This morning, we were up at 7.30am as usual to find ourselves docked in the port of St. John’s, Antigua. We did not have an excursion booked until this afternoon, so we had the morning at our leisure. Antigua is usually a very busy port, with several large cruise ships in at a time, so we were surprised to see that the Queen Elizabeth was the only one today. It was, I suppose, the tail end of the Caribbean season for cruising; most ships will start to move to Europe as the weather becomes warmer and the days longer.
We decided to go to the Pavilion Wellness Café and enjoy a healthy breakfast, al fresco. From where we were sitting, we could hear the rhythmic thump thump thump of a bass soca beat, and we wondered whether they’d sent out a local band to greet the visitors from the ship. The beat was very catchy; it was the sort of music that just makes you want to get up and dance. 🙂
After breakfast, we headed for the topmost deck to look at the view and see where the music was coming from. We were surprised to see that it came from the other side of the bay! There was a makeshift stage containing the performers, as well as some huge speakers to project the sounds. Crowds of local people milled around, some joining in with the singing and dancing.
We decided to go ashore and enjoy the vibes. Disembarking, we set off along the famous Heritage Quay, which contained its usual array of shops, bars, casinos and the ubiquitous Diamonds International. Strolling along, we heard the evocative sounds of a steel band, and we stopped to watch them play for a while.
We decided to look for a Geocache, and saw that there was one just over 300 metres away; the hint told us it was near the “Bird Monument”. We kept walking, following the directions given by the app, until it said we were only about 25m away. I was looking for something that looked like a bird monument, as in an avian creature. However, the penny dropped when we saw a huge bust of a man who was proclaimed to be the “Father of the Nation”, Sir Vere Cornwall Bird. 🙂
The bust was in a colourful park with a fence all around it. The app told us we had to look under the ‘main’ tree, so we saw a tree that was larger and lusher than the others, so we made our way towards it. However, it was fenced off, and the gates to the park were locked, so we couldn’t get close enough to search for the geocache.
Afterwards, as we walked along the boardwalk, I was able to get a good photo of the Queen Elizabeth. As we only had pounds and US dollars with us, we thought it might be a good idea to get some Eastern Caribbean dollars out of an ATM; Trevor had spotted a sign saying such a machine could be found in the casino.
We therefore went inside, located the machine and Trevor inserted his card, asking for 100 dollars. However, the machine dispensed US dollars! It also cost us eight bucks for the withdrawal! So now we had loads of US dollars; we hoped the little local bars would accept it; most places did.
As we walked along, the sun grew higher and the weather hotter. It was only 10 o’clock but already it was a scorcher. We decided to explore the area further from the ‘touristy’ part and find a bar for a cold beer! Usually we find that the bars the locals use are a quarter of the price (or less) than they are in the tourist traps.
As we walked along, we had to be careful on the uneven pavement and potpoled roads. The pavements had metal gratings on them at intervals, undoubtedly to catch the rainwater when there was a heavy tropical storm.
As I walked along, I stepped onto one of the gratings to discover it was not metal at all; it was plastic, and sun-baked brittle plastic at that. It crumbed under the weight of my foot as I pitched forward onto my knees on the hot pavement. Ouch! For a while I sat there, my knees and hands stinging. There was no blood, and nothing appeared to be broken, but I was just a little shaken. A couple of local guys came by and Trevor and one of the guys helped me to my feet. I had somehow hurt my lower back when I’d fallen, so I hoped it wouldn’t spoil our holiday.
We decided to go back to a little bar/café that we’d passed earlier on, as we’d noticed it was advertising rum punch. Now, you cannot come to the Caribbean without sampling the local rum punch, it’s the law or something. 🙂
We each ordered a beaker of the punch and took them outside in the shade to enjoy. A friend of ours back home, Harry, loves the Caribbean and loves rum, and as it was his birthday today we decided to send him a photo of us enjoying our rum punch, in front of a sign saying “Antigua Cruise Port”.
We enjoyed the rum punch so much we decided to have another one! While we sat there, a sudden heavy shower took us by surprise, so we took our punches inside the café, where there was one table and a couple of chairs. However, the lady came over after a short while and said we were not to use that table, so we went back outside again; luckily the rain had stopped by now.
We decided to go back on board and have some lunch before our tour this afternoon. We had to meet shoreside at 1.05pm for the “Antigua Express” coach tour. On the way, I got some great bow shots of the wonderful Queen Elizabeth.
After a light lunch in the Lido self-service place we returned to 8025, where I took a couple of Ibuprofen tablets to help alleviate the pain in my lower back caused by my fall. Then we got ready to disembark again in time for our tour.
We made our way to the coaches, which were not the big full-size coaches, more like large mini-buses. We took our seats and the coach set off along the rugged coastline, giving us amazing views here and there of the Caribbean sea with its many pleasure craft bobbing about.
Our tour was to take us all around the island, but the “express” part of it meant that, unfortunately, we wouldn’t have many stops. The coach wended its way up the zig-zagging steep roads, flanked with lush greenery and many little colourful wooden houses in among the trees.
Soon we arrived at the famous Nelson’s Dockyard, always worth a visit. However, the bus just pulled up outside and then turned around to come away again. That was a bit like the Bullseye TV show effect; “look at what you could have won…”. We didn’t see the point of us going all the way to Nelson’s Dockyard if we weren’t going to go in! 🙁
We continued our drive around the place, the bus stopping briefly at any viewing points that were worth a photo. However, we were always on the wrong side of the bus in addition to not being able to alight to take a proper photo. We saw people standing up on the left side of the bus and pointing their mobile phone cameras at the scene beyond the window, oblivious to the reflections and other distractions in the coach window, which they wouldn’t notice until they looked at their photos afterwards.
It was now time for a rest and refreshments stop, and we pulled up at a large white building that used to be a government building but was now a small residential place. As we alighted from the coach, we were proffered trays of cold rum punch with plenty of ice, and we each took a beaker. 🙂
We made our way up some wooden stairs and along a landing to where we had been told we could find the restrooms; while we waited in the short queue we enjoyed the views across the green countryside all the way to the sparkling sea in the distance.
Once I’d finished my rum punch, I went to use the loo and was surprised that it was actually in the ensuite bathroom of a twin-bedded bedroom. Further down the landing we saw that one of the other rooms was in use.
I then made my way back downstairs again and outside, where I saw that Trevor had managed to procure another rum punch! Other people had taken the beakers onto the coach, so I went back into the building to see if there was any left. There was indeed one beaker left on the tray, but this was one of the alcohol-free punches so I had dipped out! At least it was cold and refreshing, and I drank it on the coach going back.
On the journey, Trevor and I recognised some of the places we had been to on previous visits, such as the Antigua and Barbuda Museum, which was very interesting indeed.
It was around 3.30pm when we returned to the Queen Elizabeth and made our way up the gangplank and up to 8025. We decided to have a power nap before getting showered and shampooed and ready for dinner at 5.30pm. We had since found out that second-sitting, which used to be at 8.30pm (which we considered too late for a big meal) had also been brought forward to 7.45pm, so we decided that, on future Cunard cruises, we would book second-sitting as 5.30pm is far too early – it’s tea-time, not dinner time!
Down in the Britannia dining room we discovered that table #503 already had two of our table mates sitting there; this time Alice was accompanied by her husband Mervyn. We all exchanged pleasantries and chatted about our day while we perused the menu.
Just before six o’clock, we noticed that the Queen Elizabeth was underway again, and we watched as she glided along, the westering sun just above the distant mountains filling the dining room with a golden glow. It was too nice a view to resist, so I took out my phone and snapped a photo through the window, which forms the featured image for today. 🙂
We enjoyed another delicious meal with excellent service from our waiter Ricky. I washed mine down with cold water and a chilled glass of rosé wine. The food has been very good on this cruise so far, despite some negative reviews I had recently read on Cruise Critic.
After dinner, Trevor and I went along to the Queen’s Room for a short while to watch the dancing. It was strange, because rather than everyone doing the same dance (e.g. the quickstep) and going around the room, everyone seemed to be doing their own thing, the accomplished dancers showing off a bit, as they tend to do. 🙂
As we walked along, we came across a great display of Easter Eggs (it is Easter Monday, after all) and I had to get a photo…
We then hot-footed it along to the Royal Court theatre, where the show tonight, called “Be Our Guest” was the one that had been postponed the other night (due to bumpy seas). It was the usual colourful, singing and dancing extravaganza, and we enjoyed it, despite having seen in on other Cunard ships.
Then it was along to the Golden Lion pub as usual, this time for the Cryptic Trivia. Instead of your usual general knowledge, the questions came in the form of conundrums, word play and other teasers that required you to think outside the box a little bit. For example, one of the questions was “what must you take away from the number seven to make it even?” The answer, of course, was the letter “S”. 🙂
Trevor and I scored 16/20 which we thought was quite good for just two of us, but a couple of teams scored 18 which went to a tiebreaker.
After the quiz, we decided to take our drinks and go up to the pool deck aft on Deck 9, where the Golden Lion’s usual resident band Changez were performing under the stars for a tropical deck party. We sat and enjoyed the music and the sea breeze in our hair before returning to 8025 around 10.30pm.
Sitting on our balcony in the sultry darkness, enjoying a nightcap, is one of the great pleasures of tropical cruising. We finished one of the bottles of fizz we had bought the other day in Puerto Rico, and sat outside to enjoy it. I put Enya on singing Orinoco Flow and listened to her singing “carry me on the waves to the lands I’ve never seen” as I put my feet up on the balcony and looked up at the stars above, and enjoyed my glass of fizz.
We settled down around 11.30pm, after leaving the balcony door open a crack to counteract the drying effects of air-conditioning.
Tomorrow we would be revisiting another wonderful port of call, that of Castries in St. Lucia, and once again we enjoyed a good night’s sleep, lulled by the gentle motion of Queen Elizabeth as she carried us ever closer to our next exciting destination. 🙂