Bridgetown, Barbados - February 20, 2014

We arrived at 10:00 in Bridgetown, Barbados.  We had a walking tour mapped out, but we did a lot of free interpretation of it.

Bridgetown is larger and a lot more civilized than either of the last two cities.  It is a popular vacation place for Brits, so it feels very English. 

We walked into town, the last part on a boardwalk along the water.  

There are several lovely buildings downtown, including the Parliament building. 

We saw lots of well-dressed citizens, presumably on their lunch hour.  But there were some striking contrasts.  This modern building

was directly across the street from this block of buildings. 

St. Michael's cathedral was built in 1789 as a replacement to its predecessor, which was destroyed by a hurricane in 1780. The site has been used for religious buildings since the first wooden structure was built between 1660 and 1665.  The cemetery has some wonderful old headstones. The cathedral itself if in sad shape, but efforts are underway to restore it.

The Montefiore Fountain was a gift to the city by John Montefiore, a leading Jewish trader, in 1865.

Across from the fountain is the old library, which was a donation from Andrew Carnegie.

No rain this afternoon, but we did have a little excitement.  Several decks of the balconies are stepped, so that we can see down into the one below and several decks above us can look down on us.  We were out on our balcony waiting to sail, when we looked down and the man below and one balcony over was outside stark naked.  Who knows whether he just wasn't aware of us or he's an exhibitionist.  We'll see if he reappears later.  Sorry, no photo.  Maybe next time.

We sailed at 5:30 for Trinidad.