Saint Martin

It is dawn, we have docked in St. Martin… It is warm, it is sunny… the sea is a bit rough… There are two more ships headed in… I can see them on the horizon… It is Thursday (I know because the carpet in the elevator says so…) It is St Martin’s Day… a holiday in St Martin (who knew?) and there was concern aboard the ship, that the holiday, and related holiday store closures might hinder our shopping opportunities… We have been told (by our “Port Shopping Ambassadors” (yes, the ship has shopping ambassadors, two of them)) that the government has relented, and is allowing stores to open, on this most important holiday (St Martin’s Day, in St Martin…) so we can shop!!! Get the credit cards ready… we are coming to support the local (as in local stores owned by multi-national corporations catering to tourists…) economy…

We rise, we dress, we go to breakfast (food is important… this is, after all a cruise…) Soon we will go ashore… As we get ready to go to breakfast, the Freedom of the Seas is docking next to us… it is huge… our ship carries 2,100 passengers and 900 crew… we carry 18 life boats… the Freedom of the Seas carries 30 life boats… she carries nearly twice the passengers… she is huge… She, and her 4,500 passengers are sharing the island with us… and there is a German cruise ship too… smaller… but still, another cruise ship with more passengers… this isn’t a bid boat day here… so with the Germans, presumably there will be “German tourist by the pool making pyramids and scaring the children…“ (Apologies to Monty Python…) Watney’s Red Barrel Beer may be involved… although I didn’t see is for sail on the island… but it’s a steep and slippery slope.

Eventually we walked off the ship… to the official cruise port, “Harbor Village” with its Duty free shops, its safe shops and security… We bought wrist bands for the water taxi, the yellow water taxi… and rode the yellow water taxi to town pier, and the center of town, truly the center of town… we walked off through the thong of folks offering taxi rides and tours of Orient beach (the beach where the cruise passengers, mostly over 50, many older, many a bit overweight go to see naked people, and in some cases get naked… We knew better, we stayed away…) We chose to spend the day exploring Phillipsburg. Phillipsburg is a tourist town, a cruise ship town, for better or worse… but it is a Caribbean town, with a wonderful beach, blue water all framed by green hills… it is a Dutch town, and there is evidence if you look… evidence beyond the Diamonds International, Tanzanite International, Diamonds International Watch & Design, Del Sol or Little Switzerland store… At least the Guavaberry Emporium has a local connection… (We decline the invitation to visit Diamonds International, etc… but we do shop)

We walked about… we found a local chocolate shop… with really interesting chocolates… I particularly liked the red pepper chocolate… (hint, if you work at Google with Tina, you may want to walk by her desk on Monday… there may be chocolates, chocolates from St Martin… “dangerous chocolates” (there were safe chocolates too, but who cares) Chocolates from the Belgian Chocolate Box, by Beatrix… you can visit her on Facebook)

We continued to walk… little by little we found the old Dutch city… it’s still here… just under the surface… overwhelmed by the cruise tourists… If you stopped to look there were finches, colorful finches, in the trees… the old Catholic church backs up to the beach… further west there is more old than new, more real than “cruise”… I think we found at least a little of that older place. I took photos… eventually when I find a fast internet connection I will post them (Cruise ships have internet, but not fast internet, and particularly, not cheap internet)

We found another gift for Steph (aka “Dear daughter”, home with the animals, the menagerie) This not the unwanted tee shirt… It is something different… it will be a surprise…

We watched a couple of parades in celebration of St Martin’s Day… one, escorted by the police, a parade of motorcycles… Harleys and such… many, many motorcycles, more than I thought the Island might host… loud, noisy, all celebrating… followed a little while later by the unauthorized parade, a car, speakers blazing, followed by a mass of bicycles…

Having shopped, having explored, having witnessed and cheered the local celebration we went in search of beer… preferably on the beach, with shade (Tina’s condition) and we found it… (finding beer on the beach on St Martin is not a difficult task… finding the “best spot” to have beer on the beach on St Martin is a little harder) We chose the “Blue Bitch” bar… It is not as derogatory a name as it sounds… all over Phillipsburg we saw dogs, many female, many with evidence of having given birth, several of that color that Steinbeck called Bleu, or blue… I suspect the bar’s name is a reference to these dogs, as well as to the blue dog art of New Orleans, and only peripherally to difficult women… (I don’t know any difficult women, but I understand that they exist) They offered beer, they also offered food, but we didn’t partake (of the food)… they had a live band performing across the walkway… they had a 3 year old dancer… the cutest thing on earth that day… we sat, we drank, and I bought a tee shirt… a pink tee shirt… from the Blue Bitch Bar…

We are passing through a squall… at tropical rain storm at sea… it’s not rough… just a heavy rain… the transition from rain to calm, with broken clouds and sun is sudden, a wall… clearly defined… we are at sea in the tropics… it is wonderful…

Back to our narrative… Back to the pier, back to the water taxi, the yellow water taxi… back to the ship… to our refuge… We ate (by now you should understand that this is a cruise ship… a place to eat 14 times a day…) we sat in the sun… we went downstairs to our room, changed and went to the thallaso therapy pool… (a fourteen dollar word for a high tech hot tub, although the ship has traditional hot tubs too) back in the room now… drinking (another “core” cruise ship activity) and relaxing, and downloading the photos from today from the camera… and writing this… Tina is reading in bed… she just broke her wine glass… she does that sometimes… it’s a gift… (she, Tina, once spilled wine on the same waitress twice at one dinner… she has the gift…)

Tonight we have a cocktail party with the captain… (more drinks) another dinner… (more food) then likely after dinner drinks… (that would be more, more drinks…) then to bed… and sleep before a relaxing sea day tomorrow… It is wonderful to be on vacation.

More, later... Randy