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Published: January 11th 2018
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We visited Barbados but for us it was a sea day. We slept in, enjoyed coffee and juice in the room, had a leisurely breakfast and headed to the aft pool area. There are very comfy couches and chairs there and because it was a port day is was not crowded. We read there and probably napped a minute of two and then headed to the spa for our massages. Later it was time for happy hour, then dinner and a walk around the ship before bed. Just a wonderful lazy day.
Next day we visited Martinique. Believe it or not the main attraction in Fort-de-France Martinique was The library. We decided to just wander the town and see what was on offer. Our first stop was the Cathedral, not to be confused with St. Patrick’s, but quite interesting architecture. Like many building in the islands it was rebuilt after a fire destroyed the original structure. Earthquakes, fire and hurricanes took there toll on most of the structures from the 1600 and 1700 hundreds. What remains is from the 1800 hundred’s to today. Christmas decorations were still up.
Next we headed to the library and
what a beautiful structure it was, I snuck a photo of the old books on the second floor, accessed only by a narrow circular staircase that was closed off. The were a few books and a reference room where people were studying. As you would expect most of the books were in French, the national language. This has to be the most beautiful library I have ever seen and well worth a mention in the tour guides.
It was now getting on noon so we headed into a cafe for a cold drink. The concept of island time probably began here as we patiently waited for service. Then I went up to the counter where the fellow carefully wrote down my order on a scrap of paper and immediately forgot about it. Since we were not in a hurry we sort of enjoyed the show and finally got our drinks. I had a gin and tonic and it was served in a water glass with a little ice and a lot of gin. The tonic was in a bottle on the side. I had to be careful not to drink all the gin or I would have
crawled back to the ship.
Just as we approached the pier we felt a raindrop but made it on board before the rains came. Like all tropical showers is lasted a few minutes and then the skies were blue again and if you were in the right place at the right time you would be treated to a rainbow, or perhaps two,
There is a new venue on HAL called the Lincoln Center Stage. We went to a performance there billed as “From Bernstein to Buble”. The group, two violins, cello, viola and piano were very good and the music varied from show tunes to jazz to classical. Bev stoically sat through it though violins set her teeth on edge.
The show was jugglers and we decided to give it a miss. The report was that they were just learning their craft so we didn’t miss much.
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