Bermuda Cruise: Day 5

After a late night filled with beer and chocolate, it was nice to sleep in … until 8 AM, when we woke and headed to breakfast. We were planning an all-day island excursion so we wanted a head start. We got off the boat around 9:45 AM and bought our all-day public transit tickets ($12 all access/person) and got on the pier’s trolley as we were assured this would get us to the ferry before it left at 10 AM. Had we known where the ferry docked, we could have walked there in about 2 minutes, but we opted for the scenic tour of the pier as we picked up passengers from the Royal Caribbean ship that was docked in back of ours. This did give me the opportunity to jump off the trolley, grab a Bermuda guide book (which we already had, but had forgotten in our room) and get back on. We hopped to the ferry as it was pulling away and we were on our way to St. George’s.

We arrived in St. George’s with no real itinerary except to see St. Peter’s church. So we did that, looked around and decided to move on. We caught a bus and decided on the ride we should see the Crystal Cave. So we de-bussed at the proper stop, bought our tickets and waited for about 30 minutes for the tour to start. The wait was tempered by the friendly Canuck we met. The cave was nice to see, but far too crowded (with people, not stalactites - we didn't mind them).

After exiting, we walked around the corner in search of food. We found a nice restaurant that wanted $18 for a club sandwich. We decided to starve and get on the bus for Hamilton. At the bus stop, we met our Canuck friend again and he told us to get on the number 3 bus because the number 11 bus was going to “f--k around” in the golf course area on the map he showed us. We kept our laughter at his American colloquialism to ourselves.

Once in Hamilton, we could no longer wait for food so ate at the Pickled Onion on Front Street. The food was good, but certainly not worth the $40 for a chicken sandwich, nachos and spinach dip. As our Canuck friend would say, “C’est la vie”.

Hamilton quickly bored us and it was time to lounge on a beach – after all, what else should we be doing on vacation? We hopped on a bus to Horseshoe Bay Beach. Jen led us down a sand dune trail off the main road assuring me that we’d reach the beach. We did, at the far end. It was actually better that way: shorter walk, avoid the crowds and quickly get to lounging around. The water was warm, sand was pink, sun was hot – all in all, a great way to end the day. That is, until we needed to get back to the boat.

A long uphill slog was followed by an overcrowded, non-air conditioned bus (mind you, all other buses we took that day were half full with fully functioning air conditioners). After arriving at the ship, we decided dinner and a movie was the night’s plan – no shows tonight.