Christmas markets in Europe and Caribbean cruise (RTW)

[RooFlyer]

Off to the gate early, as is my custom



A350, 2A, the bulkhead seat so more room for legs and other stuff. Bassinets are in row 1, which is only the 2 seats in the middle, so you are pretty safe booking 2A and K





Most things as for BKK-HEL. Checking out meal times!



AY7 HEL-MIA, A350, dep 1:15pm (30 min late) arr 5:10pm (30 min late), 10H55m. Lets go somewhere warm!!

 

[RooFlyer]

Really looking forward to lunch. You get both cold plates and choice of hot plate.



Clinking of the drinks trolly was a good sign. 6 wines on offer, plus Champagne. What do you get on Qantas long haul?





I chose the pike and salmon terrine in lobster sauce, and it was lip-smackingly sensational.





As we sailed above the clouds in a permanent sunset (for an hour or so), I pitied Qantas pax who at best say their meal was 'tasty'.



Cheeses as we left the Scandinavian coast







That was a seriously good lunch. Finnair J tucker I'd say is probably better than QR based on my 2 long haul and 2 short haul on this trip. Service impeccable.

 

[RooFlyer]

Only issue with the flight was the flaky wifi. Kept disconnecting and virtually unusable.

On descent into Miami.





Towed to the gate





Ridiculously long walk to immigration. All the travellators out of order. However, at immigration there was a diversion for app-users, but I couldn't use that, as I had to have a B1/B2 visa because I couldn't get an ESTA because I had visited Iran. Into the main hall - vast, but no machines, just regular queues to see agents. Hardly any queue! Given a pretty thorough questioning by the immigration agent, then through (with no stamp in the passport). Another very long walk to the baggage carousels, and a long wait for bags, then walk straight through green lane for customs. Never had that before!! (Although I have visited the USA in about 5 to 7 years)

Staying at the Pullman at the airport. It was either that or the Hilton, but reviews of that were bad, mainly because of uncontrolled children.

Long wait for the shuttle and had to call them as to where to go, as the instructions on their web site were plainly wrong, due to roadworks. That's really annoying - cost me $10 to open up Telstra roaming to make the call.

Zero recognition of Accor Plat on check-in, but the guy who kindly took time out of playing on his phone, found me a room with no-one around and away from elevators. I think it was an upgrade (to a suite), but he didn't say and I don't think it was an 'upgrade', just the room he chose for me.





Only wanted a snack before bed, so went down to the bar and usual horrid selection of burgers, chips and cheese stuff.

Pullman, my cough. Hampton Inn.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Heading north, into the ice again. This time I had my jumper and padded vest with me!!





View attachment 419705

Who keeps Pringle's in the fridge @RooFlyer

 

[RooFlyer]

Next morning, my flight to Bridgetown, Barbados on American. Got the free shuttle and checked in; then Flagship First priority screening after which doing the customary self-pat down of all my stuff - no phone. I recounted the experience here: (bumped from 1A to 4D - I didn't care and turned out couple with baby in 1 A/C)

Post in thread 'Made any travel mistakes lately?'

Thursday at 12:59 AM

Caught the 6:30 am shuttle from the Miami Airport Pullman to the American Airlines checking area. Checked in okay, got through the priority screening okay, packed up stuff after screening and … no phone.

Agents in the area have a good look around ,put my bag through re-screening and all they saw was my spare phone and battery pack.

Bit of a panic retracing steps then come to my senses. Pull my spare iPhone out of my carry on, give it a bit of charge, hook into the Wi-Fi and use Find My to see where my iPhone is.

Ah ha, it’s at the Pullman. So it’s either still on the bus or it’s been...

• RooFlyer

• 

Anyway, with that sorted, onto the AA Flagship First lounge for brekkie. Another freak'n long haul walk; the lounge is large pretty good and brekkie spread also good








AA1089 MIA-BGI, 10:05-14:55 B737M-8, 4C, 3H50m



Seat was Ok, service good, flight was good. Lunch orders taken but now in 4C, no choice left for me. Pasta which was OK. Oh, the wines were ghastly so I survived on G&T for the journey.

 

[RooFlyer]

On arrival at BGI, a bit of a shambles and the place much smaller than what I imagined, given it being a major destination for Nth Americans, at least. They have official airport taxis which you just go up and sign up for, giving destination to the agent, who calcs fare and assigns you to a taxi.

I was using AirB&B for the very first time and I had been advised that it was hard to find and no '#24 Smith Drive" address and there were turn by turn instructions to get there in the AirB&B app.

I needed to give my destination, so I opened up AirB&B app -wouldn't open. Then tried Google maps only find that my Flexiroam eSIM gave no internet (I later found that Barbados wasn't amongst the '200 counties' covered by their Global Plan . No airport wifi either!!! Stalemate on getting a destination and therefore a taxi. They pointed me away from the queue pretty brusquely. In the end I opened up my Telstra roaming and got coverage and a taxi. then a SMS from Telstra comes in, saying that Jamaica (????) isn't a Day Pass destination and I was being charged megabucks. Shut it off. Later, looked up and Barbados isn't covered either, so I'm stuffed.

Not a good start to the Caribbean!

Now, over the past 4 days I certainly wasn't 100%. Besides poor sleep, as I mentioned before I had developed cellulitis in my R shin area which I was treating with an antibiotic, but it wasn't getting better. And I had developed odd bruising in my R foot and the lower leg was tender - although I hadn't strained or twisted it and could walk around OK. So I asked my AirB&B host about seeing a doctor when I got there. Wonderfully, she said there was a doc not for from her place which I should be able to get into.

Amazingly, I got in as the doctor's first patient the next morning. She prescribed a broader-spectrum antibiotic but thought that my bruising/swelling may be DVT/blood clot. Eeeek. Sent me off for an ultrasound which again, they could do straight away in a modern clinic about 20 mins away.

By this time I had installed Kolet Caribbean plan and I could use pickUPCaribbean to get a taxi. No Uber here and the pickup thing acts like Uber to order a taxi, track, pay be card etc. Called pickUPBarbados here, but whatever

PickUp

pickupbarbados.com

Ultrasound found no DVT (whew) & report for doctor prepared during my taxi ride back to the doctor. Doctor prescribed a few things including new compression stockings (I use an older pair which have stretched out a bit).

I used AirB&B fir the very first time after finding that hotel prices for the three nights I was here were just crazy. Almost all were 'resorts' of course, and its Christmas. I found Likkle More B&B:

Rental unit in Bridgetown · ★4.97 · 1 bedroom · 4 beds · 1 bath

‘Likkle More’ Flat light, cheerful & convenient

www.airbnb.com

Its been good. Host very busy and hard to contact sometimes, but the flat is all it says. The waterfront is 5 mins walk.

There is a small shopping complex 10 mins walk away and on arrival I went to get supplies, planning on self-catering. Hmmm ... the 'supermarket' is actually a pharmac_ and the range of stuff was a bit limited. AND - no milk! Apparently the main supply is powdered, and the supply chin was broken by Syria or something. Anyway, almond milk was another first for me. And you have to admire a pharmac_ that has a good range of booze





Yes, that's Yellowtail and some cheap Hardy's. I like Riesling, but only sweet varieties. Dinner the first night was toasted cheese sandwiches and juice. A Barbados dollar is US$0.50, pegged. US$ is taken everywhere I tried, but I did have B$s.

 

[RooFlyer]

Dinner the second night I went to Tapas restaurant, a 10 mins walk away.

Tapas

Seafront restaurant on the boardwalk open all day, book online!

www.tapasbarbados.com

Really, really good, Great location, great staff, great food. A bit expensive, but its Barbados .... My 65th birthday was a few days prior so I hung the expense.

Tapas at the left



My table was along the front - perfect



Things were definitely on the improve ...



First menu page were the taps, then there were 3 pages of other courses/choices, but I only photographed 1 other. Again B$1 = A$0.80 currently.





The beer was bloody nice - it is hot and humid!



Lobster bisque and ceviche. Rest wasn't photographed and there was a Sth African Chenin Blanc sittling off to the side

 

[RooFlyer]

Next day, I arranged a tour with the taxi driver who I used the day before. This was the route, plus return back to Hood Rd from the point in the SE (Google maps only allows 5 points now??)



I should add here that traffic jams in Bridgetown, and up the W coast are the norm. There are NO 2-lane roads, just single lane each way and lots of traffic. And lots of traffic jams. You want to turn into KFC but tis full? No problem, just sit in the traffic holding it up until you can inch into KFC. Don't believe any timings Google gives you.

Drive first though Bridgetown downtown. Some interesting sights, but we didn't stop as I was keen to get out of town and the traffic

Kensington oval





Now, I was told that Rihanna is a big-time Barbadian singer. And that was her place. I doubted it, but my tour lady insisted.



Much of the drive up the west coast was taken up with resorts - often large, behind walls etc and you can see where the pricing comes from.



Again, I'm told one of the most popular restaurants in Bridgetown -

 

[RooFlyer]

Barbados has a long and interesting history. Wikipedia will suffice:

Inhabited by Kalinago people since the 13th century, and prior to that by other Indigenous peoples, Spanish navigators took possession of Barbados in the late 15th century, claiming it for the Crown of Castile. It first appeared on a Spanish map in 1511. The Portuguese Empire claimed the island between 1532 and 1536, but abandoned it in 1620 with their only remnants being an introduction of wild boars for a good supply of meat whenever the island was visited. An English ship, the Olive Blossom, arrived in Barbados on 14 May 1625; its men took possession of the island in the name of King James I. In 1627, the first permanent settlers arrived from England, and Barbados became an English and later British colony. During this period, the colony operated on a plantation economy, relying on the labour of African slaves who worked on the island's plantations. Slavery continued until it was phased out through most of the British Empire by the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.

On 30 November 1966, Barbados moved towards political independence and assumed the status of a Commonwealth realm, becoming a separate jurisdiction with Elizabeth II as the Queen of Barbados. On 30 November 2021, Barbados transitioned to a republic within the Commonwealth, replacing its monarchy with a ceremonial president.

Barbados's population is predominantly of African ancestry. While it is technically an Atlantic island, Barbados is closely associated with the Caribbean and is ranked as one of its leading tourist destinations.

It was the history that I was mainly interested in on the tour - as well as just seeing the place.

First stop was St James Anglican church, about halfway up the west coast at 'Holetown'. A really lovely church, destruction by hurricane is a theme I saw in many of the old buildings. Wikipedia again:

The first settlers landed on the island on February 17, 1627 at Holetown not far from the site where the church was eventually built. The settlement there expanded rapidly and it became necessary to erect a place of worship. In 1628 the settlers constructed a wooden building on this site. St. James Parish Church was one of the original six parishes later created under the administration of Sir William Tufton, the sixth Governor of Barbados.

After a hurricane on August 31, 1675 which devastated most of the island, a stone structure replaced the former wooden building in the early 1690s. This stone structure was made from coral and limestone from which this non-volcanic island is made. Another violent hurricane struck in 1780 and according to Robert Hermann Schomburgk's History of Barbados only two churches and one chapel remained; St. Andrew, St. Peter and All Saints. There is no specific record of what happened to St. James in the storms of 1675 and 1780 but after the hurricane of 1831 St. James was not among the churches listed as having been destroyed. Schomburgk states that in 1846 at the time of his writing this book, the building was 54' X 40' in size with a seating capacity of 550 and a congregation of approximately '360 souls'.

After nearly 200 years the walls of the original stone building began to decay and were partly demolished and replaced by a larger, more substantial structure in 1874.

In 1874, the nave roof was raised on new pillars and arches. The enlarged building was consecrated by Bishop Mitchinson on Easter Tuesday, 1875. Except for the sanctuary and north porch, added in 1900s, this is substantially the building still in use today.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Dinner the second night I went to Tapas restaurant, a 10 mins walk away.

Tapas

Seafront restaurant on the boardwalk open all day, book online!

www.tapasbarbados.com

Really, really good, Great location, great staff, great food. A bit expensive, but its Barbados .... My 65th birthday was a few days prior so I hung the expense.

Tapas at the left

View attachment 420133

My table was along the front - perfect

View attachment 420135

Things were definitely on the improve ...

View attachment 420134

First menu page were the taps, then there were 3 pages of other courses/choices, but I only photographed 1 other. Again B$1 = A$0.80 currently.

View attachment 420138

View attachment 420139

The beer was bloody nice - it is hot and humid!

View attachment 420136

Lobster bisque and ceviche. Rest wasn't photographed and there was a Sth African Chenin Blanc sittling off to the side

View attachment 420137

Belated birthday wishes @RooFlyer

 

[RooFlyer]

The Tour person carrying up the West Coast made a deviation through Speightstown, which I hadn’t heard of. It’s the country’s second biggest town and was founded around 1630 and became one of the main sugar etc. Exporting ports back to the UK.

We didn’t stop and I just snapped a few pics out the front window of the car.






Before we turned inland to go to our next stop, we went along quite a rugged section of the West Coast

 

[RooFlyer]

The next, and for me the main stop was Saint Nicholas‘s Abbey, which has nothing to do with Saint Nicholas and is not an abbey. It’s a very old plantation house which is remarkably well preserved and really appeals to my interest in historic buildings. And by ‘plantation’ always remember that it meant basically farms owned by Brits employing slaves to work the sugarcane fields etc.

Turn land from the coast we went up through a number of small towns climbing further and further up the hills. The highest point on Barbados is Mount Hillaby at about 330 m so we didn’t go into the clouds but definitely higher elevation than down the West Coast.

The place is very much a commercial, you might call it a tourist trap. In addition to historic house there’s a steam railway and a rum distillery ( of course ). Although initially we will told at the gate that I could walk around without paying the US$30 entry fee which includes guided tours, on attempting to approach the house I was politely refused and said I had to have a ticket whether or not I took a guided tour.

Grrrr but we were here now so 30 bucks it was. I didn’t take the guided tour and on hearing some of them as I walked by I’m glad I didn’t - lots of pushing the merchandise the rum etc and very shallow commentary.

 

[Port Power]

It’s so sad when lovely, historic places (in spite of the dreadful history) become tourist traps and money gougers. The house and grounds look beautiful. Enjoy the rest of your sightseeing.

 

[RooFlyer]

It’s so sad when lovely, historic places (in spite of the dreadful history) become tourist traps and money gougers. The house and grounds look beautiful. Enjoy the rest of your sightseeing.

An entrance fee is reasonable. It is a museum now and has upkeep etc. But US$30 was a bit steep just to to get in.

 

[RooFlyer]

After the Abbey we headed southeast downhill towards the coast. The roads in Barbados are generally average shall we say, in many parts bad but this section of the road it was atrocious. 30-40 km/h max. Not just deep potholes but the whole structure of the road had gone and it was swelling and slipping under the bitumen.





Along the way we passed Morgan Lewis’s windmill. Lewis was a plantation owner who farmed sugarcane and the mill was there to process the cane down into syrup. It was probably built in the late 17th century. By the look of it, it got damaged in the last hurricane as most pictures of it show it as a normal looking windmill.




Views down to the north east coast of Barbados. Partially settled mainly a farming area.

 

[RooFlyer]

Next stop a little way down the East Coast with St John’s Parish Church.

St. John's Parish Church is an historic church building in Barbados. It is the first church of St. John that is presumed to have been a simple wooden building, but its date is unknown. The parish along with St. George, was carved out of St. Michael in 1640–1641. But successive churches were badly damaged by the hurricane of 1675, the Great Hurricane of 1780, and finally destroyed by the 1831 Barbados–Louisiana hurricane. The present church building (the fifth) was built is 1836, and the chancel added in 1876.

Although the church isn’t that old, the cemetery is and the whole thing is set in one of the most gorgeous locations you can imagine, said hi above the Barbados coastline.













A very historic grave

 

[RooFlyer]

Last top of the tour was supposed to be Sam Lord‘s Castle, the old house of a pirate who used to leave lights on to attract vessels who fell victim to rocks on the coast. My tour person hadn’t heard of it which I thought was odd as it’s touted as one of the things to see, but when we got there we found it been totally over-run by a huge modern hotel and the old building wasn’t accessible - just able to be peeked through some tall bushes.

So we headed back to Bridgetown, past the airport which looked much bigger than the impression I got when I landed. Wonder how that tall shade structure goes in a hurricane?





Dinner that night was again at Tapas. Thai fish cakes in the back and marlin gravlax towards me. Again, really really nice.



Followed by a good walk along the boardwalk which stretches for a long way along the coast both ways from Tapas, mostly lined with bars blaring reggae music.