Our next stop was Dolphin Quest at the Southampton Princess Hotel. The dolphin area is on a 3 acre lagoon and allows visitors to work/play with the dolphins. We discovered people are picked by lottery and would have to put our name in the box for the next day’s event. It would cost $150 per couple if we were chosen. Since we would be leaving Bermuda tomorrow, we did not participate. However, we walked down to the area and watched the children play with the dolphins. It was amazing to see how the dolphins interacted with the trainers and children.
The walk along this beach was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Rocks made of lava were out in the ocean and some of the most unusual rocks could be seen along the beach, actually took my breath away!
After leaving the dolphin area we walked back to where the taxi left us off and you can guess it ... not a taxi to be found! So we walked some more and found an area with many taxis and got a ride back to our hotel.
Pat was very upset about flunking Moped 101 and decided to go back and try again. I decided to run through the 55 acres at Elbow Beach. So off we went in different directions. I ran down many steep hills and got on the beach and ran the full length. Having never run on a beach, it was a different experience but quite enjoyable. The beach is about 1 mile long from end to end and I had to watch the waves as they tried to over take my steps. After running the beach I walked up the steps and decided to run the rest of the roads around the hotel’s property. I must say that I ended up walking up the steepest hills, but ran about 50 minutes total. On one of the roads where I was running Pat came zooming by on his Moped with a big smile on his face ...he passed Moped 101! I saw him a number of times on my run and it seemed like he was doing okay on the bike.
I went back to the room and took a nice long bath and dressed for the beach or swimming pool ... did not know which I wanted to do. This is such a relaxing place, where you can do many different things ... but at a leisurely pace. Pat arrived in our room and we decided to go to the swimming pool this time. The water was cold and I just walked around in the shallow end of the pool for a while. I relaxed on a lounge chair and felt at peace. There was much activity around the pool, staff setting up tables and chairs looked like the makings of a poolside barbecue!
We decided to eat outside at this pool party and made dinner reserverations. It was an all you can eat [only $69.00 for 2 plus drinks] ... how much have we spent for food so far??? There were all kinds of salads, fish, steak, hamburgers, desserts, etc. Pat filled up 3 plates of food, plus dessert ... and was the last to leave the area. The staff was amazed at how much he could eat and I was appalled! But he was enjoying himself and he did have lots of exercise in the last few days. After feeding our faces [I only had one plate of food, plus a small piece of chocolate cake] we went back to our room and relaxed. Tomorrow we will be leaving Bermuda and the time has flown by.
Wednesday, July 2nd
Pat went down for free coffee this morning while I packed our suitcases for the return to Philadelphia. We had to check out by 11 AM and our plane does not leave until 5 PM. It seemed much faster packing for our return even adding one suitcase for the gifts and souvenirs. I went down to the lobby and finalized the bill ... Only spent $407.00 on food and other things ... I would have guessed it to be a lot more!
We had our luggage stored at the hotel and took a taxi back to Hamilton for more shopping and lunch. There were 2 large cruise ships docked in town this time and lots of people on the streets. We saw the first police man of our visit, and he was in a “booth” directing traffic - no traffic lights or stop signs, he just waved the cars, mopeds and horse drawn carriages through the area. What amazed me, if we walked into the street ... all traffic would stop in both directions ... in Philadelphia you would have been a target and the drivers would gain points for trying to run you over!
Our lunch was at Flanagan’s Irish Pub - a very nice, comfortable place to eat and have a beer. I will not mention the price of the food, but it was reasonable for Bermuda. It was time to return to our hotel and meet our transportation to the airport. After leaving Flanagan’s we went in search of a taxi ... I think we have this almost figured out now that we are leaving. Things are not always where you think they should be and searching and locating transportation has become a skill. We are even starting to recognize landmarks and know where we are!
A large bus arrives at the Elbow Beach Hotel to pick up approximately 20 people and their luggage. How they fit everything and everyone on was something to see. Our trip to the airport took about 30 minutes or so and we went into the terminal seeing long lines at the counter area we needed to go through. Apparently there was no one on duty to process our tickets and paperwork. We stood in line for over 45 minutes before anyone arrived behind the counters and the plane was going to leave shortly.
We were finally processed and found our way to the “gates” trying to locate where the Mexicana airplane was going to be boarded. Luckily this is a very very small airport and we were given conflicting information ... we kept walking around and around, not finding any gate with Mexicana flight information. We kept passing other people that we arrived with and they were walking around and around too. I believe we made 4 or 5 complete “laps” of the airport when finally a few minutes before we were to board, we discovered the proper gate. We went through the airport and outside walking about a 1/2 mile to the plane.
Take off was only delayed about 20 minutes because people were still trying to find the plane. Our trip back to Philadelphia was excellent, only one screaming child! We had chicken and rice for dinner, they offered lasagna too, but we didn’t know how that would taste. I had a Coke instead of tomato juice - remembering that hot stuff I was served on the way to Bermuda.
We arrived in Philadelphia and our luggage was immediately ready ... a shock! Next we had to call for a van to take us to the car park area. We got on the wrong van and almost ended up in a car rental area, but jumped off at the last minute, removing all our luggage from the van's rack.
My car was ready and waiting and even had been washed ... now all we had to do was to remember to drive on the correct side of the highway.
The trip to Bermuda was a wonderful experience and I would love to go again. It may sound [from the above] that we ate our way through Bermuda and not much else! However, we saw many beautiful sights and met so many wonderful people. I walked enough miles to make up for a month of exercise ... and just maybe when I visit Bermuda again I will take up Moped 102 and see if I can graduate!
If you ever visit Bermuda ... may you have a wonderful vacation, and I hope this story will give you some helpful information about this beautiful island! ...
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Our next stop was Dolphin Quest at the Southampton Princess Hotel. The dolphin area is on a 3 acre lagoon and allows visitors to work/play with the dolphins. We discovered people are picked by lottery and would have to put our name in the box for the next day’s event. It would cost $150 per couple if we were chosen. Since we would be leaving Bermuda tomorrow, we did not participate. However, we walked down to the area and watched the children play with the dolphins. It was amazing to see how the dolphins interacted with the trainers and children.
The walk along this beach was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Rocks made of lava were out in the ocean and some of the most unusual rocks could be seen along the beach, actually took my breath away!
After leaving the dolphin area we walked back to where the taxi left us off and you can guess it ... not a taxi to be found! So we walked some more and found an area with many taxis and got a ride back to our hotel.
Pat was very upset about flunking Moped 101 and decided to go back and try again. I decided to run through the 55 acres at Elbow Beach. So off we went in different directions. I ran down many steep hills and got on the beach and ran the full length. Having never run on a beach, it was a different experience but quite enjoyable. The beach is about 1 mile long from end to end and I had to watch the waves as they tried to over take my steps. After running the beach I walked up the steps and decided to run the rest of the roads around the hotel’s property. I must say that I ended up walking up the steepest hills, but ran about 50 minutes total. On one of the roads where I was running Pat came zooming by on his Moped with a big smile on his face ...he passed Moped 101! I saw him a number of times on my run and it seemed like he was doing okay on the bike.
Pat arrived in our room and we decided to go to the swimming pool this time. The water was cold and I just walked around in the shallow end of the pool for a while. I relaxed on a lounge chair and felt at peace. There was much activity around the pool, staff setting up tables and chairs looked like the makings of a poolside barbecue!
We decided to eat outside at this pool party and made dinner reserverations. It was an all you can eat [only $69.00 for 2 plus drinks] ... how much have we spent for food so far??? There were all kinds of salads, fish, steak, hamburgers, desserts, etc. Pat filled up 3 plates of food, plus dessert ... and was the last to leave the area. The staff was amazed at how much he could eat and I was appalled! But he was enjoying himself and he did have lots of exercise in the last few days. After feeding our faces [I only had one plate of food, plus a small piece of chocolate cake] we went back to our room and relaxed. Tomorrow we will be leaving Bermuda and the time has flown by.
Pat went down for free coffee this morning while I packed our suitcases for the return to Philadelphia. We had to check out by 11 AM and our plane does not leave until 5 PM. It seemed much faster packing for our return even adding one suitcase for the gifts and souvenirs. I went down to the lobby and finalized the bill ... Only spent $407.00 on food and other things ... I would have guessed it to be a lot more!
A large bus arrives at the Elbow Beach Hotel to pick up approximately 20 people and their luggage. How they fit everything and everyone on was something to see. Our trip to the airport took about 30 minutes or so and we went into the terminal seeing long lines at the counter area we needed to go through. Apparently there was no one on duty to process our tickets and paperwork. We stood in line for over 45 minutes before anyone arrived behind the counters and the plane was going to leave shortly.
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