Why did I think Bermuda was in the Caribbean? seriously I never knew it was so close to the USA east coast or the UK. Was I thinking about Barbados, or the Bahamas? Anyway, I learned something new today.
We went ashore an made a short walk from the ship to the local shopping mall, Clock Tower, before taking a rest for the afternoon, since we'd booked an evening excursion on a glass bottom boat.
It seems that in Bermuda there's a pretty unique way of water conservation, and every household bears responsibility for collecting their own rain water. More about this later.
We went on our glass bottom boat. The trip was relatively short but the person who was allocated to be our guide was great. She gave us so much information about the country and presented it all in such a vibrant way. Our only negative was that the lights failed and so under the boat through the glass bottom wasn't illuminated, and although we could see coral, it wasn't as bright as expected. We finished the trip off with punch/soda.
The final part of the trip on 12th was to see the wreck of the Vixen
We were home in our cabins by 7:30, a late dinner and a mealtime conversation of coincidences/degrees of separation. We sat down with a couple and did a bit of small talk like where we're from and a bit about cruising, until I asked about work and discovered Vince had worked for the same Civil Engineering Company as Khachik, on the same motorways but not at the same times so they didn't know and his wife Carol had been a nurse!
P.S we had an unexpected 50% refund from the glass bottom boat trip because of the lights failure. another tour perhaps in the future?
13/1/2017
Today's trip was another highlight "The Bermuda Island Drive". We had a driver called Michael Jordan! He knew EVERYTHING. We drove through the naval dockyard into Somerset village.
We stopped by the sea for photo opportunities and then 2 X 30 minute stops in Hamilton and St George. In the course of the trip he spoke about Bermuda being many islands joined by bridges and causeways (ranging from 120-300 depending on source of information)
Bermuda has a new cruise terminal to encourage tourism
Learned more about RAIN WATER COLLECTION - houses have limestone slate roofs, sloped into steps, gather water in gullies which is then drawn into down pipes and into under ground tanks. When the rainwater dries up, desalination plants sell and deliver their water to the population.
It's private medicine mainly for the HEALTH SERVICE and medical insurance is compulsory for those who can afford it, except for "HIP", low level state funded insurance.
Companies usually pay half of the medical insurance, but individuals can still continue to pay 100% after leaving work.
We were told that there are charity homes for homeless people and voluntary charitable support of people in need, like Salvation Army
A law permits only one car per family can be registered to the address of the family
Petrol costs $8 per gallon
The cost of living in Bermuda is very high
There are a lot of disused railways, converted to footpaths and roads.
We saw a lot of organisations had sponsored a bus shelter, as a way of raising funds..
Another interesting fact was that in Bermuda there are many more churches per capita than any other country in the world and there is evidence of churches from every Christian denomination.
Hotels are in decline in Bermuda
Properties have become very expensive to buy. Condominiums are replacing hotels
Even low cost housing is still $600,000 so many people do not buy houses/apartments.
One venture was to erect houses looking like canvas tents on stilts on the water's edge, but even theses were expensive was unsuccessful
Bermuda has seen the demise of tourism, but one selling point was the American Cup 2017
hurricane of 2003
In Bermuda there's no income tax, but therefore no welfare. Self funding and an ethos of self sufficiency exists for most things.
After this trip we returned to the ship for dinner, normal time, nothing much to report.
As we came back there had been a COMPUTER FAILURE in the cruise card swiping in and out system, meaning that every card had to be read manually and our names added to a paper list. That must have been a nightmare for the crew. We had to return to our cabin, and our cabin steward was charged with the responsibility of checking all the cabins against the list.
Today I decided to give my old black dangly earrings a new lease of life and painted them with silver nail varnish.
And I noticed my salon-worthy nails! That's what happens when you don't do anything for weeks! ( I am 2 months post first of 2 hip ops)
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