New York City was embracing Pride Month with rainbow touches everywhere.

Rockefeller Center was all decked out in hundreds of Pride flags. They were surrounding the location of the ice skating rink in winter.

The Freedom Tower erected near the site of the World Trade Center destroyed on September 11, 2001. This was the only time we got off the bus and walked to the site for a half an hour talk by our guide. Lou and I had visited the Ground Zero Museum - 9/11 Memorial and went up to the observation deck of the Freedom Tower several years ago. 

This is the exact location of one of the World Trade Center towers. The other tower has a similar memorial at its location with names of victims inscribed around it. This was my third time visiting the site of the attack. It is still a somber and sobering experience.

The Oculus - a large white building with steel, wing-shaped tips reaching skyward is a transportation hub built to replace a train station destroyed on 9/11. It was opened to the public in 2016. It was not yet built on our last visit to New York.

This is called the "Jenga Building" since it resembles the Jenga game. It was completed in 2016 and is located in the Tribeca district.

Lou loves anything high. When he heard about this 100th floor observation deck called "The Edge" located at 30 Hudson Yards he had to do it. It is the highest sky deck in the Western Hemisphere.

All in all, we had another great trip. We were really lucky with the weather and didn't have a hint of smoke anywhere from the wildfires in Canada. Everything went smoothly and our flights were on time with no stress involved. Bermuda was my 70th country visited! Never dreamed I would travel to that many places. Lou has been to 108 countries! And yet there is still so much to see.