The first thing one notices about Willemstad is the pastel skyline created by the Dutch architecture that line the waterfront. The locals say that it was the 19th century Govenor-General Albert Kikkert who is responsible for this colourful architecture. The story has it that he suffered from migraine headaches that he attributed to the harsh refection of the sun on the white buildings of the city. Thus a decree was issued to paint the structures any colour other than white. Buildings were then painted Caribbean hues of blues, greens and reds. Our tour guide takes the story a bit further as she informs us that the Albert Kekkert also owned the paint supply store…
Willemstad is a safe and beautiful place here in the Caribbean. We are docked right next to the city for a full day and then some, 8 am to 11 pm. We wandered the town taking in the floating fish and produce markets taking our photos when we ran into someone from the ship that recommended the Casper Bus tour ($15.00 USD). Timing wise this worked out perfectly as we had just walked the town and the bus was leaving at 12:30. The tour takes you out of the town for a few stops including a taste test at the original factory that makes the Curacao liquor and then a few viewpoints before stopping at a great local beach, staying is optional for a later pick up. Funny thing for us is that we signed up for the tour at noon saying we would run back to the ship for our beach stuff, the representative said we would had to hurry as the timing would be tight, it was at least 15 mins to get back to the ship. So of course we pushed it and went for it. Now for those who have been here before know about the pontoon bridge. Quickly, the pontoon bridge was built in 1888 and as the rest of Willemstad is a world heritage site and is still in operation today. It is a foot bridge that connects the downtown side of Willemstad to the other side, in our case where the ship is docked. This city has a huge harbour where many vessels come in and out of during the day. When these vessels enter of exit the bridge swings open and closes, sometime up to 20 minutes at a time. There is also a free ferry that takes you across during these periods. Okay, so for us we walk very quickly over the bridge to the ship collect our beach stuff and head back. As we are heading back with minutes to spare, I say to Jan, just watch the bridge will be open and we will not be able to cross, ha. Well guess what, I see this huge freighter, fully loaded headed toward the harbour and I am thinking that there is no way something that big can go in there. We come around the corner and there is no bridge crossing, it is fully open, it is 12:25, we are going to miss the tour as I here this opening could last he full 20 minutes. Well I see the ferry just loading down the way and we make a bee line for it. We were 10 minutes late of the tour, they waited for us as they thought that we may have had a bridge problem, hilarious.
Anyway, great day, great tour, great beach, our guide came back and picked us up as promised and we where the only ones and had the bus to ourselves. So when in Willemstad use Casper Tours, small company, very personable.
Back on board by about 6:30 after using some local bar wifi to get ready for our invitation only Collection Voyage cocktail party on the aft deck under the stars with our steel drum band player. Great night, we met the Hotel Director, Craig Oakes along with our cruise director, Rick and the Executive Chef, Avinash Khatri.
Yes a day behind, sea day tomorrow should help with catching up. Hope you enjoy our day in Curacao…
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