Honeymoon in Bermuda: St. George

We got to Bermuda in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday, and docked at the Royal Naval Dockyards.  We decided to go to St. George on the first day since it was the furthest, and seemed like it was the coolest town we'd see since the weather cancelled our shipwreck snorkeling (boo!).  Our main gameplan was to spend a day in each of the three cities so we would only need a two day bus pass, since we would spend the last day in the town where the boat was docked.  We saved 10 bucks that way!

So anyway, took the ferry to St. George. 

Waiting for the ferry

On the ferry

All the pastel houses

St. George might be a contender for the quaintest town ever. It was the first settled town(?) when the settlers were coming to America from Europe, so the whole infrastructure of the town is like 400 years old!  The first thing we did coming off the ferry was get some lunch.  The ferries are a great way to get around Bermuda, but it is a 45 minute ride to get from the Dockyards to St. George!  We ate at the White Horse Pub which was right off the pier to the ferry.  We had to sample the famous Bermudan Dark N' Stormy.  Preeeety good, and very strong!  The food was very good, the prices were steep, but that is to be expected when you are a tiny island 600 miles from any mainland place.  Aaron says it was the best fish and chips of his life!

Don't even think about snagging this book as a free souvenir!  lol

Aaron having a Dark N' Stormy

After we refueled we did some exploring.  We didn't have an exact gameplan of stuff to see, but winging it was pretty easy.  The place is small and you can walk to all the places pretty easily, and there are signs galore pointing you to places worth seeing. 

Lots of tourists.

We were welcomed by a steel drum band :)

Once we walked past the main town square area, we found St. Peter's Church which was founded when the settlers got there.  It celebrated its 400th birthday this year!  Needless to say, it was really neat, and Aaron the history geek was in heaven!

Wow!

The Hinktinez's were here.

So very old

Pretty places to kneel

Cemetery out back.  The weather took all the names off the headstones.

I suppose that while the men were at sea back in the day all the ladies did was go to church, because we passed by nearly a dozen different churches while in town.  We also went to the unfinished church which was really cool.  A big giant storm ripped the building's roof off ages ago and no one ever finished building it.  It was cool and a little bit spooky!  We couldn't go inside because it was structurally unsound.  Bummer.

After walking about some more we decided to have a sit in a park we found.  We saw a legit Bermudan in the official Bermudan business attire - your top half is a regular suit, bottom half is Bermuda shorts and knee socks.  Oh, British people!  lol

It being baby blue makes it that much better, huh? :)

We were pretty beat after all the walking around town and such so we caught the ferry back to the boat and ate a free dinner there.  The food in Bermuda is pretty much all pub food, so once a day for fried stuff is good enough! 

I promise I will be more timely with the remainder of our trip updates!







Honeymoon to Bermuda Days 2-4, 7: The Norwegian Star

Our trip itinerary went a little like this:
Saturday: Get to NY
Sunday: Get on the Boat
Sunday PM - Wednesday AM: At Sea
Wed AM - Fri PM: Bermuda
Saturday-Sunday AM: At Sea

This post will be about the 'At Sea' days aboard the Norwegian Star.

We had a good time aboard the boat.  There is so much to do!  Each day they give you a newletter of the happenings of the day - there are games, talks on different things, tournaments, entertainment things, etc.  It is hard to be bored!

Sunday we just bored the boat and checked out the place.  When we were leaving Manhattan we made sure to get a spot on the deck to see the Statue of Liberty as we sailed by.  So cool!

As we passed they played "Proud to be an American" and it was pretty cheesy...

The background there is New Jersey, so Aaron thought it appropriate to 'hit the beat' a la Jersey Shore

Here is our room.  It was a tad small, but they laid at the space very well so it didn't feel as cramped as it seems.  We didn't spend too much time in the room anyway.

Bed and window

Veiw from the bed.

The side with that TV has a little closet and drawers, a mini fridge, a safe and our life jackets just in-case.  The side with the mirror is the little bathroom.  Toilet, sink and a shower with really great water pressure.  And where that backpack appears to be floating is a desk and chair.  It wasn't too bad!

Some of the things we did on the boat:

Watched a conga line go by

Lost at Deal or No Deal

Win a poker tournament!

Played Pub trivia

Ate at this restaurant that looks straight out of Titanic

Not shown:  Layed out and got a tan.  Ate and drank a lot.  Gambled in the casino.  Watched singing and dancing and comedy shows.  Shopped in gift shops.  Read in the library and interneted at the internet cafe.  Slept in. 

The food on the boat was pretty good.  There was an always open buffet thing by the pool, and it was good for breakfast and usually had interesting options.  A grill place was by the pool with a constant supply of burgers and hot dogs.  The icecream bar was in that area too, only open until 5 though :\

The 'free' dining rooms were usually good but the selection didn't vary too much from day to day.  There were a handful of restuants that we had to pay a little extra to dine in.  We took advantage of the French, Italian and Steakhouse restaurants.  The French was really good, the Italian was good, and the Steakhouse was outstanding.  Well worth the price.  The service everywhere was outstanding. 

Cruising is such a stress-free way to travel, and you can't beat the price of lodging and all you can eat foods and entertainment for 7 days!  I forsee us going on cruises again in the future :)

Next up is Bermuda!





Honeymoon in Bermuda: Days 1-2

We had a FABULOUS time on our honeymoon!  It was a super fun week that I didn't want to end. :)  We started our journey to New York City on Saturday morning.  We caught a 10am flight to Detroit.

Aaron with the Michigan Lottery Ticket Machine

Had a layover and took a teeny tiny scary plane to Newark, NJ.  We had to do a bunch of weirdness to get good bang for our buck with our credit card points!
From there we took 3 different trains

In Newark

Beautiful, huh? lol

And finally arriving in Manhattan! (start spreadin' the news...)  jk :)

We put a good number of miles on our little luggage wheels hiking to out hotel, but when in Rome, right? :)
After about a million blocks we got there and took a power nap because we aren't used to all this exercise.  lol
Our hotel was in the Tribeca neighborhood, so we weren't super close to any mega touristy places to see.  We took a recommendation from our hotel to check out Walker's, which was a couple blocks away.  So we are just strolling along, and I am checking my foursquare account so it could GPS us and see what was nearby.  And lucky day, we are right across the street from the Ghostbuster's firehouse!!  We ate a delicious yet pricey meal and headed back to the hotel and crashed.

Who you gonna call?

Ghostbusters!

I will say that I had some fears about getting mugged or whathaveyou, as I normally do anywhere, but I can honestly say that I felt totally safe walking around the streets of New York at night.  Aaron says the mayor hired a bazillion cops and it really cut down the crime.  I'd believe it, you could go two feet without seeing a law enforcement person.

Day 2 was pretty great too.  We slept in like some champions, then walked around to find some breakfast.  We almost settled on dunkin' donuts, but we found an authentic NY bagel place - Tribeca Bagels.  Talk about yum!  We got some bagels and ate them on a park bench, fed the birds and enjoyed the nice weather.  I felt very New York...  lol

Me and a bagel, woo!

Birds getting fatter.  It is amazing that they can lift their giant bodies off the ground!

After all that we caught a cab to the pier to catch our boat outta here.  The cab ride was fun, we saw a lot of New Yorkish things.  The thing I found most entertaining about the city is that everywhere you turn there is something 'famous'- either from a movie or TV show or something.  It was pretty great!

The Daily Show!

Sbarro - where Michael Scott likes to grab a New York slice.  LOL

Jerry Seinfeld worked out at NY sports clubs!

The day and a half spent in the big apple made me really look forward to the end of the cruise when we had a whole day to explore!

But now onto the cruise...