We arrived at the Elbow Beach Hotel at around noon. Our room would not be available until 3 PM, so we decided to tour the grounds. The hotel sits on 55 acres of land, with beautiful flowers and trees everywhere. Everything was either up hill or down hill!
We walked down toward the beach and stopped at a restaurant on the beach for lunch. Pat had a $10 hamburger and I had some onion rings, we each had a soda .. the bill was over $20.00. Since everything in Bermuda is imported, food and drinks are very expensive... I had visions of spending $500 for food alone during our 4 day vacation. We kept walking back up hill to check with the hotel desk to see if our room was ready yet, going back down hill to continue our tour, we didn’t get into the room until about 2:45...
It was well worth the wait! Our room was on the third floor, with a balcony that overlooked the ocean and pool area. The view was spectacular .... you could see forever .... The room was large and very comfortable. We unpacked and put on our bathing suits and walked down the hill to the ocean.
The beach was beautiful ... the sand is actually PINK...it felt like satin on my feet.
We went to Ondines in the hotel, their most formal dining room. The food was excellent, but again very expensive. Feeling very tired, we decided to go back to the room around 10 PM for some beauty rest and prepare for our first full day in Bermuda.
At 10 AM, the bellman summoned a "taxi" and we were off to the riding stables!
The stables and horses were well cared for and the staff was very helpful and friendly. My horse was named Clipper - he was very gentle and dependable. Pat's horse was somewhat stubborn and wanted to eat his way to wherever we went. Our guide was a young man who was very knowledgeable about the area. Four of us started our ride [see picture] on a very narrow path, going almost straight uphill behind the stables and through a jungle like area. The path was covered with rocks and dirt. Thankfully my horse was very precise on his maneuvering over the large rocks and holes everywhere in the ground. We ventured onto the highway, our guide saying just to hold up one hand toward the traffic and it will stop for the horses. [Living in Philadelphia, where cars will not stop for any reason ... having a car stop to let us pass was something that was hard to believe.]
We rode for a short distance on the highway, keeping to the left-hand side of and praying that a moped did not run into us. Leaving the road we started down a very steep hill going toward the ocean. Again, my horse was extremely cautious going down this hill, made up of mostly rocks, holes and dirt.
Our next sight were the beaches and ocean, with volcanic rocks jutting out of the ocean...the view took my breath away! Children and adults walking on the beach or "climbing" the volcanic rocks shouted out and waved to us as we continued our ride. It brought a smile to my face when the children got so excited about seeing horses. Pat was the last rider and some of the people we passed called him the lone ranger because he was way behind our group. We stopped a number of times and I was able to take some pictures of the areas.
There were very few times when we were on flat ground, it seems that most of Bermuda is hills, so we were either going up or down some very narrow path and could not travel fast. My horse only lost his footing once going down a very long rocky path... I think Clipper was more nervous than I was. I figured he knew what he was doing, and let him do it. I praised him a lot for getting us up and down some incredible passages. I would have liked to ride for the entire day, but we had much to do and see on the island of Bermuda.
We decided to take a bus ride back to the hotel, but forgot to ask where to catch the bus. Our hotel staff told us the stop was across the street from the riding stables, but we could see no signs. We stood for a while and saw a bus pass us by, so we walked back in the direction the bus was going and actually found a bus stop. Just as we arrived at the stop, a young man who lives in Bermuda came to wait for a bus and told us about the island and the bus system. Apparently there are polls at each stop, these polls are pink and blue striped. If pink is the top stripe that means you are going into town and if blue is the top stripe you are going out of town. We talked about the island and found out that Bermuda only allows 1 car per household and no cars are rented to tourists. There is no income tax in Bermuda and housing costs are in the millions. He asked us where we were headed and we told him the staff at the Elbow Beach told us to get off at the Paget Shopping district, get a transfer for the #7 bus and it would take us right to the hotel. He said these buses do not stop at that location, however if we got off at the red building [near the post office] in Paget we could walk to our hotel. We arrived at the stop, but there were a couple of red buildings [one was more orange then red] and we were not sure which way to go. Pat asked a post office worker that was riding a bike which was the best route to the hotel. After getting instructions we started our trek back to the hotel for lunch.
[Picture at Left .. Footpath at Elbow Bech Hotel]
There are very few side walks in Bermuda and we were forced to walk on the "highway". Our walk was actually a few miles and some of it up hill and some down hill. We were most pleased to finally see the hotel and get some much needed drinks and food.
We ate at Spazzizi's restaurant in the hotel and I had a $13.00 pizza [which is a pizza for 1] and Pat had a club sandwich that cost about the same. Again, the feeling of spending $500 for food alone came into my mind.
Return to my home page
Click here to VIEW or SIGN my Guest Book!
