St Thomas, the cruise port of nightmares. Six floating behemoth lined all available dockspace downtown Charlotte Amalie and Crown Bay.
Main Street, the shopping Mecca of the Caribbean, was crammed - several thousand eager shoppers all heading for the same mile long stretch in town.
Ergo, I headed for 'the hills', namely one parrallell street inland and uphill from there. Not a tourist to be seen.
Once past the trashy tourist strip, Charlotte Amalie is actually quite pleasant with many historic buildings, unusual architecture and many step-streets, one of them leading to - amongst other locations - Blackbeards Castle. Blackbeard allegedly never put foot onto this island, but - why not embellish the lone stone tower on top of a hill with some unlikely fable? Good for business - 12 dollars to enter.
I negotiated the dreaded 99 steps, plus a couple extra, to said castle. I was climbing along meticulously aligned bricks, which originally had served as ballast on historic merchant ships. I reached the top despite paralysing heat and was rewarded with a glimpse of Blackbeard's Statue.
An old Synagoge with floors of pure white sand nestles against the town's hillside. A few churches of different dominations are sprinkled amongst residences ranking from palatial to barely standing. The old Britannia House, Hotel 1923 (??), The Governors House and the Legislature (old army barracks now being re-painted) are all relatively 'deserted' as compared to shoppers row.
I headed for Glady's Cafe, supposedly an authentic unspoiled Caribbean eatery, hidden in a narrow alley in town. It looked invitingly unpretentious, but the restaurant wall covered with photographs of 'famous guests' should have been my first clue. Unfortunately Gladys Cafe's secret has made it into the big wide tourist world, with the result that food and service have gone south. I had ordered Conch Fritters - reportedly the ultimate Caribbean culinary treat - which consisted mostly of gloopy dough and tasted not surprisingly of pretty bland dough. I could not detect anything that may have originated in any tasty mollusks. I chewed my way through one of these brown blobs and left the rest.
Back at the ship's dock, scores of Iguanas were lounging on the rocks along the shoreline, blending perfectly into the background, and thus being ignored by the tourists with eyes and mind focussed on hunting bargains instead of wildlife.
A large freighter was unloading Beneteau sailboats from the top deck. The masts of the boats were stepped and their sails furled and tied up - The Moorings Charter Company was importing another flotilla to ply the turquoise waters around the Virgin Islands.
