Barcelona, Spain

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== INDEX to this POST ==

1/ Photographs
2/ About the Current header Photograph
3/ MAPS

Barcelona is a people place. It's noon at Mar Diagonal and did you know where you children are? -- here you go: texting (left), sleeping (center) and thinking about your problems with your parents.


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Hop Off/Hop On is the fastest way to see all of Barcelona quickly. So on Tuesday, we hopped on (it was raining cats and dogs) and toured all three routes (Red, Green and Blue). If some of our pictures don't look too great, taking pictures through a window on a moving bus in a driving rain is ... well, okay: we won't be winning any photo contests.


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Barcelona hosted the 1992 Olympics. The venues mostly are still here. The place where the athletes were housed has long since become an upscale expensive Barcelona address. This is the 1992 Barcelona Olympic symbol and the outside of the stadium.


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The Olympic athletes were housed here, in the buildings behind this unique public art made from ties. and built on the actual roadbed that formed the roadbed of Barcelona's first railroad. Unique public arts is everywhere in this city.


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Barcelona has a funicular adjacent which is easy to find overlooking the city.


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Gaudi's classic still unfinished church, Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona attracts large crowds each day, especially during Holy Week, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter.


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Barcelona has a huge transit system, including subway lines snaking the city and a surface Tram and bus system. It is also a walkable city with wide streets and boulevards.


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As a McDonald's shareholder, Carol Anne was pleased to see McDonald's in Barcelona's Diagonal Mar district was packed when she visited on April 2, 2012. She considered buying a Happy Meal but at 3.75 euros (about $7.50 US) she re-considered. Perhaps she would prefer a Big Mac meal instead? That was 6.75 euros (about $13.50). She decided to leave hungry and buy more McDonald's stock.


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CURRENT header PHOTOGRAPH == Carol Anne, and a family from France, at Gaudi's Sagrada Familia on April 2, 2012.


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CURRENT header PHOTOGRAPH == A Barcelona subway platform.


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=== THE MAPS ===

Route of The Mariner from Palma de Mallorca, Spain to Barcelona, Spain, overnight March 31-April 1, 2012.


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After dropping most passengers off after their re-positioning cruise from Fot Lauderdale, Florida, to Barcelona, Spain, The Seven Seas Mariner went on to Istanbul, Turkey, following this course and shopping at these ports.


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Palma de Mallorca, Spain

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== INDEX to this POST ==

1/ Photographs
2/ BEFORE YOU GO
3/ Seven Seas Mariner port Attractions List
4/ CHistory & Overview
5/ About the Current header Photograph
….
6/ MAPS
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Bellver Castle, once an important military strongpost and later a prison, overlooks Palma on the Island of Mallorca. Scenic, rich and clean, eighty-percent of its residents now work in the tourist industry. Once the island was virtually all agriculture.


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Palma is the final stop before Barcelona where most passengers, including us, are disembarking. When we went to Palma, our cabin stewart went to work moving our stuff from our closet to the bed covering up the "Welcome" sign. To us the message was "time's up! -- get off our ship!" We fly to London and on to Scotland later in the week. The Mariner heads on to Istanbul.


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Palma de Mallorca, Spain

1. Pla de Sant Jordi, or Saint Jordi’s Plain, where windmills still dot the landscape
2. Els Calderers, an 18th century manor house
3. Bellver Castle, which was constructed in the early 1300s, during the reign of Jaime I of Mallorca. It is the only circular Gothic castle in Europe with a double gallery of arches inside the central patio. The castle also affords some marvelous views of Palma.
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Palma, Mallorca, Spain on afternoon of April 1, 2012.


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=== THE MAPS ===
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Cartagena, Spain

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== INDEX to this POST ==

1/ Photographs
2/ BEFORE YOU GO
3/ Seven Seas Mariner port Attractions List
4/ CHistory & Overview
5/ About the Current header Photograph
….
6/ MAPS
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When modern residents of Cartagena began digging around they started finding all sorts of Roman remnants -- like an entire coliseum.


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The Panorama Lift is built on top of a rock that was hollowed out and used as a bomb shelter during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Today a Lift, which carries only a few people, takes people up to an overlook over the city where both the harbour and city, including Roman artifacts and Spanish navy submarine pens, can be seen.


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Among the Naval sites are a submarine built in 1888 adjacent to the cruise terminal, and submarine pens where Spanish Navy subs have been serviced. Both sites are pointed out to tourists and included prominently in guide maps and literature.


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Several Roman roads, including this one that you can walk on, are under Cartagena. This road is outside the front door to the House of Fortune, a Roman house preserved underground near the harbour and easily accessible by tourists.


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Cartagena has many charming narrow streets like this one.


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Cartagena's city hall is a classic. It was built in the early 20th century.


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Cartagena is a great old Roman port with gorgeous vistas on the southern coast of Spain. Stylish in every way, people sometimes wonder whether the graffiti (above) is actually graffiti or government sanctioned public art.


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BEFORE YOU GO == Cartagena, Spain
(courtesy of The World ReBooted)

Located on the southern coast of Spain, Cartagena is one of the best harbours in the western Mediterranean. Founded in 228 BC, it’s no surprise that a lot of Roman construction still exists, including an amphitheater and several roads. Over the years a lot of different people stopped by including the Vikings, the Vandals and Visigoths and others.

Today Cartagena has slightly more than 200,000 people, enough to make it cosmopolitan but rarely crowded. Cruise ships do call, but not in packs overrunning the city.

This is a stylish place where even some of the graffiti (of which there is a lot) is sometimes so artistic it can be mistaken for public art itself.

Food here mostly comes from the sea and is both fresh and excellent. For the adventurous, “asiatico of Asian coffee” might change your outlook on life: this concoction consists of coffee, condensed milk, cognac, liqueur 43 and cinnamon.

Do not miss: The gorgeous 1907 city hall; Isaac Peral’s submarine from the 1880s (it may be on its way to a museum for a rehab); the Roman House of Fortune sits beneath a very modern apartment building and even includes the Roman road that once ran along outside its door; the Roman amphitheater; the panoramic lift adjacent to the Conception castle, and the castle itself, and the Roman Decumanus Road which is carefully preserved under glass.

There’s a lot to see in Cartagena and it’s an amiable scenic place to see it.

Cartagena, Spain

1. House of Fortune (roman era house)
2. Conception Castle (on one of 5 city hills)
3. Square, surrounding buildings & Shopping center
4. Decumanus, old Roman road
5. Roman baths
6. Pier

Cartagena was founded in 227 BC by the Carthaginians, and has been the capital of the Spanish Navy since the 18th century. It is one of the most important ports militarily in the western Mediterranean Sea.

The economy is heavily based on mining, industry and tourism, and it is now a popular cruise ship stop. It has a wide diversity in botanical species in the surrounding area, much of which is now legally protected. After its prosperity during the Roman era, the city was repeatedly sacked and occupied at various times by the Vandals (400 AD), Visigoths (500 AD) and Byzantines (600 AD).

Among the popular tourist sites are the Punic Wall where the city was founded, the city hall and Concepcion Hall/Castle. Cartagena was the last major city to fall to Franco during the Spanish Civil War in 1936.
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CURRENT header PHOTOGRAPH == Visitors to Cartagena's Conception Castle, an old Roman ruin, listen to a tour guide. (click to enlarge)


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=== THE MAPS ===
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Gibraltar / Malaga & Mijas, Spain

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== INDEX to this POST ==

1/ Photographs / Malaga & Mijas
2/ BEFORE YOU GO == Mijas, Spain
3/ Seven Seas Mariner Malaga/Mijas Attractions List
4/ Malaga == History & Overview
5/ About the Current header Photograph
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6/ MAPS of Malaga, Mijas & Gibraltar

The Lighthouse at Malaga, Spain: Malaga is a big, successful industrial city on the southern coast of Spain -- and it is a major container port and cruise ship destination. Gateway to several charming places, including the popular town of Mijas in the mountains and Granada, Malaga is clean bright and flourishing. Navigating its streets can be challenging for visitor and local alike.


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Highways around Malaga are modern and new, and most everybody is welcome according to the sign in this picture. That means you can walk, ride your horse or even cruise the road in your tractor.


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Mijas in the mountains of southern Spain is a sort of Mykonos West, a white-washed, well scrubbed upscale tourist trap. Among its engaging attributes are donkey taxis or, if you prefer (as Carol Anne, above did) just climb on the bronze one, whoop a little and fourteen Japanese will take your picture. This is a place you'll love to hate.


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Distances are not that great from Mijas in southern Spain to North Africa. From Mijas, on a clear day, you can see Gibraltar southwest on the Spanish coast clear across the Gibraltar strait to North Africa.


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The cost of one item in Mijas astounded us. Slapwatches are currently the rage, coming in all sorts of colors with a band that "slaps" tightly around your wrist. When we asked the cost of a slapwatch, we were told it was 25 euros or about $35. Oh, really? At a trade show in January in Orlando, Florida, a vendor handed us four slapwatches in different colors for free -- and would have given us a lot more. Guess we better put our slapwatches in a safe deposit box.


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The streets of Mijas, like Mijas itself, are steep, narrow but very tidy. Cars zoom around and mothers wheel their babies in prams everywhere. Old men sit, smoke and hang out on benches as visitors amble among them. It's a pleasant place with a unique rectangular bullring at the top of the hill. For 3 euros you can look inside or, if you'd rather, come back Sunday and watch a bullfighter butcher a bull. Bring the whole family.


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A large yacht was tied up in Malaga with a carefully wrapped helicopter on the back. No name on the boat. No indication of who might own it. No one noticed it until our tour guide pointed it out, and then we became skeptical. "It belongs to Bill Gates," he said. He said there are no markings on the boat for security reasons. Oh, really? That was his story and he tried to stick with it. Wait -- does anyone even care? (see Comment identifying ship as belonging to Paul Allen, a founder of Microsoft with Gates).


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BEFORE YOU GO Mijas, Spain
(courtesy, The World ReBooted)

Mijas is located in southern Spain and reachable by a short drive through wine country from the popular cruise ship port of Malaga.

Mijas is Mykonos West. Mykonos is a Greek island that, like Mijas, is a popular tourist stop. Both towns have painted everything white, and they just keep on dabbing away. Both have winding streets and charming shops. Both live and die off tourism and while they both have good merchandise, they also have a lot of junk.

Mijas, being in the mountains and not on an island in the middle of a sometimes-turbulent seas, has it better.

Tour buses roll in on carefully orchestrated schedules. Merchants are busy cooking sugared almonds on the streets, handing out samples. There are “donkey taxis” just adjacent to where buses park (follow you nose), and as you climb the streets you’ll likely be directed to a “wine museum” which may soften your will to financially resist the local merchants.

Dealing with Mijas merchants can be perplexing. Go ahead and start by offering 50-percent below what they are asking, but don’t be surprised if some of them refuse to bargain at all, even when you walk away. They’re a well-dressed friendly bunch but not always easy to beat down on prices.

Don’t miss: Climb on the bronze donkey adjacent to where buses park and take your picture; walk past the odd 1920 rectangular bullring, but don’t pay them 3-euros to peep inside (not worth it); do watch others ride those donkey taxis and have a look inside the Santuario de la Virgin church, a small, but elegant and oddly modern place where the candles are actually electronic: drop in euro and a candle inside a box begins to glow on a timer.

Can an ecologically friendly electro-bull who never dies in a bullfight be far behind?
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Gibraltar/Malaga(Granada)/Mijas, Spain

1. Gibraltar (sail by)
2. Malaga overview
3. Village of Mijas – scenic bay to Marbella
4. Mijas town hall – begin walking tour
5. Mijas – donkey taxi
6. Santuario de la Virgen de las Cuevas
7. Plaza de Toros bullfighting ring, 1920
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Malaga is the southernmost city in Europe and with a population of 500,000 the sixth largest city in spain. Founded about 800 years BC it is one of the oldest cities in the world. At various times it has been ruled by the Phoenicians, Romans and since the 1400s by Spain. It was the site of heavy fighting during the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

The artist Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga as was the actor Antonio Banderas.

Mijas, a village in the Costa del Sol area, is a Andalusian white-washed village located 450 m above sea level at the base of a mountain.
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CURRENT header PHOTOGRAPH == The port of Malaga in southern Spain sits just east of Gibraltar and across the Gibraltar strait from North Africa. On a clear day you can see Gibraltar and North Africa from the mountains above Malaga.


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=== THE MAPS ===
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Crossing the Sargasso Sea

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The Sargasso Sea in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is the only sea in the world that does not touch land.


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Between Sunday, March 18, 2012, and Monday, March 26, 2012, the Seven Seas Mariner for eight days crossed the entire east/west length of the Sargasso Sea, about 2000 statute miles. The Sargasso Sea stretches from east of the coast of Bermuda, near the eastern coast of the United States, nearly to Europe and is in the Atlantic Ocean.

This extraordinary body of water is the only sea in the world that does not touch land. Set in the Atlantic Ocean it is bounded by the Gulf Stream on the west, the North Atlantic Current on the north, the Canary current on the east, and the North Atlantic Equatorial Current on the south.

It is 700 statute miles wide, and 2,000 statute miles long.

The Sargasso Sea is exceptionally clear with visibility up to 200 feet. It is a rich deep blue, and rivals the South Pacific for it’s arresting and impossible to miss beauty.

The Sargasso Sea was discovered by Portuguese sailors in the 15th century and is named for the Sargassum seaweed which grows in the sea and which periodically the Mariner passed. Many mistake the seaweed as trash floating in the ocean.

Photograph taken March 23, 2012, from Deck 11 of the Regent Seven Seas Mariner.

Casablanca, Morocco

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== INDEX to this POST ==

1/ Photographs / Casablanca
2/ BEFORE YOU GO == Casablanca, Morocco
3/ Seven Seas Mariner Malaga/Casablanca Attractions List
4/ Casablanca == History & Overview
5/ About the Current header Photograph
….
6/ MAPS
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Casablanca is one of the major North African seaport, and a busy container port. Getting the ships in and out, including even the small Seven Sea Mariner, can be a challenge. Here a container ship is being rotated in the channel beside the Mariner using two tugs as it prepares to leave port.


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Casablanca's Hassan II Mosque, opened in 1993, handles 25,000 worshippers inside, and another 80,000 outside. Built to date at a cost of $8-billion (US), Muslin worshippers can kneel and pray their five prayers a day on glass directly over the Atlantic Ocean. Parking is under the huge plaza.


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The Olive Market in the Casbah is small, but has a huge amount of olives. Reach in, grab one and enjoy. Green olives are picked early. When olives begin to ripen and turn red, they are picked as red olives. Fully ripened olives are black. Carol Anne wanted Moroccan money to take home to the grandchildren, but when she bought olives expecting change, she only got more olives. Later a tour guide exchanged money for her.


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The crafts in the shops in Casablanca are, more often than not, handcrafted. Here a man is slowing tapping a pattern into a brass plate. Often people in Casablanca and elsewhere do not wish their picture taken so it is important to ask. This man was happy to be photographed and paid little attention to us as we did.


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"Casbah" literally means "city within a city." The Casablanca casbah is adjacent to shopping and the olive market, but that is as far as it goes. Narrow passageways and small doors be-lie what goes on inside this mysterious city within a city -- casual visitors never find out.


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BEFORE YOU GO == Casablanca
(courtesy of The World, ReBooted)

Casablanca is a great movie, but not such a great city. Big, industrial and crowded, Casablanca struggles so hard to find things for tourists to do that often it doesn’t even bother trying. Try to find another cruise hip destination that doesn’t even has a cruise terminal welcoming vacationers. Still building is underway everywhere, including a new tram that, locals believe, is being so completely ripped off by contractors and others that it has fallen way behind schedule and economically is way over budget.

Rick’s Americain Café, made famous in the 1942 motion picture, is here – but then again it isn’t. The Rick’s in Casablanca never existed except on the back lot of Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California, but let’s not be deterred: An enterprising merchant hasn’t opened a restaurant and named it “Rick’s” and while even the exterior doesn’t include the fictional Warner Brother’s version, it’s here for tourists who wish to go.

History was made here during World War II, however, when Churchill, Roosevelt and others plotted early war strategy against Hitler here, and that building, adjacent to one of the King’s many palaces, still stands.

There’s also the third largest mosque in the world here, Hassam II, and it is well worth a look if only to see what $8-billion buys you these days. The Mosque is unique allowing worshippers to pray overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. And it has the highest minaret in the world.

Don’t miss: The Olive market, the place where Churchill and Roosevelt plotted World War II strategy; the French architecture especially in the Habous district; do venture into Casablanca’s mysterious Kasbah and go ahead and give that local peppermint tea a try (if you aren’t diabetic before you down this stuff, you might be afterwards).

Finally, if you must, venture into Rick’s Café, but don’t go asking for any “letters of transit” or start humming “As Times Goes By”. That’s what got everybody in so much trouble in the movie Casablanca, remember?

Casablanca, Morocco

1. Casablanca Central Market – shops, stands, vegetables, spices
2. Mohamed V Square – French colonial architecture
3. Habous District – 1930s, traditional houses, mosques, shops
4. Hassan II Mosque – 1993, 25,00 people inside; 80,000 people outside, worlds largest minaret (210 meters), allows worshippers to kneel directly over the sea, third largest in the world.
5. Pier – shopping

Casablanca is a huge city and the economic and business capital of Morocco, although it is not the capital. Rabat is the capital. It is the largest port in North Africa. It was a vital port duing World War II. Besides a conference held here in 1943 between western leaders, Casablanca was the staging area for the allied war effort in World War II (1939-1945).

It was also the location for the fictional 1943 motion picture classic, “Casablanca”. Rick’s American Café was actually located on the back lot at Warner Brothers in Burbank, California.

Casablanca is an old city dating at least to 700 BC. The Phoenicians, and later the Romans used it as a port. The name means “white house”. It has, at various times, belonged to Portugal, Spain and France. Since 1956, Morocco has been independent, ruled by a king.

Since 2003 Casablanca has been the location of several large terrorist attacks linked to al-Qaeda and site of continuing large demonstrations primarily in the city center near la fontaine.

According to Wikipedia:

Almost the entire Casablanca waterfront is under development, mainly the construction of huge entertainment centres between the port and Hassan II Mosque, the Anfa Resort project near the business, entertainment and living centre of Megarama, the shopping and entertainment complex of Morocco Mall, as well as a complete renovation of the coastal walkway. The Sindbad park is planned to be totally renewed with rides, games and entertainment services.
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CURRENT header PHOTOGRAPH == A fishing boat navigates out of the harbour into the Atlantic Ocean in the early morning fog in Casablanca, Morrocco. The Mariner threaded her way into the Casablanca container port at 6 am and did not tarry. By 3:30 pm she had slipped her ropes and was edging back to sea again.


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Funchal, Madeira, Portugal

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Madeira is clean, stylish and easy to get to. Cruise ships pour into its harbour at Funchal, its largest city, and non-stop flights from major European cities flap in daily. Only a block up from the piers, tents with flowers and other fine goods await. Settled in the 1400s, it quickly became a wine mecca because of its rich volcanic soil and year round moderate temperature.

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Funchal is busy without feeling crowded. The sidewalks are almost all made of small stones which can present challenges for some, but on slopes some broad sidewalks have railings dividing the sidewalk in twom making them easy to navigate.


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Jardim Municipal Garden has an amphitheater, fountain, swans swimming and plenty of benches to rest and enjoy. It is in the center of Funchal, steps from the famous Se Cathedral.


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Here on vacation? Forget to bring your condoms? No problem! Madeira has a practicality many countries including the United States lacks. For 2.5 euro you can buy yourself a condom or two from a machine on the street and get on with it.


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Leaving the coast, a series of modern highways snake across the island which measures roughly 20 by 40 miles. When a rocky outcropping gets in the way, the people of Madeira just carve another tunnel through it and roll on. There are tunnels everywhere so if you are a tunnel admirer, get ready to admire.


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The quaint fishing village of Camara de Lobos is just a few minutes drive west of Funchal. Featuring beaches and places to sunbathe, it is a charmer. But it is also the real thing. Here men still go down to the sea in ships, and you can see the ships and the drying fish. You can also worship in the seafarers chapel where many men who did not return from the sea are remembered.


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Cabo Girao is the highest cliff in Europe at 580 meters -- or it is the second highest. You pick. What do you find when you get to the top of this cliff as we did on March 27, 2012? Merchants selling stuff. Lots and lots of stuff partially blocking the view.


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Rugged, craggy, volcanic and with striking views, Madeira is gorgeous if you stay on the coast and terrifying if you take to the narrow highways, tunnels and places like Nun's Valley. Featuring the highest cliff in Europe you might as well be in an airplane for some of these views not on a bus hanging the edge of the roads. Much of it looks like Colorado in the summer, and since they do nt have snow, it stays that way. French, Portuguese and very cultured.


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When pirates came calling in the 1400s, not long after the colonization of Madeira, the local nuns found the prospect of rape was unappealing and headed for the hills. They hid out in a rugged valley now called Nuns Valley. This is the view of Nuns Valley, straight down 6,000 feet from the surrounding mountain overlook. Later in the day we went down there looked up here. Madeira is full of sharp cliffs and mountains like this.


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Funchal Madeira (Portugal)

1. Funchal
2. Camara de Lobos (fishing village)
3. Pico do Torre (views & camara de lobos harbour)
4. Estreito de Camara de Lobos (wine district)
5. Estreito de Camara de Lobos (vineyard)
6. Cabo Girao (Europe’s second highest cliff)
7. Nun’s Valley exit (highway)
8. Eira do Serrado (views of Nun’s Valley)
9. Nun’s Valley (center of valley / CHURCH)
10. Funchal

Funchal long had a reputation as one of the most dangerous airports in the world. It is a popular cruise ship stop, but for tourists fling in – not so much. High cliffs and short runways made the landings perilous. That now has changed.

Funchal is the largest city on the island of Madeira, slightly more than 100,000. Since its founding in 1424 it has been prosperous with good soil and a great location for trade, although that soon drew the interest of privates who began attacking. Celebrities also have occasionally found Madiera – Christopher Columbus was an earlier settler.

Madiera is, of course, best known for its wines, an industry that has flourished here since almost its founding.
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Header Photograph during the Funchal, Madeira, Portugal post.


== THE MAPS ==
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Bermuda

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MAP of ITINERARY, DAY by DAY Itinerary & PHOTOS of The MARINER
can be found above just under the header photograph.

The Hamilton Arts Centre is a short walk from the docks in Hamilton and well worth a visit. The building is worth a look for its architecture alone.

== INDEX ==
1. Ocean approach to Bermuda
2. Docks: Hamilton v the Royal Navy Dockyard
3. Hamilton Government Buildings
4. The Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity
5. Hamilton Art Gallery & Public Art
6. Zion Chapel site
7. Bermuda Historical Society
8. Perot Post Office & Par-la-Ville Park
9. The Ferry Terminal
10. South Bays: Warwick, Horseshoe, Church
11. The Gibbs Lighthouse
12. World’s Smallest Drawbridge
13. The Village of Somerset
14. Royal Navy Dockyard, Cruise Pier, Victualling Yard
15. William Rex granite stone
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Followed by Maps
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The business of Bermuda is business. For decades our primary libel policies at the newspapers I owned in the United States were written here in Bermuda. No one can close to their rates, nor did anyone rival their service. The success of Bermuda’s business is evident everywhere in well kept streets, excellent highways and government buildings that are classic works of colonial archetcture.

For tourists, Bermuda has sandy beaches and gorgeous bays set in a surprisingly laid back and relaxed atmosphere. The people are friendly, but this place pricy. Gas has reached $10 a gallon and food generally is 50% higher than on the mainland of the United States. The average house price is rumored to be a staggering $1.8-million which, if true, would place Bermuda’s claim of having the most expensive real estate in the world alongside that of Hong Kong.

Hollywood is here — a number of well known stars have homes here and at certain times a year you might find yourself mingling with them.

Getting here is easy. An airport is on the eastern end. Cruise ships dock downtown in Hamilton and on the western end at the old Royal Navy Dockyard.

The Mariner approached Bermuda from the coast of the United States on an easterly heading, then turned south into a long channel to the old Royal Naval Dockyard (above). Larger ships dock here, but smaller ships like the Mariner can continue on to Hamilton.


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The channel into Hamilton is narrow and dangerous. Entering the channel the pilot reportedly told the captain "turn 15-degrees NOW" and the Mariner glided into the channel with little room to spare. This rock outcropping was only a few feet from the side of the Mariner. The picture was taken from our cabin on deck 11 and, yes, that is a buoy on that rock.


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Many inlets, including the harbour at Hamilton shown here are chocked full of small boats. The Mariner, at 48 tons, was able to dock in downtown Hamilton which allowed passengers to walk off the ship onto the city streets. Bermuda is long and narrow. Hamilton is roughly in the middle.


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Hamilton is the capital of Bermuda. This is a Cabinet Building with other government buildings adjacent. While Bermuda does has popular elections, its government is technically ruled by the British as it has been for several centuries. This arrangement suits everyone because of Bermuda's small population of only 65,000.


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The Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity was designed by a Scottish architect and built in the 1880s. The church has great stain glass windows and the architect's original model of the church.


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The art gallery in Hamilton is not to be missed. With terrific architecture of the building plus public art, inside and out, the gallery has continuing exhibits from local artists who are very good ... that is not always the case with local artists. Bermuda has a great sense of artistry and beauty which is manifested everywhere.


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Hamilton has a lot of public art including this mother reading to her children in front of a museum.


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In 1810 the Zion Chapel was built on this site in Hamilton. Bermuda claims that this is the location of where blacks and white first worshiped together. They even put up a sign about it. Racially, Bermuda today is 65-percent black.


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The Bermuda Historical Society's Museum is small, but excellent with many interesting artifacts, including the tombstone of a solider imprisoned here during the Boer War (1900) in South Africa. This hat was worn by members of the police force in Hamilton in the 1970s.


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The Perot Post Office in Hamilton is named for Bermuda's first postmaster. The office (shown above) opened and sold its first stamp in 1848 and has been open ever since. Carol Anne bought stamps here and mailed post cards.


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With its inlets and sandy beaches, Bermuda is visually beautiful. The Par-la-Ville park in Hamilton, although small, has benches and trees and is a popular place to eat lunch.


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The business of Bermuda is the insurance -reinsurance business, but as dominant as Bermuda is, and as successful, the pace here is crisp, but unhurried. Gas is a staggering $10 a gallon, up $2 since January, but does it matter? The motorcycle more than the automobile is the dominant vehicle.


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Bermuda is not large, but it is long and it does curve -- so a ferry ride cuts a lot of time and distance off moving around the island. The good news is Bermuda's ferry runs from Hamilton to other points on the island. The not-so-good news? It's an expensive ride.


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Bermuda has a number of famous bays, including Horseshoe, Church and along along its southern shore. This is Warwick Bay adjacent to a World War II emplacement still used for military exercises. Bucolic and leisurely it's common to see people riding horses (above) along its shores.


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The Gibbs Lighthouse is 248 feet above sea level and is on the southern shore. It is believed to be among the oldest remaining cast iron light houses in the world. The light house's 216 or so pieces were manufactured in England, transported here and welded together. Although automated many years ago it remains in use today. Carol Anne (above) and I decided not to climb it after management first wanted $2, then $2.50, then $2.


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On the southern road just before reaching the Village of Somerset you will cross a tiny bridge with an even smaller drawbridge. This is billed as the smallest drawbridge in the world and is six-inch inches. It's purpose is to let the masts of ships to pass through. How much advance notice do you need to give to have the drawbridge opened? None -- it is no longer in use. Drive you boat around the other way and stop complaining.


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The Royal Navy Dockyard on the northwestern end of Bermuda has been repurposed into a shopping area, two docks for larger ships and, oh yes, a prison upstairs at one of the shopping areas (see below). This was a Victualling yard at old of Naval base. Here, under great security, food provisions were prepared for the ships.


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In 1837, this granite block was set into the stairs, known as the King's Stairs, leading to the water at the Dockyard. It honors King William IV, reigning monarch of England (1820-1837) who was popularly known as "The Sailor King".


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The Great Eastern Storehouse was built at the Dockyard in 1857. Today it is a large shopping mall with a series of small shops catering to the two cruise docks that are adjacent. Climb the stairs to the second floor and you're in the offices of Bermuda's Department of Corrections. Bermuda's prison is in the Dockyard complex.

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© Seine/Harbour® Productions LLC, 2012

Current header Photograph == BERMUDA

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For ships, the approach to Bermuda, and its capital Hamilton, is gorgeous, but it is also very dangerous. More than a few ships have foundered here, including the very first to trip to navigate its coral reefs in 1607. Unlike Fort Lauderdale where there lots of room, Hamilton affords the port pilot little room and little leeway which is why entering and leaving the port the pilot remains on board for more than an hour and a half, leaving the ship only after it is well out to sea.

Fort Lauderdale to Bermuda

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MAP of ITINERARY, and the DAY by DAY can be found above
just under the header photograph.

In 2006 Carol Anne and I, along with three other couples who are friends, sailed from Whittier, Alaska, south to Vancouver on the Regent Seven Seas Mariner, the same ship we are now on headed for Barcelona. In 2009 the ship was refurbished. Walls were pushed out. The decor was changed. Restaurants were renamed. We're on a ship we spent a week on just six years ago and we're completely lost. We even got out our old photographs to remember what it looked like. When we mention this to the current crew, they seem defensive. Maybe they don't like the changes. Heck, maybe they are as lost as we are.


The Seven Seas Mariner anchored off Sitka, Alaska, in June 2006. Carol Anne looks at the ship through a glade of trees. Sitka was chilly, rainy, remote and gorgeous. Pete sometimes threatens to move there, get a dog and spend the winter when Sitka, originally a Russian settlement on an island, is largely cut off with ferry service spotty.
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On weekends the Hyatt Pier 66 Hotel is packed with cruise passenger because it is just across the busy Highway A1A from Port Everglades. Regent brought three buses to Pier 66 and assigned its passengers at the hotel one of three colors. We were color Green, on the last bus. Not to worry -- the Regent computer system crashed and when we arrived most passengers were gathered in a lounge still waiting. Regent served cookies and coffee and no on grumped. The picture is at Pier 66.


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Port Everglades at Fort Lauderdale is one of the largest cruise ship ports in the world. On weekends it is not uncommon for 15 ships to come and go with an additional 5 or more during the weekdays. On the day we sailed the ships began pealing off from the harbor about 3 pm. The Mariner was docked across the water from what is currently the largest cruise ship in the world, the Royal Carribean Allure of the Seas. It looked to us like you could pretty put the 700 passenger Mariner in her hold and nobody would much notice.


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The docks at Port Everglades are familiar to us. In 2009 we set out around the world from here on the Cunard Queen Victoria, concluding our trip on the Queen Mary 2. That day both the Victoria and Mary anchored side by side, one of the few times the ships were together in port. The next time, following our Fort Lauderdale departure in January 2009, the ships were together was in Southhampton, England three months later.


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Port Everglades, unlike many ports, is an easy navigation for ships. It sits at the end of a short channel allowing arriving and departing ships to dock or undock relatively quickly and to be in open sea. Some ports, by contrast, are nightmares. Southhampton besides being up a relatively long channel has tricky tides, so tricky that on her last voyage the Cunard Queen Elizabeth too found itself grounded. Navigating a ship, any ship of any size, is a delicate business which, to be successful, sometimes requires a spot of luck.


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A Pilot, who is familiar with the port, always comes on board and brings a ships safely into, and out of the harbor. This means two very tricky transfers from the ship to the pilot boat must take place. The pilot boat must overtake and run at the same speed as the ship and then, upon command, move into and nudge the side of the ship. The Pilot then leaps either from the ship or onto the ship depending on whether the ship is entering or leaving the port.


In the photograph above the Pilot is leaping from the Mariner onto the Pilot boat late Sunday afternoon, March 18, 2012, as the Mariner exists the final bouys marking the end of the channel into Port Everglades/Fort Lauderdale. Safely back at sea, the Pilot’s job is done. The Captain, by the way, never relinquishes control of his ship even to the Pilot and so technically the Pilot is only an advisor to the Captain. The sole exception in the world is the Panama Canal where the Pilot takes command, and is responsible, for the ship instead of the ship’s captain.
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The Mariner charted a course to the northeast after leaving Fort Lauderdale and entered both the Gulf Stream and the Bermuda Triangle. Coastal lights were visible late into the night, but by mid-morning on Monday the Captain had turned the ship easterly toward Hamilton, Bermuda, and straight ahead, beyond Bermuda, was Funchal, Portugal, our destination after Hamilton. Funchal is five days beyond Bermuda.


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