Dec 25 Christmas St. Barts

 Christmas in St. Barts, a quaint little French city that Santa has given many presents to.  Except for a reasonable airport.

St. Barts is a tender port, so whether you're on a cruise ship or a mega-yacht, you have to take a tender into the harbor.  If you're a small yacht, but still rich, you can tie up in the inner harbor.

These were are neighbors when we dropped anchor.  There were similar, or bigger, yachts on the other side of the ship.  To separate the mega-rich and their yachts from the merely rich, look for the onboard helicopter. Gossip columns had it that Jeff Bezos and Heidi Klum were in town (but not together).

The cheaper anchorage

Our tender dropped us off in the inner harbor.  Not much traffic -- it was Christmas.

Everything goes uphill quickly from the harbor

It was about 80F as we walked around in the morning

No stores were open.  Only 650 possible purchasers, even if it was a premium cruise ship, was not enough to disturb the holiday for the French.  But the cafes were open, and looked to be inhabited by locals.  I could tell because most of them were smoking.

This was in the window of a closed shop, hence all of the reflections.  I don't know if this was a picture, painting, or something created by AI.  That is the St. Barts airport in the picture, but the plane had definitely not taken off from there.  I'm guessing that if it is a picture, there was an air show and the runway served as the center line for the show.  Look at all the cars parked to the left of the runway along the road there.

If you're not familiar with the St. Barts airport, just find some videos on YouTube. The runway is steeply downhill and the approach goes over a ridge that has a traffic circle on it.  Cars don't enter that traffic circle when planes are approaching because the planes go over it with 10' or less of clearance. A WW2 P40 would not be landing, or taking off, from that runway.

The priests were ringing the bells summoning parishioners for Christmas services at the Anglican Church.

A short walk from the inner harbor is Shell Beach.

It's not a big beach, but there were a number of locals there (more than in the church).  It's also popular with the yachts.  We did see a small inflatable deliver some people from a yacht, although I think they were heading into town. There was a cafe right on the beach.

We passed the Catholic Church on the way back just as people were leaving.

Here's a parishioner walking away from church, VERY SLOWLY. He was about a foot in length and seemed well fed.

Here's our tender back to the yacht. We have a skilled and friendly staff running it, always important on a yacht (or cruise ship).

Not ours, but looks almost as big.

A traditional Christmas dinner was served in the buffet.  Carved turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and all the rest. Or, lobster and steak if that's your preference.  I'm not sure about the spelling on the Christmas cake here, but it's the thought that counts.  And the taste, and the cake was very good.

Dec 24 Antigua

Since we've been to Antigua many times before, we selected another excursion. Today's (Christmas Eve!) adventure is a Photographic Tour with a guide who is going to tell us how to compose pictures.  We'll visit three photo worthy sites and he'll offer suggestions and comments.

This was our guide.  He makes his living on the island as a commercial photographer.  And a snorkel and dive instructor.  And a tour guide.  And probably shiatsu massage instructor.  His camera of choice was an iPhone, ostensibly because he could then use the display to show his composition. He would show the group his photo of choice and then the group would line up to take the exact same picture.  We didn't.  All of the pictures below were NOT approved by our tour guide, who was a nice guy.  Very island. 

Our first stop was Fort James, guarding the harbor where we were docked.  Old buildings and cannon.

This looks like an opportunity for something...

The second stop was a historic sugar mill. This is another island that subsisted on sweet sugar cane (and now relies on sour tourists) so there were mills all over the island.

Devil's Bridge is a natural feature replicated across the globe wherever erosion has created a pocket or hole in the coastline.  When a wave arrives it funnels into the pocket and explodes upward. This one is unique in that there is a bridge across the inlet to the pocket.. Risk takers go to the lower level and across the bridge.  I stayed on the upper level.

Using my camera's continuous mode, I shot a bunch of pictures every time a good size wave approached. Out of the more than 300 pictures, here's the biggest and best.

Finally, at Long Bay Beach, there's a carving planted into the sand.  The beach was wonderful, but Antigua claims 365 of them, and they're all wonderful. I can see why you'd become a professional instructor here.

In the shops by the dock.

Back aboard, the various departments of the ship were given the challenge to create Christmas trees unique to their group. This is from the printers, and "leaves" are copies of the daily newsletter distributed on the ship.

From housekeeping.

From the bar service

Finally, it's Christmas Eve and the entertainment group went through the ship caroling. They didn't know my request, "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas".  Not surprising since Eddie had to read the lyrics to "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer" from his cheat sheet as the group was singing.

Dec 23 Barbados

We've been to Barbados several times before, so we picked an excursion to show us some places we hadn't seen yet. (Oeania's new product, Simply More, "gives" you money to spend on excursions.  So we had to take about 3 excursions on this trip or forfeit the money.)

Breakfast at Terrace outside

Oceania's newest ship, Vista, pulls into the berth next to ours, spoiling our view.  Who do we call to get this taken care of?  We'll be sailing on Vista this summer if all goes according to plan. Such a BIG ship -- 1200 passengers compared to our 650. 

Tour of Barbados

This was the terminal for a small train used in the sugar cane industry.

The beach at Bathsheba

Sugar cane is no longer the big business it once was.  Tourists (me) are the big business now.

St. Johns Church

Intricately carved pulpit

Subterranean mausoleums here in the cemetery.

A refreshment stop offering rum punch (I went with just punch) was indeed quite refreshing.  In the back room they were setting up for a wedding reception, someone getting married just before Christmas.