Liquid Sunshine

By David Gourley

Around the start of 2015, Cathy and I had a rather agreeable problem.  We had accumulated a substantial number of air miles and we weren't sure what to do with them.  We had so many that we could have a free return flight with BA across the Atlantic, even upgrading to business class in one direction.  I must qualify the word “free”: since the old Air Miles company changed to Avios in 2011, you have to pay airport and fuel taxes as distinct from the actual fare.  These were not exactly nominal in our case, but even so the cash value of our free flight was substantial.

We decided to return to Bermuda.  We had been there all of 47 years previously.  As newlyweds in 1968 we embarked on a round-the world trip, centred on a stay in New Zealand and including a coast-to-coast journey across the USA by Greyhound Bus.  This might have been the Swinging Sixties, but the British economy was in a sorry state, one result being that the Government had imposed a draconian exchange rate, allowing one to take out of the country no more than £50.  This sum was worth rather more than £50 today, but was still woefully inadequate for our purpose.  There was a “get out” clause: the restriction did not apply if one was travelling within the Sterling Area.  Thus we commenced our trip by flying out to Bermuda where we were able to change our money before carrying on to the States.  We had had just two nights there, but managed to fit in a bit of sightseeing. 

We thought it would be interesting after all this time to go back to Bermuda and also see more of the island.  We booked a week at the Fairmont Hotel in Southampton.  We were familiar with the Fairmont chain, having enjoyed stays in six of its hotels in Canada and also, a bit closer to home, the one in St Andrews, Fife.  The chain has two hotels in Bermuda, the other being in the capital, Hamilton.  We had a look at this and were sure we'd made the right choice.  The Fairmont Southampton is a fine hotel located in extensive and beautiful grounds, with complimentary shuttles to and from the coast roads and beaches on either side.  Southampton lies towards the western end of Bermuda and is one of the nine parishes into which it is divided.  Confusingly there is a Hamilton Parish which does not include the capital - they are named from different people. 

We flew out business class.  Quel différence!  It was nice to walk past the massive queue snaking its way towards bag-drop and get immediate service at the dedicated desk before proceeding through fast track security to the lounge where we enjoyed a couple of glasses of champagne and tasty snacks and soup.  We liked too the comfortable seating and legroom in the flight cabin.  For our main course we had a delicious “panfried beef fillet steak, crushed celeriac with peas and a red wine and peppercorn sauce”.  I'd love to say this is our normal mode of flying but sadly that is not the case: our return journey was an overnight flight in steerage! 

The friendly taxi driver who transferred us to our hotel - nearly everyone we encountered in Bermuda was friendly - drew our attention to the distinctive white roofs of the houses.  These are stepped and designed to catch water, of which there is no fresh supply in Bermuda, apart from the rain.  Our hotel room was standard, or in Fairmont parlance moderate, but it was huge, with a walk-in wardrobe, and in just about any other hotel would have qualified as an upgrade, even a significant upgrade.

We had prepared ourselves for the fact that Bermuda is expensive.  This reflects its isolated geographical position, a small island, or more correctly archipelago, in the middle of the Atlantic, the closest land being Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, 640 miles away.  The standard of living is one of the highest in the world, being up there with the Scandinavian countries.  The currency is the Bermuda dollar, used interchangeably with the US dollar which is equal in value.  Bermuda does not, I would say, have a European feel or a North American feel.  Nor, contrary to what some would assume, does it have a Caribbean feel, being in fact a thousand or so miles to the north.  The feel is, well, Bermudian. 

Our stay was on room only terms and, predictably enough, the various dining options at the Fairmont were fairly expensive.  I had thought that, for our last night, we might push the boat out and dine at the hotel's prestigious Waterlot restaurant.  But I now examined the menu more closely and realized that the vegetables were separately charged meaning that, with taxes also to be added, a main course alone was somewhat over $100.  We enjoy dining out but this was getting to be silly money.  By and large, though, we ate well at the Fairmont and particularly liked their lovely Italian restaurant, Bacci.  The house speciality, Macaroni alla Buttera (macaroni with spicy sausages, sweet peas, tomato sauce and parmesan), is recommended. 

The view from our room took in Gibbs Hill Lighthouse.  I am something of a lighthouse addict and this is as fine an example as I've seen anywhere.  It's open to the public and was within walking distance so we went there on our first morning.  One is rewarded with a magnificent view taking in much of Bermuda, with the capital visible in the distance.  The main island is a rather curious shape that resembles a fish hook with the westernmost part, at the tip of which is the Royal Naval Dockyard, thus looping round.  From our vantage point we could see how densely populated Bermuda is.  It is beautiful, but there is very little countryside. 

We had been wondering how we were going to get around the island.  The hotel operates complimentary shuttle boats to Hamilton but we found that there was just one trip out and one back, respectively in the early morning and late afternoon.  The lady selling tickets at the lighthouse put us straight.  The island has an extensive bus network; services are frequent and fares are surprisingly cheap given this is Bermuda.  We took a bus into Hamilton.  We did not this time tarry in the capital, getting a boat across to the Dockyard.  This no longer serves its original purpose.  Its historic buildings remain, with some tastefully converted into shopping malls.  Nowadays large cruise ships will normally dock here rather in the capital.  Right at the very tip of the island is its most popular attraction, the National Museum.  There was no time for a visit, so we returned the next day.

We experienced at the Museum one of two disappointments during our stay regarding attractions.  We particularly wanted to see the Commissioners House, with its many rooms, and the surrounding ramparts but both were closed, due to damage caused by Hurricane Fay, which had ripped through Bermuda several months previously.  Mercifully there had been no fatalities.  There was enough else in the Museum to make the visit worthwhile. 

Curiously perhaps, the Museum includes the “Dolphin Quest”.  We don't as a rule go to see captive wild animals, our aversion going back to our safari in Kenya some 25 years ago.  We have been of the view ever since that wild animals should be born free and stay free.  But we got talking to a bubbly young lady who was one of the staff.  It was clear to us that she genuinely loved the dolphins: “If we opened the gates to the Atlantic they'd huddle in a corner, frightened.”   Star of the show was a baby dolphin that was just a few days old.  On our return to the hotel we diverted to Horseshoe Beach, a public beach which is adjacent to the hotel's private beach.  Some consider it to be Bermuda's loveliest  beach.  We have not checked them all out, but I think this might well be right.  The island's Kite Festival, a wonderful sight, was taking place there.  

The next day we purchased an all day bus pass.  We used this to revisit a couple of the places we'd been to back in 1968.  We had on that occasion visited two caves, Leamington and Crystal.  The former is now closed to the public, but in any case it is the latter that are truly impressive.  You descend to a subterranean lake which you cross using a pontoon bridge.  Utterly beautiful.  Rather as with the Terracotta Warriors in China, discovery was accidental, in this instance the result of two teenage boys hunting for a lost cricket ball.  A few months later we visited what in my book are the most spectacular caves anywhere, those at Postojna in Slovenia.  Even Crystal Cave must take a bow.

As in 1968 we continued to the former capital, St George’s.  Most visitors to Bermuda will find their way here.  It is a pleasant, if somewhat touristy, place whose attractions include a ducking stool.  If the timing is right one can watch a re-enactment.  We did not see this and I am quite glad we didn't.  Back home I stumbled across a YouTube video and felt just a bit uneasy watching a young black lady undergoing a ducking though obviously she was a volunteer who was, I like to think, enjoying the experience.  Mind you, having lately retired, I can think of one or two ex-colleagues whom I might, given the chance, sentence to a ducking!

If St George's is in the northwest part of Bermuda, St David's is in the northeast.  We went there because we could.  There's no other reason to go there.  There was no discernible centre and it was really a case of hanging around for the next bus back.  It does, it is true, have Bermuda's other working lighthouse.  Like Gibbs Hill, it is supposed to be open to the public but its doors were resolutely shut.  It is not as impressive.  We returned to St George's then took a scenic route back home.  This took us along the far side of Harrington Sound.  Bermuda might be tiny, but it boasts this large inland body of water.

We had, back home, been keeping an eye on the weather forecasts for Bermuda and at one point these seemed decidedly discouraging.  In the event we enjoyed good weather every day, except for one.  We had decided on the day in question to attend a church service which was scheduled to take place on the beach.  Rather ominously this had been moved inside the hotel, albeit it was not yet raining.  The rain was not long in coming and persisted for the rest of the day.  But we enjoyed the service, a lively affair, whose congregation included locals as well as hotel guests.  The preacher was introduced to us as someone who could “preach the paint off the walls”.  He undertook not to do so this time, since he wanted to remain on good terms with the Fairmont!

We had planned to visit one of Bermuda's main attractions, the Aquarium.  This seemed like a good rainy day option.  But we were in for the second of our two disappointments: it was, the concierge informed us, closed.  Nothing to do with the Hurricane, it was undergoing refurbishment.  We ended up having a lazy day in the hotel.  This was rather pleasant and something of a change for us.  We have in other places said that we should just unwind and enjoy our hotel only to find other things to do.  The Mena House Hotel in Cairo comes to mind.  During a week’s stay, a day or two of lazing round the pool was planned.  But, hey, the Pyramids were just across the road!

It was good weather again the next day, enabling us to go ahead with our plan to walk along part of the Railway Trail.  Yes, Bermuda did once boast a railway.  This ran almost the length of the island, from St George’s to Somerset, on the way to the Dockyard, with a spur into Hamilton.  It was open for just seventeen years, closing in 1948.  This was despite the fact that it had been, on a per mile basis, one of the most expensive railway lines ever built.  Until 1946, cars had not been allowed in Bermuda; their unbanning seems to have sounded the death knell for the railway.  But the money was not entirely wasted since the whole line, apart from the Hamilton spur, has been converted into a long distance footpath. 

The Trail runs through our hotel grounds.  From there we set off for Paget Marsh.  In terms of parishes this took us from Southampton to Paget crossing the length of Warwick.  We stopped a couple or so times to talk to locals.  One chap responded, when we mentioned the previous day's rain: “We don't call it that here, we call it liquid sunshine.”  In Warwick we regrettably didn't realize that, if we deviated a short distance from the Trail, we'd find Cobbs Hill Methodist Church.  This is of historical importance as it was built in the early nineteenth century for slaves and free blacks.  Most of the churches at that time allowed only whites or had separate doors for blacks.  It forms part of Bermuda's African Diaspora Heritage Trail. 

Looking at our map, I’d assumed that Paget Marsh was on, or at least close to and well signposted from, the Railway Trail.  But there was no sign of any signs!  We  ended up being driven to the Marsh by a kind lady.  The Marsh is a nature reserve that is unchanged since the first settlers arrived.   There is a boardwalk, otherwise there is no tourist infrastructure so no cafe, no toilets.  We got a bus back to our hotel and spent the afternoon on Horseshoe Beach.

Our last full day was spent in Hamilton, sightseeing and also buying presents.  We went across on the shuttle boat and were expecting to get an ordinary bus back since we weren't expecting to be long in the capital.  However, our visit was sufficiently long for us to find that the shuttle boat back, in late afternoon, was well timed.  Arrived in Hamilton we decided first to have a more leisurely cruise around Hamilton Harbour so did a round trip on the ferry which crosses over to ports of call in Warwick and Paget parishes.

Back in 1968 Hamilton, nowadays a thriving commercial centre, was a rather sleepy place.  Picturesque Front Street, the main thoroughfare which runs alongside the Harbour, is pretty much unchanged.  We tried without success to locate the Bermudiana, once one of Bermuda's best hotels but long closed and converted into a commercial building.  We had had lunch there in 1968, when we were based at a smaller establishment across the Harbour in Paget.

We made use of the main supermarket, described on the outside simply as Supermart.  A surprise awaited us when we went inside: evidence of the Waitrose brand was all around.  But we were not able to use our Waitrose cards so there was no free coffee, no free newspaper.  It is in fact a family business who are “the exclusive retailers of Waitrose products from England”  They had a tempting array of hot and cold dishes for taking away or eating outside, including goat curry.  We have yet to see this at our local Waitrose in Surbiton!

If Hamilton in 1968 was rather sleepy it was also rather troubled.  Not long before there had been riots.  There were to be more riots in the future and in 1973 the Governor, Sir Richard Sharples, was assassinated.  It so happens that he had previously been the MP for Sutton and Cheam, a constituency that adjoins ours.   Race relations was the problem.  Bermuda divides roughly 3:2, black: white, yet had been ruled by a white elite whose record was rather like that of its counterparts in the southern states of the USA - abysmal.  As in the States, the sixties saw the rise of a civil rights  movement, manifested in the Theatre Boycott, a protest against segregation in theatres and other public places. 

Obviously tourists can only get the most superficial of impressions, but nowadays it does seem that the races rub along reasonably well with both enjoying full rights.  The current Prime Minister, Michael Dunkley, is white but there have  been several black prime ministers and his cabinet comprises a mix of races.  Certainly today's Bermuda is a safe destination.  The local paper deemed worthy of a headline the fact that a man had admitted to the theft of a $7 sea bass!

We ventured into a government building on the off-chance that it might be open to the public.  It wasn't, but a friendly lady chatted to us.  It turned out that she was the Health Minister and the sister of the country's first female prime minister (who was black).  A chap said hello to us as he passed by on his way out.  “That was the Prime Minister,” she told us. 

The nearby Parliament building was open.  Here we had a complimentary tour conducted by the Sergeant at Arms.  He was, somewhat to our surprise, in casual gear: Parliament was not sitting and clearly he was not of a mind to put on his finery just for the likes of us.  The chamber is a Lilliputian version of its Westminster counterpart, with Government and Opposition thus on opposite sides, rather than arrayed Continental-style around a semi-circle.  Bermuda is, in terms of population, the largest of Britain's remaining overseas territories.  It has full self-government, with Britain appointing its Governor.  In a referendum in 1995 independence was decisively rejected (cf Scotland!)

Our sightseeing in Hamilton also included the Cathedral and the historic Perot Post Office, named from Bermuda's first Postmaster General who in 1848 produced the country's first postage stamps.  Only eleven of these are known to exist today so they are extremely valuable.   Having decided against our hotel’s pricey Waterlot Restaurant for our last meal, we returned to Gibbs Hill Lighthouse which has a cosy restaurant where we enjoyed a good meal.

We had one of those curious last days where one can still, because there is a late flight, be in holiday mode in the morning, on this occasion enjoying some more time on Horseshoe Beach, before reality asserts itself and one is going home.  Our transfer to the airport gave us one last chance to admire Bermuda's luxuriant vegetation.•

A Sunny History Lesson

by Tim Grimes

The other mystery about Bermuda, is why aren't there more British visitors? In fact total visitor numbers have fallen by 14% since 1980. Over 80% of visitors are from the USA, many arriving on massive cruise liners which moor alongside the shore in the deep waters of this bit of volcanic crust.

An archipelago of more than 100 islands, the principal isles are linked by bridge and form one continuous land mass 22 miles long, although inlets, meandering roads and the (nominal) 20mph speed limit, make most journeys seem longer. Not that it matters - driving through the bright pink oleander bushes and verdant banana trees, watching brightly coloured birds flying over lush vegetation, is a pleasure itself. Some 62,000 people (60% black; 40% white) live in bright pastel houses, all with white stone roofs designed to catch the rain for underground tanks - this is Bermuda's domestic water supply. Given the high standard of living (by 1979 half the population owned their own homes and, in 1984, the World Bank ranked Bermuda per capita income amongst the top ten in the world) and the need for Bermuda to import just everything, it's unsurprising that this is not a budget holiday.

My wife and I, and our children aged 9 and 11, spent May half-term in this British dependency, 600 miles off North Carolina and 1,100 miles north of the Caribbean. Bermuda is warmed by the Gulf Stream yet distant enough from the USA's eastern seaboard to avoid hurricanes. We enjoyed seven sunny 80 degree Fahrenheit days; we were lucky: rain fell only in the night storms (rain falls evenly throughout the year). A good week to choose, as the American and Bermudian schools are still in term.

The Spaniard, Juan de Bermudez, found the place possibly as early as 1503. It was only in continual occupation from 1609 when the Sea Venture, bound for Virginia Colony, sank off the islands, supposedly giving Shakespeare the plot for Tempest in 1611. The wreck is depicted on Bermuda's arms and its flag seen, together with the Union Jack, all over the islands. The venturers, under Admiral Somers (who gave his name to the earlier title of Somers Islands) were saved, rebuilt the ship as the Deliverance (a replica of which can be seen at St George) and arrived in Virginia about 10 months late. Returning in 1612, it took a further three years for James I to grant settlers the right to a general assembly, giving Bermuda today the third oldest parliament in the world. Parliament, which sits in Hamilton, the capital, follows the Westminster model and can be visited in action very informally - you just walk in and sit down. We visited the House of Assembly (Fridays) at the Sessions House, and the Senate (Wednesdays) at the Cabinet Office. The courts are another British institution: "M'Lady" the judge, presiding in long black dreadlocks and a short grey wig and red robes, vented her frustration on prosecuting counsel who was labouring over an esoteric point of law, when we called in. The dispassionate prisoner had clearly lost the plot some while ago - and probably the appeal.

St George, at the eastern end of Bermuda, was the original capital. The present church dates from 1713, which is believable looking at the crudely carved beams and columns. It is colonial and dignified and the final resting place of slaves and free men, most of whose identities have long been eroded from the soft gravestones. Governor Sharples and his ADC, murdered during unrest in the 1970s, are also buried there. Bermuda National Trust's museum, at St George, majors on the Colony's 1860s sanctions-busting role for the Confederacy. Fortunes were made on Bermuda as trans-Atlantic cargoes arrived to be shipped on to the South in smaller, swifter blockade-runners. (Help make your own fortune by joining the Bermuda National Trust  there, or at one of its other properties: $35 per family buys a year's membership, which is reciprocal with our own National Trust costing £57).

The many other seventeenth and eighteenth century buildings, including the original state house, are really worth a look, to appreciate the early years of this colony, but the town crier, the ducking stool and the general tourist tat shops are indignities introduced for the general touchy-feely disneyfication and filleting of the facts that seems to make it digestible to the American cruise trade. Perhaps I overstate it, but this particular World Heritage Site seemed to have been fashioned for the massive ships moored alongside, dwarfing the town and disgorging their passengers so precisely during the intervals between prepaid feeding on board, that you could set your Swiss timepiece by the flows across the gangplanks.

All the well-known Swiss watchmakers are represented in Hamilton, where their wares are offered "up to" 30% below USA prices. So that could be a way of mitigating the comparatively high cost of Bermuda. (It may be however, that the best prices for Swiss timepieces, are in Switzerland, but if you are in the market for a watch, it might be worth a preparatory phone call.)

In 1815, St George relinquished its role as capital. Hamilton is at the centre of the islands and also has a deep water shore, enabling today's cruise liners to moor right up to Front Street shadowing the principal shops on the opposite side. Excepting the Swiss watch sellers, Trimingham's is one of the oldest established (and sells the least tasteless souvenir polo shirts). Part of the colonial story, Triminghams credits itself with inventing the civilian Bermuda Shorts which businessmen wear today - in bright reds, yellows and greens, with long socks and blazers. These shorts copied the visiting regiments, stationed at Bermuda's many forts, whose soldiers were allowed to cut down their breeches in the heat. Now the only military presence is the Bermuda Regiment - the indigenous conscript, volunteer and professional working militia with an impressive band, which beats the retreat every month along Front Street.

The economy has undergone enormous changes: Early trades of shipping and shipbuilding (using local cedar), slavery (abolished in 1834) and salt are evidenced throughout the islands; agriculture, once an important export, is now limited to small holdings growing vegetables and cereals - I saw no livestock although there may be some; and the comings and goings of UK and USA militias, have all made their impressions. Now the main money-earners in Bermuda are offshore insurance (and other finance) and tourism. Tourism by steamships, was well under way by the 1920s. Air travel - initially flying boats to Darrell Island (the subject of a display at the Airport) - brought more visitors, supplemented again from the sea with the resurgence of cruise ships in recent years. Employment in tourism, and the development of hotels - together with American import tariffs - finished Bermuda's famed onion cultivation, still commemorated in names of pubs and bars throughout.

Tourism helped to promote the single-track railway which once ran from one end of the islands to the other. Even disregarding the benefit of hindsight, you have to conclude that it was a romantic notion destined to failure: approved in 1924, begun in 1926, and opened in 1931, it is said to have been the costliest on earth - and never profitable. The railway was sold, for very little, to the government in 1946 and, in 1948, dug up and loaded lock stock and barrel onto ships bound for British Guiana. For transport construction, these guys clearly weren't up to the Somers lot three hundred years earlier. We walked several of the remaining 18 miles of well-marked, cool and over-grown railway trail and I spent some while browsing the rare photographs and models at the Railway Museum kept by Rosa Hollis  at the old Aquarium Station, near Flatts village.  The railway's demise was hastened by the introduction, in 1946, of motorised traffic, which had been banned by a 1908 act of parliament. Today, there are so many cars that they are limited to one per household and this must be one of the few places, in the west, where visitors are simply not allowed to hire.

There is even less evidence of Bermuda's World War II activities than of its railway. Some 1,200 British intelligence staff were recruited to the basement of the Hamilton Princess Hotel, to intercept wartime communications from USA to Europe. So 1,200 Brits had a good war! The US forces occupied part of the islands under Lend Lease, from 1940, leaving in 1995

After the loss of the American colonies, Bermuda had become strategically important for the Atlantic Fleet and one of the early campaigns reliant on Bermuda was the 1812 Anglo American War. British land forces, and the Royal Navy, left Bermuda in the post-war reduction in defence spending. The Navy's presence was concentrated on the now-restored Dockyard, presided over by twin clock towers, at the west end of the islands. Despite its incorporation, now, of a mall selling the whole range of souvenirs aimed at the cruise ships, the stunning architecture in soft, weathered, limestone - and the setting - make this a very attractive part of the colony. Local glass-blowing, ceramic and other activities are also housed in the Dockyard. The nearby Maritime Museum tells the story of provisioning and maintaining the fleet and the defence of the station

Bermuda is an interesting combination of British influences: the Queen, the Governor, parliament, the courts, the 9 parishes with their parish churches, the annual agricultural show, driving on the left, the red post boxes, the policemen in their blue helmets - and American: the Bermuda dollar, pegged since 1972 to the USA dollar which circulates alongside the local currency, the accent, the spelling, and the beamed-in 50 channels of TV - with perhaps a touch of Caribbean.

When you want a rest from history, there are just so many other things to do: There are plenty of public and private sandy beaches (many in tiny coves); loads of golf courses; riding (Spicelands is now the only hacking stables); Gibbs Hill lighthouse with its view over the greater part of the colony, boating, yachting, fishing, the crystal caves, the really slick zoo, and opportunities to see the myriad species of brilliantly coloured fish at the Aquarium and to see and walk amongst the fish and touch and feed them in the original under-sea walk. For the full story on all this, just look at Bermuda's excellent visitors' website at www.bermudatourism.com.

Eschewing the challenges of hiring motor scooters - the locals interpret the curiously metric 35kmph signs as a minimum, not a maximum - we got about mostly by the frequent and friendly local buses in their pink (the colour of the sand) and blue (the sea) livery. A weekly pass, which includes the many ferry routes, costs $36 per adult, will probably break even and certainly avoids the need to have the correct change otherwise demanded for every journey. For shorter journeys, there are also loads of (not unreasonably-priced) taxis which can be ordered by phone, or hailed in the street.

Because of rebuilding work, which we had discovered at the Hamilton Princess, we ended up at a self-catering apartment. Not a bad outcome in view of restaurant prices - to which a 15% tip is added. I wouldn't recommend where we stayed (a character, whom we came to know as Ronald the 'roach, was sharing our accommodation - with his family), but a list of self catering apartments - and all other types of accommodation - is available from the websites above. Basing yourself at Hamilton, hub of the bus system, would save time. We flew BA, the only UK carrier (7 hours out; 6 hours back) although Delta and others fly in from New York and elsewhere in the north east USA (there are also flights from Canada) which could open opportunities for a cheaper trip combining Bermuda with the USA. So with a bit of initiative and the internet, it isn't too difficult to put together your own sunny history lesson for a week or two.

First published in VISA issue 43 (autumn 2001)