Bermuda: St. George's (Day 2)

“Say Hello to my little friend!” Enemies who came knocking at the front door of St. Catherine’s Fort would be in for an unpleasant surprise.

UPDATED: 2/5/2023

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Day 2 in Bermuda: St. George’s

The main bus stop in Hamilton is a busy hub filled with tourists and locals alike.

We opted for a more casual breakfast and stopped in at Dangelini’s Cafe and Bakery, which sits on Front Street and is the pink building in front of the ferry terminal. We got cups of coffee, I got an egg and ham melt served on an English muffin, and Dustin got an egg and cheese melt. We ate these filling breakfast sandwiches with a view out onto the water. The wind that had picked up the day before was still full force, making the air colder, so we enjoyed staying warm as long as we could.

Our next destination was the bus terminal. The Hamilton bus terminal is situated a few blocks inland and uphill from Front Street and is easy to find. There are multiple bays for the buses, a ticket window, where we purchased multi-day passes, and large maps of the system. In an all-roads-lead-to-Rome analogy, Hamilton is Rome. We realized that staying in Hamilton is the best option for those who will be getting around the island by public (bus) transportation since it is the main terminal.

Our destination for the day was to be St. George’s, the parish at the opposite tip of the island and closer to the airport. While Bermuda is a small island, the roads are curvy, narrow, and roundabout so that getting anywhere takes longer than the mileage would suggest it should. From Hamilton to St. George’s was just under an hour even though it is only about 12 miles (20 kilometers) away. Note: there is a seasonally available ferry that runs between Hamilton and St. George’s, but it does not run in in the late fall to early spring, which coincided with our trip.

Bermudian houses are painted in almost every color of the rainbow, providing a wonderful festive feel.

We loved walking the small alleys of St. George’s.

But the bus ride itself was part of the fun. The route was almost entirely next to the turquoise ocean water. We passed within what seemed like inches of brightly colored houses perched precariously close to the road on one side and the ocean and rocky breaks on the other.

The entire town of St. George’s is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is right off the shore here that the first known people landed on Bermuda after their vessel, the Sea Venture, foundered on the rocks and corals that surround the island. There are several sites to see in St. George’s, and just wandering around the town on foot is a good activity in and of itself!

Winter in Bermuda is great because of the lack of tourists.

Houses of St. George’s are very cute and seem like comfortable places to live.

When we arrived, we were almost at lunchtime so took a short saunter around the main square and harbor. In addition to some very large modern ships, yachts, and the largest catamaran I have ever seen, there is also a recreated version of the ship Deliverance. After those original settlers ended up stranded on Bermuda for a time, they ingenuously built two new ships - the Deliverance and the Patience - and were able to sail it to their original destination of Jamestown, in Virginia. It is hard to imagine people today landing on an island and not only surviving but having the skills to build two seaworthy ships. Not only that, but the Deliverance recreation is built to actual size and is ridiculously small. I can’t imagine feeling comfortable on the open ocean in a boat of its size! I guess it’s safe to say that it is fortunate I was born in my own time period.

We had a great lunch at White Horse Pub and Restaurant, sitting outside by the water.

This catamaran would be fun to float around in.

A life size recreation of the Deliverance… it seems way too small!

Right along the water’s edge in St. George’s is White Horse Pub, which is housed in a building that dates to the mid 1700s, though it has only been a pub since about 1930. The main building is the old facility with a dark tavern and bar feel to it, and then a more recent addition is a covered area for dock dining, which is where we decided to eat. By this point, the breeze had let up just a little and the sun was peaking through the clouds so that it was tolerable to be outside. During our lunch the weather went from warm sun to intermittent showers, downpours, and then back to sun in whatever random order it decided. We both went with the easy and obvious choice for our orders: fish and chips.

The waitstaff treated these guys like flying rats. We thought they were cute.

Looking out at the rocky shores of Bermuda, you begin to understand why so many ships have wrecked off its coasts.

As is typical of most water-side dining, there are a lot of birds keen to get in on the action and offered us lunchtime entertainment. Beautiful mallard ducks bobbed in the water next to us and interspersed among them were other local bird varieties. Some of the more daring small birds hopped up on to the railing hoping for a sympathy nibble. In the water we could see large schools of fish also hankering after some people food. A member of the waitstaff was able to point out different fish varieties - chubb, bream, and even a parrot fish were spotted.

The other landmarks we wanted to see while in St. George’s were the Unfinished Church and Fort St. Catherine’s. With a dark and threatening sky and very heavy wind, we weren’t sure if heading out of downtown with no place to shelter from a storm was smart or fool-hearty so we gambled and went. We briefly passed the Unfinished Church en route to Fort St. Catherine’s but kept going with plans to return there on our way back into town. The walk to Fort St. Catherine’s was uphill for a good chunk, though we were more annoyed by the heavy wind to pay much attention to it. The walk is a solid 20 minutes or so at a distance of just under a mile (1.5 kilometers) and took us through some areas that are more popular in season like Tobacco Bay. Surprisingly there were a number of boats there that were submerged - some appeared to be recent losses but others were very rusted. With no one else around, this made for some fun photography opportunities.

The British flag waves proudly at Fort St. Catherine.

When we got to Fort St. Catherine’s, we learned that the person who manages tickets hadn’t shown up to work so another employee was letting people in for free since he wasn’t equipped to work the machines. Bermuda has the perhaps dubious distinction of being the country with the most forts per capita. Some of this is a numbers game - Bermuda is a relatively small country for one - but some of this is also a reflection of the level of protection needed for an island nation alone in the middle of the ocean but on a relatively major seafaring thoroughfare with a complicated geography with lots of points needing look-outs.

Rather bleak and now deserted, Fort St. Catherine was the home and grave for generations of British soldiers.

A stockpile of decently sized cannon shells is on display in the armory.

The various cannons bristling the walls of Fort St. Catherine were capable of striking targets miles away. I struggle to even imagine this.

Fort St. Catherine’s dates to 1614 (though a temporary wooden fort was there from 1612-1614) and was used into the 20th century. This is the largest of the forts on Bermuda so is worth a stop for those interested. It also has a really interesting lay-out with many tunnels and parts to the building that making it particularly good for a self-tour. It’s also noteworthy that it is in the ocean right off of St. Catherine’s where the earliest settlers from the Sea Venture came ashore.

The best part - to us - is that a lot of the fort is indoors and underground/built into the rock. With the weather we were having, this was a great reprieve! Upon entering, visitors will first tour a small one-room museum, then descend to several rooms that contained the magazine, shell lift, shell storage, and powder store. We wove in and out of portions of the fort, following along the self-tour route, which was easy to follow, on occasion finding ourselves briefly outside before entering the next portion. We were able to visit the cook house, saw exhibits on the weapons used and still on display, enjoyed an exhibit on the uniforms worn by the inhabitants of the fort over the centuries, and learned a lot about the history of the fort and historical life within its walls. After touring these mostly interior portions, the last stop was the bastion and observation deck that hold massive weapons, but we spent much less time there because of the wind.

On our way back to the center of St. George’s, we stopped by the so-called Unfinished Church, which has an interesting history. It’s important to note that it is not available for entry and has gates across doorways and windows to prevent incursions. But it is very easy to look inside and enjoy the immensity of the building. I think my favorite part was where the floor would have been is a smooth lawn of grass.

Looking up at the Unfinished Church of Saint George’s you can’t help but wonder what the completed church would have looked like.

This rooster certainly seemed to enjoy his time in the limelight.

So, why does Bermuda have an unfinished church in the first place? In 1869, the parishioners of St. Peter’s felt it was time for a newer church to replace their current one that was in disrepair, and construction began five years later. There were a series of events that hit in succession that led to the church never being completed in full. First, the parishioners had disputes among their Anglican and Protestant populations that prevented important building decisions from occurring. Then in 1884, an arsonist set fire to a different island church, and money was redirected from the building fund to repair it. By the time a roof was added to the Unfinished Church in 1897, a full quarter of a century after its construction had begun, the disagreements between St. Peter’s congregants had been settled and they were happy to continue using their older church since tastes had changed and antique buildings were en vogue. In 1925, a tornado hit the Unfinished Church, removing its roof, and sealing its fate. Ironically, nothing else in St. George’s was harmed by the tornado, but at that point the church was left to nature’s ravages. Today it is mostly used as a wedding venue.

A brightly decorated public park can be found nestled in a side neighborhood of St. George’s.

Walking down hill on our way back from Fort St. Catherine we could see St. George’s and catch a glimpse of the harbor beyond.

After viewing the Unfinished Church, we wandered a few blocks of St. George’s and then decided to call it a day as the skies continued to threaten a downpour. We caught the bus shortly before the rain came in to stay, so it was a good decision. Once we arrived back at our hotel, which required more walking in the cold and wet from the bus terminal, we really had zero interest in going back outside to find a restaurant for dinner so made reservations at the hotel’s Marcus restaurant.

Dinner was delicious but apparently only the Rum Swizzle deserved a photo-op. …or perhaps after the alcohol I wasn’t thinking clearly… who knows?!?

The restaurant has a nice interior ambiance and also sits overlooking the water, though in the winter it was long past sunset when we were there. The servers and managers were all very friendly and accommodating, and we absolutely loved our meals. We both ordered the same: Wahoo (a fish also known in Hawaii as Ono) served with kimchi, red pepper jam, bok choy, and broccoli in a miso broth. For dessert, we both opted for different selections: Dustin got a chocolate bomb, which is basically a chocolate covered raspberry mousse cake with hot chocolate sauce poured over so that it partially melted, and I had a cheesecake with honey and caramel because I always have a soft spot for cheesecake.

This was the type of day where you are utterly exhausted in the best possible way by the end of it.

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