We needed to get moving today...three days of limited or no exercise coupled with a fair bit of junk food on Sunday meant we needed to do...something today. We were up early, and resumed our normal morning routine of brewed coffee from the International Cafe and breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room. Healthy eating: fruit and egg beaters and salsa. We made a couple of phone calls that we could make that early in the morning, then lathered up with sunscreen, grabbed our Tilley hats and headed out. It would have been appealing to go to Water Island and Honeymoon Beach today, but we've had plenty of sun already this cruise, on Antigua and on (not so) Super Bowl Sunday, so instead decided to do a walking tour of downtown Charlotte Amalie that is described in the St. Thomas shopping guide found at the shore excursions desk on the ship.
...until we finally made our way back down the hill.
We set out, stopping for just a few minutes for G to feed brioche to the iguanas (I swear they keep track of the Emerald Princess arrivals and look for G to come bearing breakfast), and then for him to get a bottle of Mountain Dew from the Pueblo supermarket.
That new sidewalk that was put in between Crown Bay Marina and Pueblo has changed that walk for us; it's no longer a death-defying venture. We stopped at the post office just west of the waterfront and mailed a couple of letters, and then slowed our walk a bit as we strolled along the waterfront. We stopped in at Seaborn Aviation, then the inter-island ferry terminal, and then continued until we came to Vendors Square, where there are dozens of vendors selling souvenirs under tarps.
I still get a kick out of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix being "local mail".
From this central point, we started following the walking tour, walking up to Emancipation Park and then up to the area of most interest to us, Blackbeards Castle and the 99 steps.
OK, let's get one thing straight here. 99 are not a lot of steps. I mean, it sounds worse than it is. But let's also be clear on this: the 99 steps are really 104 (but I guess that 99 sounds better than 104)...
...but there are at least 50 steps to climb to reach the 99 (104) steps.
And then there is another long set of steps after the 99 (104) steps to get to the entrance on Blackbeards Castle.
But it's all very pleasant; beautiful historic buildings and occasional breathtaking views of the three cruise ships docked at Havensight today.
The most predominant structure at Blackbeard's castle is the Skytsborg, or Sky Tower.
It was built in 1679 by the Danes as a watchtower for Fort Christian, located below on the waterfront. It's not known how or when the structure became known as Blackbeard's Castle, but Blackbeard (Edward Teach) was known to pirate in the waters surrounding St. Thomas in the 1700s. Detailed walking tours of Blackbeard's Castle are offered for $10pp, but we have put that on our list of future St. Thomas things to do. Buying the tour provides you a day pass to the resort located at Blackbeard's Castle and use of the three pools located there. It's something where we'd want to be there at 9am when they open.
Instead we continued to walk around and take in the views we could enjoy for free...
The walk back to the ship got hot after about 30 minutes. G stopped in at a bar and bought me an ice cold water bottle and himself a beer, and they allowed us to continue on back to the Emerald Princess. We arrived back on the ship at 2:30pm, and I immediately grabbed a charging cord from our cabin and went up to my favorite quiet location, the Adagio Bar, to make calls and Internet. G did the same but in the back of the Horizon Court Buffet. At 4pm, it suddenly occurred to me that, since we had not eaten lunch, I was getting too hungry to wait until dinner. I was in the buffet getting some cheese and crackers for tea when G phoned me...we met up in the back of the buffet until 4:30pm, when first I, and then G returned to the cabin to shower and dress for formal night.
The cheese and crackers had dampened our appetites a bit, and so we just had an entree for Dinner with Darko and then those darling and delicious cookies (that they call gourmandises) and coffee for dessert. We were on a schedule tonight; the most traveled passengers, friends Steve and Peggy, had invited us to join them and two other couples for this cruise's Captains Circle party. We are enjoying this social part of cruising so much; we know all these couples from past years, and Steve and Peggy are the ones who first inspired us to cruise for more than just 20 days (they are on for 70 and one other couple with us, Jackie and Dave, are here for 60). At home we're an oddity; here, not so much.
And that ended the night for us. We had the choice of two shows tonight, production show What a Swell party in the Princess Theater or magician Timm Metivier in the Explorers Lounge, but it's been a long day and TV from our laptop is more appealing.
Captain Nick has promised us smooth seas after 10pm tonight (that's four minutes from now) and until we return to St. Thomas next Monday. I could have wept with joy at that news. I'm only sick of bouncy seas; smooth ones are my best friend.