St Lucia (Part 2)

After everyone had finished eating, the hotel put on evening entertainment, different most nights, the staff being the performers and some of them were excellent. We visited the Piano Bar more than once as it was quiet and peaceful, even when with the playing of the piano, when the evening entertainment on the Terrace wasn’t quite in our line.

The hotel supplied beach towels every day, so we didn’t need to take our own with us, saving the space and weight in our cases. We went in the lovely big swimming pool and once we tried the aqua exercises which were fun and also went in the sea. There is a spa and a gym but being very lazy we didn’t participate very much! There is a ‘river’ with places where a couple could be together away from the main area, with a book and a drink, although other people can ‘paddle’ past!

Whilst we were at the resort a wedding took place. I watched the bride walk to the specially decorated pagoda. I stood on the beach, keeping out of the photographer’s line of vision. The only drawback was the sand flies, I wasn’t aware at the time that I reacted badly to their bites. I would recommend taking some sort prevention such as lotion with you.

We hired a car for a couple of days and a local license is required. One day we drove down to Soufriere and viewed the Pitons from above. Soufriere itself was a rather sprawling place. As we drove in we were stopped by a car, which turned out to be an off duty friendly policeman, who advised us that the traffic only went one way, as this was wasn’t marked very well. He obviously could tell we were tourists.

We also drove to Rodney Bay which was very busy and visited Pigeon Island, a nature park with the remains of 18th fort, Fort Rodney, where the Admiral for which it is named spied on the French ships from its strategic viewpoint. We climbed up to the fort, slowly, as it was warm work.

We did visit Martinique for a day trip by sea. The crossing was rather rough. Martinique is very French, the cars have French EU number plates and they trade in Euros. Firstly we visited Fort de France, the capital, went to the local church which had several beautiful chandeliers, but no glass in the windows. Then the boat took us to a stretch of calm sea where people could snorkel for a while. As we don’t snorkel we watched from the boat as people jumped in and then came dripping out of the water back onto the boat.

At the end of the holiday there is a room quests can use, fitted with a television, lockers and also with showers available, for when you have checked out of your room. This does allow you to have one last swim.

We had use of the lounge at the airport. We travelled back Upper Class as it’s so nice to be able to stretch out and put your feet up. All we have to do now is to decide where we will go for our next holiday!