Bagging a Lighthouse

19 January 2010

Today is Sint Maartin, and we don't have any tour. I set the wake-up call for 7:30 anyway. The ship is always at the dock well before we are scheduled to be, so when we turned on the ship channel, we saw that there was a ship ahead of us on the dock and another one docking on the other side. The Captain came on and said that the one ahead of us was the sister ship to Mercury - the former Celebrity Galaxy. It is still registered in Malta, but the name is now Mein Schiff, and it appears to be German. The boat on the other side of the dock was Disney Magic and next to us and last to arrive was NCL Gem.

Disney Magic on one side and the former Celebrity Galaxy

I had one goal today and that was to get back to the lighthouse that I saw on the first visit. We started out to walk down the pier and it was a long walk. I didn't know that I could have paid $1 for a ride in a golf cart. Bob got halfway down the pier and realized that he had not brought 'his' camera, but didn't go back.

When I got to the end of the pier I went to look at taxi tour rates as Bob was absolutely against renting a car. Had I done a rental on the internet it would have been at least $45 for the day. It looked like a tour out to Marigot would be $18 each if there were two people and quite a bit less if there were three or four. I asked the man who was selling the tours about seeing the lighthouse, and he denied that there was any such thing. He said there were no lighthouses on the island.

If I had looked on the Lighthouse Directory page, I would have seen that there were two lighthouses - one on a fort on the Dutch side and the one I had seen on the French side. But I hadn't done that. So we went out to the taxi rank and I asked about going to Marigot and Grand Case because the lighthouse I had seen was between them.

They put us in a cab with two other people who were going to Marigot. As before the traffic in Phillipsburg was terrible. The cab driver had the sniffles which made me want to tell him to blow his nose, but I didn't.

There were red flags everywhere

Red election flags

and also some orange ones - apparently there is going to be an election here also and these are the political banners.

Border between Sint Maartin and Saint Martin

Eventually we got to Marigot on the French side,

Flag in Marigot

and the other couple got out. As soon as we rounded the corner on the way to Grand Case, there was the lighthouse, which the cab driver confirmed was indeed a lighthouse.

Back of Marigot Light as you come around the corner

Triumphantly, I got out and took a few pictures

Marigot Light

This is an active lighthouse of an unknown date - focal plane 20 m (66 ft); flash every 4 s, white, green or red depending on direction. It is a 33 ft round conical tower painted white. Located across the road from the base of the breakwater mole of the harbor of Marigot, the principal town of the French portion of the island of Saint-Martin, on the northwestern coast of the island. Site open, tower closed.

Lighthouse

The lighthouse is across from the marina.

Marina sign

The Fort above the Coconut Juice House poster

and then we drove back to the ship.

On the way back we saw some statues in one of the roundabouts and one of them had three statues - one of them was labeled the Bus Driver.

Statues in the Roundabout TaTa,The Bus Driver, Alec the Butcher and Lalie, provider of those in need.

This was Jean Frederique Brooks “Tata the Bus driver,” who was best remembered for transporting students to from school. The second was Alexander Lionald Richardson “Alec the Butcher” , father of 42 who was best known for farming and selling fresh meat. According to his daughter her father introduced the Dr. Claude Wathey to politics as he was a member of the National Party. The third is Florian Eulalie Duzanson “Lalie.” She was known for providing fresh bread, tarts and shelter to those in need. While baking was her source of income Lalie also cared for students and people who came from Aruba to St. Maarten, she also provided shelter to many during disastrous moments such as hurricanes.

There is another one of the statues outside of the docks

Freedom fighter

The driver charged us $50.00. I figured that was $18 each for the drive back to the ship and about $6 each for the ride out. It wouldn't have been much more expensive to rent a car

Taxi driver's card

I wanted to ride back to the ship and flagged down one of the golf carts, but when I went to look for money to pay, I didn't have any. The other man on the cart paid the $1 for me. .

After a rest, we went up to eat lunch about 1300. Bob said he was going to the usual place, but I really didn't know what that was because he always hails me after he's already got a seat. So he went to the usual place, and I tried to go there too. I got an

Egg salad sandwich

because he usually gets a sandwich. I also made a salad of spinach, hard boiled egg, olives and cherry tomatoes.

Salad from the Salad Bar

Tiny fruit tart

I asked the sandwich guy what the various meats were and he had to go ask for the name of the pastrami. I didn't find Bob. Then I went and got ice cream for dessert. I got back to the room and Bob was already there.

I also went out on deck and took pictures of the town from the ship.

Photos from the aft deck

Town from the deck

Bow of the NCL Gem

On the way to trivia, we passed a cabin where they were installing metal ceiling pieces (sawing them up with a great deal of noise).

Room repair

This trivia was billed as Geographic Trivia, and we won in spite of my taking Chuck's answer that the official language of Romania was Hungarian. They gave us luggage tags as the prize.

For dinner, Bob had the shrimp cocktail, cold fruit soup and salmon. I had the

Carpaccio of Melon and Pineapple,

and the rest from the classic menu -

Caprese Salad (tomato and mozzarella)

Sirloin Steak and Tangy Lemon Curd

Bob's Warm lava Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

20 January 2010 - Day at Sea

Today we are to have a Brunch Buffet in the dining room from 1000 to 1300. I have bananas and apples and a naval orange that I've collected from the buffet. So I had a banana in the room for breakfast, and then we went up to Trivia. Which we won. We got golf hats.

Then I went down and bought some T-shirts at the sale around the pool, and after we dropped them off, we went to the brunch buffet. They had the ice sculptures

Ice Sculpture at the Breakfast Buffet

and omelet stations and all the frills. The dining room was very crowded and people who came later had to go down the stairs to the 5th deck and take their plates back upstairs. We were there early enough to go a table on the ground floor. Bob had cereal, and sausage and shrimp salad. I had an egg Florentine, a piece of fried chicken, some spaghetti, a chocolate frosted donut. and pineapple juice. On the way out of the buffet, we caught part of a presentation on digital photography.

Photography section

At 1630 we had another trivia which we also won with 14 correct out of 15. The one we missed was a question about what 10 lb. animal Ben Franklin killed with Leyden jars. Bob and I thought maybe a turkey, but I thought 10 lbs was small for a turkey, so I put what the other people thought which was a cat. And it was a turkey.

Afterwards I went for a swim

Pool steps

Sky Bar from and the Side of the pool

Floating on my back and looking at the sky

Pool deck

because soon it will probably be too cold. Bob went to the show.

21 January 2010 - Another Day at Sea

Tonight was formal night and for dinner Bob had

Batonet of Pears and Apple

and I had

Escargot

from the Classics menu as an appetizer. Then he had the

Green Pea and Mint soup

while I had the

Caesar salad

off the Classics menu. They gave us a

Sorbet palate cleanser

and then we both had the entre

Lobster Melange

.

Waiter with Baked Alaska

After the main course the waiters did their parade with the Baked Alaska and we had dessert.

Baked Alaska

After dessert there was a

Little tray of pastries

One of the brothers - our dinner companions

The other brother with the waiter

22 January 2010 - The last day at sea.

We went up to Trivia, and then down to the breakfast buffet where I found blintzes!!

Blintz

I love them. I really wish I knew what the layout of this buffet was so I could find the things I like. Then we had another trivia, and after that we had lunch. I had

Chicken livers on a bagel with a poached egg

and Bob had

Lump crab and Smoked Salmon with Ginger Mango Citrus Salsa

Then I had a

Mexican Chicken Panini.

One of the lounges

Bob made me pack in the afternoon. We had our bags ready to go before dinner.

For dinner Bob had

Roasted Pecan Chicken

Dessert

I had the

Fresh fruit appetizer

and what they called "Beef Goulash" listed as a soup, and the "evolved" Beef Wellington. I had Creme Brulee from the Classics menu for dessert.

Our waiter's card

I felt that the waiters were the best we have ever had. On Grandeur of the Seas, one of the men wanted a glass of milk each night and he always had to remind the waiter every night. On Celebrity Mercury, I wanted a glass of cranberry juice and after the first time, I never had to ask again. When we complimented (and tipped) the waiters, they said that Celebrity paid their waiters better than the other cruise lines.

Saturday 23 January 2010 - DisEmbarkation

We were given a time to disembark of 8:15 and that is when we were off the ship. Even though the cab driver went through the tunnel first and even though Bob (from the back seat) directed us all around the rental car terminal before we found the entrance we were picking up our rental car by about 0900. Drove home and got there before noon. Bob got the cars started and the water turned on, and then we turned in the rental car, and picked some stuff up from the commissary and unpacked - all on Saturday. Love cruising out of Baltimore

There was however a large problem in that when I turned on our wi-fi, my computer refused to acknowledge that there was one. The other computer could use it fine. It took me 6 days of work on the Internet with the Dell computer people to get back to almost normal. Until then, I couldn't send e-mails, although I could get them.

It was lucky that we got back on the 23rd and not the first of February like the next group did.

1 February 2010

We got about 14 inches of snow -

Snowstorm

11 February 2010

Icicles

Backyard

One of my kids commented on my write-ups of the trip that all we seemed to do was play trivia and eat. I counted about 6 pens, 2 golf hats, a luggage tag and a T-shirt that we had won, so I guess we did play a little bit

My next trip was with E's son. First we went to Yellowstone.