Basically this is the last day of the cruise we left Half Moon Cay and over night we made it up to Nassau. got docked at 7am and the tours started and people getting off the boat at 8… Our tour didn’t start till 10 and of all things… It was a walking tour of Nassau…I could see that Nassau was pretty big but the tour ended up being just a few miles of it. I kept asking is Sherrie was in her right mind, having surgery on her leg last summer then chemo then radiation and just finishing that up and she signs up for a “walking tour”… oh well… we met the tour guide just off the boat and he gave us all hearing devices… so he could talk, we could listen and not all be huddled up to hear… and it worked…
The walking tour just goes out side the docks then up the hill a bit to some of the older area of town… past Princess Margaret hospital (public and inexpensive but wait times are really long)… by the (Government Houses) houses of parliament or what ever they call them… and up the hill to the “hand dug canyon” and the 66 steps up and out..
Where this water tower is… and Fort Fincastle…
It seems the , then governor, of the Bahamas was a bit afraid that they would be overrun by pirates or something to that effect so he had the slaves and ? dig this huge hidden channel. at the far end are covered over tunnels that run up to the old fort on the hill and the idea was to escape the fort via the tunnel to this channel and then out to the docks and ship away… oh well… but the interesting thing is all this and may other places is that the trees and plans can grow right out of the limestone… since it is porous and a good water holding media as well as filter they grow right there…
ok there are only 65 steps now since they put in the asphalt base… it covered up one step… but it is a good climb out.
some of sherries friends at the base of the steps… we all got pictures taken when we were smiling and not panting… ha!
some are uglier than others…
Once we got to the top there was the fort, pretty small one at that and of course a shopping mall… well not a mall but a number of vendors with various things for the tourists… prices not too bad but still it is just stuff…As we are making our way back down and out from the top of the hill we get a good shot of the Atlantis Paradise Island hotel… and it was explained that that bridge in the middle is not a bridge… it is the Michael Jackson room and you can rent that for just a cool $25000 per night but you must sign up for 5 nights… ummmm don’t think that is in our budget..
Now I don’t know if that story was true or not but it was a good story told by the guide…
Now also on our way down we make it by the Health Ministry… and they had an advertisement on the side of the building…
I suppose you can figure that one out…
on that same street I saw the way I wanted to tour Nassau…
Slow and easy with a great view… although I am not sure the driver said much to anyone but the horse…
We got down to the bottom of the hill and the main two streets just off the docks and as normal in most cruise landing points… it is covered by …
About as far as you could see on that main street were shops of souvenirs and jewelry shops… and it was crowded… but why not there were 4 big ships in port this day…
In the middle of all this I did find, but didn’t go in, a well known establishment..
We did a little shopping but Sherrie was rally worn down so we had to head back to the boat… and had to make multiple stops before we got there…
At one stop I looked out on the other side and ??? not sure if it was a fire, the storms or just derelict…?
and once back on the boat and to the cabin we had our daily visitor..
No idea who or what this was…
I spent some time out on the balcony watching the yachts and boats come and go. lot of big big charter boats here…
Now this one wasn’t all that big but 6 outboards required? I think they go fast…
Look close this is a Kansas boat or at least some well off Jayhawk… and they like to fish…
I throw this one in for three reasons… one: it was one of the big yachts and it is for hire…. two: when I zoomed in on the people on top one of them was a Jay Hawk (or wearing a Jay Hawk hat). who knew that Kansas people had that much money… three: the house in the back ground had to have been damaged by the hurricanes this year but has not been fixed up yet… the roof has multiple areas of missing shingles… so if your looking for a place to fix up in Nassau that might be the one…
We pulled out at about 4:30 after waiting on someone to get back on the boat… and sailed all night to be in Miami early the next morning and get off the boat. had to be out of the State rooms by 8:30am… so yes we were done, pretty much… although we had a long day of airport waiting ahead of us…
WD0AJG