During the night the ship took us to Nassau, Bahamas and when we woke up and had had breakfast we headed ashore.
Two other cruise ships had also moored, Oasis and Carnival, both being a lot bigger than ours. We hadn’t booked any outings and had decided to walk. We find that we see a lot more doing that besides we needed to move. We have been walking on the ship and used the stairs but we have also enjoyed the good food.
Bahamas belongs to the Commonwealth and a part of their history is British. The Bahamas has also been the home of a lot of buccaneers.
We wanted to see the Queen’s Staircase that was hewn out of solid limestone rock by slaves between 1793 and 1794. As Queen Victoria was the reign the 66 steps was named Queen’s Staircase in honour of her. We also wanted to see the castle to which the steps was the connection between it and the city.
Sadly the Fort Fincastle was closed so we couldn’t see it. It was a lot of places that was closed but the Pirates museum was open. It was a self guided tour within the museum which was very informative.
We talked to the lady running it and she said they had been struggling. For eighteen months there have been no tourists. She decided to open up again in June but haven’t been able to hire her staff back yet.
We did some more walking and I wanted to see the Straw Market but that was also closed. We did see some street vendors but mostly it was the tax-free shops that were open.
The city was in dire need of brush up and there were construction sites everywhere. A lot reminded me of Africa in late 1980s – buses where people went on and of it wherever it was most convenient for them, sidewalks that was nothing more than some soil next to the street, drivers talking to each other through the horn and driving like there was no tomorrow.
