Our next stop was the Royal Naval Dockyard which boasts a maritime museum, craft market, art/pottery center and many water sports. We decided to take a bus to this location and found the transportation system to be most interesting. There are no name signs indicating the bus stop locations, very few street signs, no traffic lights and 1 stop sign. Mopeds were everywhere and the bus zoomed past them on a very narrow highway. The bus stop [stripe polls- blue & pink color on top of polls indicate whether bus is going in or out of town- so you have to check for pink or blue at top of the poll] were in bushes on the side of the road, people would actually stand in the bushes waiting for the buses. I tried to figure out the schedule, but finally came to the conclusion that the buses come approximately every 15 minutes, no matter where your stop may be. We had to keep the bus window closed because the branches of trees hit the bus and would have certainly come into the window and knocked us out! It took 48 minutes to get to the Dockyard, closing my eyes most of the way and praying we didn't crash into anyone or anything on the way. We walked around the Dockyard going in and out of many of the little shops - all very quaint and unique to the area. We decided to have a beer at a pub and find out when the ferryboat would leave...we could not figure out the times from schedule that was posted ... MOST CONFUSING!! We were told it would leave at 5:15 and would cost $3.50 for the ride to Hamilton. At 5:10 Pat decided to visit the restroom, and of course the ferry arrived while he was gone. I asked the ferryboat staff to wait but they would not ... so I ran to find Pat, discovering him walking slowly back to the area... now he had to run to get on board and arrived as the gang plank was being closed. The ferry ride to Hamilton was very picturesque. We didn’t see many boats out on the water, which I found strange - because Bermuda is an island - and I would think boats should be the most popular mode of transportation. When we arrived in Hamilton there was a large cruise ship parked right at the main street in the city. It seem so strange to see a large cruise ship "parked" in town! The ferryboat we were on had to maneuver under and around the front of the cruise ship in order to dock. Hamilton is one of the largest towns in Bermuda and extremely clean. There were many stores, restaurants and pubs. We enjoyed a few hours of just walking around the area. Since we were getting very good a bus riding, we decided to take one back to the hotel! However, we could not find a bus stop! We stopped in a small store, got some drinks and asked where we could locate a bus going out of town. Apparently the street we were on only had buses coming into town, we had to walk two blocks uphill and walk another two blocks to the bus terminal. So off we went in search of the terminal ... we came to a place that had a few benches and a couple of buses ... this was the terminal! The bus did take us directly to the hotel and before we knew it ... dinner time had arrived. We had dinner at Spazzizi’s .. I had a vegetable platter [costing $17.00] the chef put all of the vegetables of the day on my plate, some looking like the grass and weeds from the garden. I have absolutely no idea what I was eating or even how to cut it! Pat had a steak and said it was excellent, I did not ask the price of that! We are averaging $75 per dinner and $30 for lunches, soda from the machine costs $1.25, drinks are about $7.00 each from the bar ... I wonder how much our food bill will come to at the end of this vacation! Bermuda is only 21 miles long and approximately 4 miles wide ... I believe I have walked at least 15 miles today, going up hill, down hill and around town! I find myself getting use to cars on the wrong side of the road ... will I be dangerous when returning home ... driving will seem so strange and who knows how I will do walking or running ... what is the right / wrong side of the road ... I am getting confused? Tuesday, July 1st I have completely lost track of what day it is. The time zone is an hour ahead of Philadelphia, but I did not change my watch. So Pat is the keeper of Bermuda Time and will continue to be on Philadelphia time, I hate losing that hour! I made my morning visit to the lobby and this time took a tray with me to bring back free juice and coffee. We decided to go try our hand at driving a moped. We plan to go to Gibbs Lighthouse and Dolphin Quest today. Having driven a motorcycle years ago .. I figured there would not be any problem with a little moped! We arrived at the moped rental area - which is on the hotel grounds. There were many people waiting to rent a moped and the woman in charge of the rentals was very brisk [to be kind] and shouted out orders on how to do this and that. I first knew I was in trouble when she yelled that my helmet was on backwards ... however, it was much more comfortable on my head that way .. how you can tell front from back is a big question! So I adjusted my helmet per her instructions and now it kept falling off my head either forwards or backwards, the strap did not help stabilize it either! I was standing next to my moped and she told me I was first to take a riding test. I am basically shy and do not like performing in front of people, but I got on the moped and trying to remember the break is on the left-hand side, gas on the right, where to put my feet and how to stay on the damn thing. The pressure was on .. The area for the test drive is a very small parking lot which is filled with mopeds and now an audience! I did okay until I had to make the sharp turns around the edges of the lot and found myself breaking more then driving. "Big Momma Moped" pulled me off to the side and jumped on my moped - barking out more instructions on how I should be driving. Well .. I flunked MOPED 101 ... I decided to go to the back of the line and wait until others did their test drive - maybe would try again and then maybe not! The next driver was Pat ... he drove to the edge of the lot and instead of slowing down at the turn, he went faster ... the moped went down on top of him and I just stood there in shock. Others around me ran to his aid, getting the bike off of his body. Luckily he only had a cut on his elbow and a few cuts on his legs ... but he flunked MOPED101 big time. We decided to take a safe taxi to our next stop .... Gibbs Lighthouse! The taxi ride was uneventful, but again beautiful scenery everywhere. The Lighthouse was built in 1846 and has 185 circular steps that took us up 362 feet above sea level. Each level had a landing which displayed information about the lighthouse. One landing had a listing of all the lighthouse keepers since 1846. At the top level we had to bend over to get through the extremely small doorway to the outside. The view was marvelous and we could see the entire island from just walking around the catwalk. Pat took some wonderful videos and I took some still pictures ... the view was well worth the walk up all those steps! Going back down the 185 steps made us hungry so we had lunch in the lighthouse tea room, which had a marvelous view of the ocean. I had a tuna salad sandwich [only $7.00!] and a fruit punch. We enjoyed a nice leisurely lunch and went outside to the parking area. There were numerous taxis upon our arrival. However, now there was not a taxi in sight! We returned to the tea room to ask how we could get a taxi. We were told to go down hill to the main street to the Henry the Eighth Pub [about a 1/2 mile] - there are always lots of taxi cabs there... NOT! I spotted a hotel up the road so we walked there and finally flagged a taxi. Bermuda Part 3 Return to Bermuda Vacation page 1 Visit My Other Pages St. Lucia - Enter here for a my story about this marvelous vacation! Taking A cruise - What not to do..I can laugh about it now now! The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe EVER! Learn About Auras A True Civil War Story My page of links to interesting sites - check out my wallpaper! Return to my home page Click here to VIEW or SIGN my Guest Book! I will respond to your guestbook entry within one week... Note: You can mark your entry as private. Your comments and questions are appreciated! Thank you for visiting my Webpage .. Please come back again!