Day 2 – Friday, February 28, 2025 – Bridgetown, Barbados
Great night sleep last night! We both woke up refreshed and ready to go. Grabbed a quick breakfast, which was a great buffet spread, and then changed into bathing suits and went for a long walk on the beach. The beaches here are pretty rocky, so there are only a few spots where you can get in safely. There was a group that was surfing, and the waves were perfect! Next to our hotel is the Hilton so we kept walking to see how far we could go.
We came upon St. Anne’s Fort, which is part of the Barbados Garrison. The fort has been there since 1705 and today it is home of the Barbados Defense Force, including the Barbados Coast Guard. Daily, you can hear them practicing with their firearms. Apparently, it houses an impressive gun collection and an Elizabethan cannon of 1600, which is the only one known to exist in the world.
We kept walking and eventually had to cut through one of the hotels and wound up on the street. We were looking for a place we had found to grab a bite of lunch, but it was closed. We headed back towards our hotel and John got in the water where it was safe and he said it was wonderful. I chose to sit on the sand and soak up some rays as it was about a 15 minute walk back to our hotel and we didn’t have any towels.
We washed up, had lunch from the buffet and then sat for a while enjoying the sun and people watching. Ramon, who coordinates activities, approached us about playing a game or two while a young local was entertaining us singing and playing on her saxophone. One of the games was musical cups, which is just like musical chairs except you walk around a table while music plays and once it stops, you have to grab a cup. There were six guys, including John, and he made it to round three before being bested. The winner won a bottle of sparkling wine, and he was kind enough to share it with the other guys who played.
We still had a few hours before the rest of the gang was due to arrive, so we went and checked out the Barbados Museum & Historical Society. It is in Barbados’ UNESCO World Heritage Property of Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison and is housed in 19th-century military prison buildings. After going through the museum, we headed back to the hotel and right around the corner is the Barbados Turf Club, which annually hosts the Barbados Gold Cup on the first Saturday of March. We plan to hang around tomorrow and hopefully see a race or two before we head to the port to catch the ship. It has been the home of horse racing in Barbados since 1845. We saw some of the horses while walking back from the museum and they were beautiful!
As we were walking back, Catherine got up with us to let us know that her and Scott had checked in and would meet us at the bar for a drink. We last saw them when we were in London in July 2024. It’s always fun meeting up with friends from different places! About an hour later, Marguerite and Joe showed up and it was like we never skipped a beat with each other. It had been a year since seeing Marguerite and Joe, though it sure didn’t feel like it. We had a ball catching up, planning future travel together, and celebrating Joe’s birthday. We enjoyed a great dinner and a celebratory drink to Joe and then all called it a night.
We check out tomorrow at noon, so the plan is to meet up for breakfast, go over some details about our cruise and then head to get a spot across the street from the horse track. We have a pickup time of 3:30 pm to take us all to the terminal port to get on the ship. Can’t wait!
