About thirty-eight hours and five hundred ten miles away from Saint Lucia, we docked at Willemstad, Curacao. Unlike all of the other islands we had visited, Curacao is the largest of three Dutch Caribbean islands with pastel-colored colonial architecture in the old town center. The story is that the 19-century Governor-General Albert Kikkert suffered from migraine headaches that he attributed to the harsh reflection of the sun on the white buildings of Willemstad. He decreed that all structures were to painted any color other than white.
This is the boardwalk area on the side where we docked.
Across the St. Anna Bay from where we docked, more of the city. This is the most photographed building (or so we were told) ... Penha selling apparel, accessories, perfumes, and cosmetics
The governor's palace...
In the distance you can see the Queen Juliana Bridge, one of the highest bridges in the world.
Indoor market...
The floating market - a mini boat fleet that comes from Venezuela with fresh fish and fruit...
A better view of the floating market...
This is Queen Emma Bridge, a pontoon bridge completed in 1888 that connects the two districts of Willemstad... You can see the people walking across the bridge in the first picture.
On the bridge looking back at our ship, The Rotterdam.
Looking back across to the Boardwalk... (The pontoon bridge is on the right side of the picture.)
Views from our ship...
Here the Queen Emma Bridge has swung open to let boats go by... The boat with the green top in the foreground is the free ferry.
Bridge is closing...
The side of Willemstad where we were docked...
You can see the other cruise ship docked in the background...
My husband and I decided to go back ashore after we rested a bit and had some lunch. We got caught in a rain shower and for something to do afterwards, we decided to take the free ferry to go across the bay while the pontoon bridge was closed open. (They provide the free ferry for people to get across the bay when the bridge has to swing open to let boats go by.)
Sometimes people get caught on the bridge when it swings open...
and here we are as we started off that morning...(I did get tired of hanging off to my hat, but it did a good job keeping the sun off my face. The next day in Aruba, I somehow ended up leaving it on a city bus we were using to get around the island.)
This is the boardwalk area on the side where we docked.
The governor's palace...
In the distance you can see the Queen Juliana Bridge, one of the highest bridges in the world.
Indoor market...
The floating market - a mini boat fleet that comes from Venezuela with fresh fish and fruit...
A better view of the floating market...
This is Queen Emma Bridge, a pontoon bridge completed in 1888 that connects the two districts of Willemstad... You can see the people walking across the bridge in the first picture.
On the bridge looking back at our ship, The Rotterdam.
Looking back across to the Boardwalk... (The pontoon bridge is on the right side of the picture.)
Views from our ship...
Here the Queen Emma Bridge has swung open to let boats go by... The boat with the green top in the foreground is the free ferry.
Bridge is closing...
The side of Willemstad where we were docked...
You can see the other cruise ship docked in the background...
My husband and I decided to go back ashore after we rested a bit and had some lunch. We got caught in a rain shower and for something to do afterwards, we decided to take the free ferry to go across the bay while the pontoon bridge was closed open. (They provide the free ferry for people to get across the bay when the bridge has to swing open to let boats go by.)
Sometimes people get caught on the bridge when it swings open...
I did finally get a picture of our friend April who joined us on several of the island as we toured around...
No comments:
Post a Comment