Tea and Bagels: Bermuda - Part 1 of 2 (August 2014)

Welcome to Bermuda!

Just a short flight from New York City, we were hoping for a week of sunshine and the quintessential Bermudan experience. This was the forecast for the capital city Hamilton when we arrived:

Normally in August the weather is picture perfect. Our week, however, coincided with tropical storms and a certain Hurricane Cristobal that was tracking a close path towards Bermuda!

We escaped the rain on our first day and holed up inside the Hog Penny pub.

We tried our first rum cocktail, a 'rum swizzle'. This is Bermuda's national drink, made of rum, fruit juice and often grenadine. This was Gemma's favourite.

I preferred the 'dark and stormy' made with black rum, ginger beer and lime. The Hogpenny's version also included crème de menthe, however, which wasn't so great.

This is Bermuda fish chowder, traditionally seasoned with the local sherry pepper sauce and slug of rum.

We found an M&S and moved straight in for some Percy Pig Tails :-)

Headquarters of Bacardi:

Only locals are allowed cars in Bermuda. One of the best ways to explore the island is the ferry system, running regularly across much of the island and conveniently very close to our B&B.

We stayed at the Granaway Guest House. We were warmly welcomed by both the resident pooch Maverick....

...and Olive, their 15-year old cat. Both were lovely. Olive slept on our bed every night.

The B&B was a beautifully-restored 300-year old grain house:

The B&B's garden led out on to the 17th green of the Belmont Hills Golf Course. Very convenient! The first day we arrived I grabbed the clubs and quickly headed out for a swift round before the sun went down.

Interesting crab spider.

Dinner from a local Caribbean take-out...rice and beans with salt cod and ackee, fried chicken and salad. Very good!

We found a reference on the internet to Tom Moore's Jungle, a supposedly "off the beaten path" spot that very few tourists get to. Naturally this got us intrigued. We maybe didn't get to see all of it but we certainly stumbled across a lovely spot. The blue waterhole below was perfectly clear so you could see all the fish and red crabs.

The water was so inviting I took a dip.

Interesting spider:

Gecko:

Breakfast was communal and at 9am sharp. Everyone made the effort to come to the table :-)

We took a taxi to St David's located at the south-east of the island. In particular we were keen to try the local curried mussel dish. Despite being hugely ripped off ($17 for a ramekin size portion!) it was tasty and the conch fritters were decent.

The prices must have been for the views...

The Fairmont Princess Hotel is the best known and fanciest hotel on the island, painted in the Bermudan pink so popular here. We took high tea on a particularly rainy afternoon!

We noticed that a lot of the local men were wearing the traditional Bermuda shorts with their socks rolled up to the knees.

Rum tasting back at the B&B on our balcony. Goslings dark versus light.

Restaurants on the island are expensive and largely average, so we mostly cooked dinner at the B&B.

This is Tobacco Bay on the east end of the island. The water was so clear we didn't need snorkels to see them. Plus, most of them were attracted to the bright colours of Gemma's bikini, so they were coming right up to her and trying to eat the perceived food. Since they are mostly coral-feeders with beaks, when they bit her bum it hurt so she retreated to the rockpools where she found some shrimp to give her a pedicure!

The city itself is a UNESCO historic site, founded in 1612. The streets are cobbled and many of the buildings look exactly as they would have done back then.