Day 3: Dutch Treat

Sunday, March 28, Palm Sunday

Sint Maarten is the Dutch half of the Island of St. Martin; the other half is French. We landed at Phillipsburg around 7:00 am. We didn't sign up for a snorkeling tour today. Instead we decided to walk around town.

We left right after breakfast, about 8:30. I'd purchased a chapter from the Lonely Planet Caribbean guidebook and read it on my computer before we set off. (This turned out to be a not-so-good idea. I should have printed the chapter before we left; relying on my memory of a map is iffy at best.)

Phillipsburg has a wide new boardwalk that covers 2/3 of the bay. The restaurants and bars that line the boardwalk are all very modern and wouldn't look out of place in a theme park.

One block over, on Front Street, things look decidedly more authentic.

Kathy and I walked the length of the boardwalk, stopping only to listen to the Choir at the Catholic church singing Palm Sunday hymns. There was a big crowd, lining the steps to both entrances, so we couldn't see inside.

When we got to the end of the boardwalk we decided to continue walking out of town and around the bay to visit the ruins of Fort Amsterdam. This was the first Dutch military outpost in Caribbean, founded in 1631. Two years later, the Spanish ran them off. When the Dutch tried to reclaim the fort, Peter Stuyvesant (who later became governor of New Amsterdam--aka New York) lost his leg to a cannonball.

The remains of the fort are on the western-most point of Great Bay, about 3 miles from the cruise ship terminal. To get to the fort we had to climb a hill as we left town; we were both pretty sweaty, but it didn't last long. Once over the hill, we had to walk through a resort (the Divi) to get to the track leading to the fort.

Although there were no signs telling visitors how to reach the site, once there we found a nicely preserved site with some rusty cannons, and old communications shack, the ruins of one of the original dwellings, as well as the remains of the fortified walls. There was also a great nature trail and lots of explanitory plaques. There were also a lot of wild chickens, just like Maui.

After we'd been there about an hour, it began to rain and we took refuge in the communications shack with a couple from the French side of the island and another couple from Cape Cod staying at the Divi. We talked for a while waiting for the rain to let up. When it did, we all started down the hill.

Unfortunately, we didn't judge the rain that well; half-way down the hill it started up again and we were all soaked. The sun soon came out again, though and by the time we were back in town, we were almost dry. (As dry as anyone gets where the humidity hovers around 90%).

Before we went back to the ship, we wanted to explore the town. I suggested that we follow a little trail alongside a canal so that we could see the great salt marsh that makes up the center of town. We followed the pathway past the cemetery and found ourselves not on the lagoon but on a back street in Phillipsburg.

We felt a little out of place, (but didn't feel endangered). It was certainly a different world than the "Pirates of the Caribbean" version of Phillipsburg found on the boardwalk. We found small stores and people barbecuing under trees. We also found a Holiness Church of God congregation singing their own Palm Sunday hyms.

After walking through town (looking for a pay-phone) we headed back to the boardwalk. One continual source of frustration is our inability to call our kids; Kathy purchased an International Calling card at Costco. That's what we used in Europe, but here we haven't found a single phone that will accept it.

On the boardwalk, we stopped for a drink and Kathy got to talking to the server, a girl named Cynthia. She's been in Sint Maarten for nine years where she moved from Jamaica. Kathy asked her if she knew that is was Palm Sunday, and what that was. She did know. She said that in Jamaica, families got together to celebrate, but here most people ignored religious holidays and worked instead.

On our way back to the boat, we also stopped by the Catholic church and looked inside. It was not very ornate, but on the door we saw the church did have several Palm Sunday processions, but that we had missed them. When we first went by we couldn't see the announcements because of the crowds.

We got back around 2:00 and grabbed quick lunch. Both of us were pretty beat so we went to our stateroom, showered and fell asleep reading our books.

Sunday was the first formal night of the cruise, so we got dressed up and headed down to dinner. (Kathy looked beautiful.) In the past, formal night was always "lobster night". Of course, our boat has 2,000 passengers on it and every port has at least 2 or 3 cruise ships in it. I'm sure if all of them had "lobster night', there would be very few lobsters left.

(Years ago my folks took all of us, including Judah and Hosanna, on a 4-day Mexico cruise. Judah kept ordering more lobster. He knew what he liked.)

Anyway, the dinner was very nice with the lights lowered and candles on all of the tables. The food was really good also. I am a little disappointed that we don't seem to be having any traditional Caribbean food, though. I was hoping to see Conch fritters, black-bean soup, pulled pork, plantains and other local dishes.

Finally, after dinner, Kathy picked up her email and we went to a movie, AdventureLand. We stayed for almost 15 minutes before leaving and heading up to bed.

We had a good night's sleep. Only about 25% of my dreams were about grading students' exams.