Antigua and St. Maarten

Antigua (21^st April)

Today, after five days at sea, we arrived at our first port of call in the Caribbean. As we had visited Antigua before, we decided not to go on an excursion. Instead we stepped ashore and walked around Heritage Quay and Redcliffe Quay in St. John’s Harbour, right next to the cruise ship berth, where there were numerous shops selling everything from souvenirs, clothes and, of course, jewellery. Unfortunately, the jewellery shops were the only shops with air conditioning, so needless to say we spent most of our time in them. After a couple of hours window shopping (without making any purchases), we found a bar adjacent to our ship where we met some friends of ours for a beer or two. The weather today was up in the high twenties, and very humid. We went back to the ship for a light lunch, before returning to our bar which had free WiFi to Skype Nicola and Andrew. It was exciting to see our grandson Cian, and of course both of our children on the webcam. We again returned to the ship and changed for a “smart casual” dinner before going on deck for the sail away party.

St. Maarten (22^nd April)

We arrived in the half French and half Dutch port of St. Maarten on Good Friday, where the weather was again very hot and very humid. We went ashore and caught a Taxi Ferry from the ship into Philipsburg, the capital on the Dutch side. Unfortunately for Doreen being Good Friday ALL the shops were SHUT!!! However, after walking around the shopping area we found a very nice beachside bar, where we consoled ourselves with a beer or two. We then returned to the ship via the Taxi Ferry and when Geoffrey felt he could relax (all shops shut), Doreen managed to find three jewelers open in the port area. All in all a very pleasant day followed by a relaxing drink in the Orchid Bar, on board ship, prior to going to dinner.