Another leg of the voyage has come to a close: Bermuda was awesome! I’d describe it as a blend between England, Kenya and Los Angeles. It has a colonial, tropical feel like Kenya, England’s charm and the brightly colored small houses, hills, feel of L.A. We spent our two days there touring the island on two wheels and two feet.
Shortly after lunch we left the boat and found ourselves in the town of St. Georges, where we walked around for a few hours.
We found the “unfinished church”
A garden
And toured the Bermuda Perfumery. Y’all know how much I love smells, so I really enjoyed smelling my way through.
We walked by the water –
Sampled some rum cake and strolled through a grocery store…
…Where Matt bought a local drink: a Dark & Stormy (ginger beer + Black Seal rum)
Brown baggin’ it = SKETCHY. That can was strong!
Later in the evening, when we were pooped out from walking, we met blog reader Sarah!!!
Sarah, originally from Canada (coincidentally the same hometown as Angela!) has lived on Bermuda for four years for her company. She was kind enough to spend two hours telling us the ins and outs of Bermudian life over a round of drinks. Thanks for the nice evening Sarah!!
Since we’d been cocktail houring it for 2 hours, we were all famished when we got back on the ship for dinner.
I attacked the bread bowl –
And sipped this delicious meritage –
I started with a spicy tortilla soup –
Followed by a Caesar salad (ate half and shared the rest)
I had the Monkfish for my entree (ate about 3/4)
We skipped dessert in order to get to the comedian’s show, but I had a small glass of port whilst there
An hour later we found ourselves on the top deck at some kind of pool party fiesta with chips, cheese, guac and more.
I’d rather have dessert so I had a cone and a bite of cookie
The chips weren’t that appealing, but somehow a handful still went in (must have been the wine!)
Imagine this plate was full 
We came home to find one of the Bears’ cousins in our room. He said to tell Beaker, Bock + Churton hello!
Definitely didn’t do my best intuitively eating (or drinking!) on Day 3, and I woke up looking pretty wiped out the next morning. It’s amazing how much not listening to my body affects every inch of me. While I may have still been eating (many) more calories than I need the other days, when I listen to my hunger, my body doesn’t feel or look bad. It’s when I stop listening and get on autopilot eating that how I feel and how I look start a down spiral. Luckily, things improved on days 4 and 5 🙂
Day 4: Scoot!
Matt, Andrew and I wanted a chance to run through Bermuda, so we got up early, disembarked the boat and ran a hilly 3.8 miles around St. Georges. My quads could feel those hills! We ran with some goats and by forts – running is always such a cool way to see a new area.
Breakfast was a delicious mixed bowl: a base of that delicious dessert-like muesli, mixed with oats, plain yogurt, banana, a few raisins + almonds, a few banana compote slices and half a box of All Bran. Plus coffee (blech!) You know how when you’re active those normal filling oat-y breakfast are too much? That’s how this was, but it carried me through to a 2pm lunch, so it was worth being too full for a while.
Bermuda is famous for its scooters. I think I was the only one not excited about the scooters. I am not a daredevil and would never want to even sit on a motorcycle. But I had to go with the flow, so I hopped on behind Matt and held on for dear life. It ended up being lots of fun (although scary at times) and I’m glad I did it. Wish I had some more photos, but taking photography and holding on tight are not easy to do at once!
We toured the whole island end to end – about 22 miles.
At about 2pm we stopped for a picnic at the famous Horseshoe Beach.
Karen and I both got salads for the base of our lunch. This was mostly veggies with some pasta salad on top.
The picnic included goat cheese and pepper cheese with a really good loaf of bread (I had a generous hunk of bread and 5-6 cheese pieces?)
And a log of salami (I had a bite)
A handful of (expensive – oops) tropical fruits. The red plum things were GROSS!! Not sure what they were. Like a bitter pomegranate? The kiwis and figs were good though.
And a bottle of wine
I only had a sip – didn’t want that mid-day dehydration
Cheers
We were planning on getting in the ocean until we noticed paramedics crossing the beach. Turns out that a man had gotten a horrible sting from a Man Of War jellyfish and was moaning and convulsing in pain. He had tentacle burns all around his body. The paramedics took him away with an IV on a stretcher. The boys still got in the ocean for a few minutes (said it was freezing) but I happily stayed on shore!
Once we got back on our bikes, we made it to the other end of the island and had a few beers at a pub called The Frog and the Onion!! (Did you know onions are all over the island and locals are called “onions”?!)
I had about 1/3 of a beer out of the group glasses. Scootering is tiring and it was hot! My knees were killing me from being spread open all day – I could barely walk when I hopped off for the final time after our long ride back.
Later that evening I was so happy for a shower and real clothes again.
We ordered some cocktails while we waited for dinner.
He got a Whiskey Sour; I had a “Sex at Sunset,” vodka, Frangelico, Amaretto and sweet vermouth. Loved it! I sipped on my drink before, during and after dinner and made it last over 2 hours.
Had a glass of white with dinner (still sippin’ the cocktail!)
I got the Chilled Shrimp + Avocado Soup for an appetizer. It was awesome, but I gave about half of it away to my group (I wasn’t that hungry this night and was trying to get back to eating intuitively)
Coconut Tilapia with Jasmine Rice. It wasn’t that good, so I had about half and left the rest
The Pumpkin Gnocchi was a real hit though!! I had some of Matt’s on a plate
Desserts included a Coconut Cream Pie, which I’d give about a C+ (had 2 bites)
And a Cappuccino Cream Tart, which got an A+! (Had 2 bites)
Still sipping that cocktail after dinner! We did a little dancin’ to a classic rock performer
And then went to the comedy show by the Blackstreet Boyz, who were hilarious
We were too exhausted to stay up much later and went to bed with this bunny 🙂
Day 5: Bikeathon
Thursday’s breakfast was another mixed bowl plus some fruit and tea. Contents: muesli base, cottage cheese, peaches, banana, walnuts, All Bran. Held me most of the day again!
The plan was to rent bikes, take the ferry to the other end of the island, bike around, have lunch and return later that day by ferry. Unfortunately it was pretty overcast and drizzling, but we decided to go anyways. Karen didn’t want to bike so she rented a scooter again.
Matt wore my Garmin and we determined we were averaging about 10 miles per hour and could probably bike the whole island in less than 3, so instead of turning around we just kept going.
We biked up a huuuuuge hill to see the views from the lighthouse
Where we snacked on a Quaker Simple Harvest bar and some almonds
~15 miles in we stopped into a pub for some beers. (Well, the boys saw the word “brewery” and insisted we stop 🙂 )
Andrew and I split the sampler
MY did it taste good. I only had about 1 of these 5 in sips.
I was pretty hungry and out to taste some local food at some point. (We didn’t eat in a restaurant on the island because Bermuda is very expensive and our cruise food was included, so I’m glad I got to try this soup!) I ordered a Fish Chowder, which was DEVINE!!
It came with sherry pepper and rum, which you were supposed to pour in
I added a little of each to be authentic. I ate half the soup and a slice of bread and shared the rest with the boys.
We had already biked from that upper left point to the middle of the island
Sometime during our meal it started pouring. When it let up we set back out, but we got caught in a monsoon. It was a mess. Puddles everywhere, heavy rain and 8 miles to go!
Somehow we survived! 24 miles in 2 hours and 13 minutes. (Although the whole trip was closer to 3.5 including stops). The island was hillier than we expected, but I wasn’t even that tired – guess my legs are used to biking around Charlotte.
Once back on the boat we had one thing in mind: the hot tub!!! We enjoyed that for about 30 minutes and then had lunch (at 5pm!). The boys dove into huge plates of burgers and fries and I had a square of pizza, an apple and a bite of oatmeal cookie. I didn’t have my camera with me, so there’s no photo.
After a GLORIOUS shower, we went up to read on the upper deck
And could barely keep our eyes open, so we went back down for a cat nap. Much better. But sometime during this process, my camera DISAPPEARED!! I didn’t come close to having a heart attack – I think I DID have one. But luckily a bartender found it and all was well. Matt had left it in the chair.
While the camera was missing I had a club soda with cherries (which tasted just as good as a cocktail).
After drinks we went to see Elton John. Loved this show because I love his songs (except for Benny + The Jets, which sucks)
We had a late dinner due to our late lunch.
Vino (x 2)
Coconut Scallops with a Rice Cake
The Veggie Cutlet with Stuffed Cabbage + Potato. Boy was this good!! It was a potato-based patty and the cabbage was stuffed with none other than quinoa along with raisins and pine nuts. I had about half of the cutlet and all of the cabbage.
Dessert was this little chocolate orange blob (had half again)
To kill some time before the next event, we got more drinks. I didn’t have anything though – I don’t really like drinking after dinner.
The highlight of the evening was the Chocoholic Buffet!!!
There were tons of chocolate sculptures
And cakes
Platters and platters of chocolate desserts
Fondue fountains
A sundae buffet
I piled my plate high with the intention of tasting lots of different things.
But unfortunately, these desserts weren’t that good. They tasted a little stale and very crisco-fake. I guess that’s what happens when you try to feed a whole ship chocolate at once!! You know it’s bad If I push it away. So I probably had the equivalent of 1 normal piece of chocolate cake in bites? I was full, but surprisingly not stuffed or sickly. I wanted to go back for more, but I knew it wasn’t worth it and was glad I just walked out.
We’ve got two days at sea until we’re back in Baltimore. I’m not quite ready to come home 😉
Miss you guys!!
You look great with a little tan!
That’s amazing! 🙂 What a lovely post, great pics, and glad you’re having an awesome time relaxing!
www. HelpMeghanRun .com
This was such a fun post to read! You seem like you are having such an amazing time. I love the pictures
😀
Thought this was supposed to be a KERF free vacation… lol Glad it’s not … sounds like your having a great time & glad u found your camera 🙂
All of that food looks incredible! Looks like you’re having a great time! 🙂
GREAT recap!
Is it true most people who live in Bermuda say:
Have a Bermudiful day!
when you walk out of the shops ?? lol..
That’s what a friend of mine who lives there said 😛
yay Kath! I am loving these updates!!! I feel like I AM on a vacation just by READING. i love it!!!
Enjoy the rest of your trip!!
P.s.I LOVE that black shirt you wore on your bike ride! Where is it from?
Oh my. I don’t know how well I’d do eating intuitively either! But you are making super choices!
Makes sense the mass-produced chocolate bar wasn’t too tasty.
Those scallops looked divine, so did the local fish chowda. Yum.
Looks like a great time!
You look awesome. Somehow you are looking much skinnier on your vacation than in you do at home.
Oh wow, so much fun! Thank goodness you got your camera back, I would have been a wreck if that happened!! 😯
The island looks beautiful. I love scooters! I’d be ecstatic about them. Of course I haven’t ridden one in 15 years, so maybe not lol.
Jenn
Your trip looks awesome!! That day of biking sounds absolutely perfect!
Glad to hear you’re having fun!!
Bermuda looks awesome! I love the water– it’s such a beautiful color. The food looks great, too!
Wow, I’m glad you found your camera! I would have been freaking.
Looks like a great time! I love Bermuda!!
looks like you guys are having a great time! enjoy the last couple of days – they go by too fast 🙂
Kath,
It was great to meet you! Sorry that the weather did not really co-operate when you were here. There were some crazy rain bouts yesterday for sure!
I have seen Man of Wars at the beach plenty of times, but have never seen anyone get stung. Scary!
I have never biked the island and now you have inspired me to do so. I’m putting it on my to-do-list.
Enjoy the rest of your holiday.
Sarah
It’s been so “weird” without you around this week. Love the recap, it’s like we’re really there with you!
Chocoholic buffet?! Are you kidding me?! I can only imagine how heavenly that room would have smelled… YUMMMM.
Pumpkin gnocchi! Alright, that lusciousness aside, it looks like you are having a phenomenal time! Everything is beautiful and you look so happy with the hubs and fam!
Oh my goodness, so many tasty-looking things! I’m especially intrigued by the pumpkin gnocchi and the fish chowder.
Did you actually go into the lighthouse? I’ve been to a couple in Florida (Ponce Inlet and St. Augustine), and they’re always quirky and fun.
I don’t know if I can read this blog anymore- Benny and the Jets rocks! 😉
Looks like you are having an awesome time – GREAT recaps!! Ugh I love cruises soooo much – but the amounts of food and alcohol on those ships are just insane!! Can’t wait to hear about the rest of your trip!
Oh my gosh what an exciting time! Would love to know which cruise line you guys used for future reference because it seems very laid back and allows you to make your own schedule.
They’re on Norwegian.
once again, loving these cruise posts!!
the pumpkin gnocchi looks SO yummy!
ahhh look at you all tanned!! 😀
You’re making me want to go on a cruise!
I love reading about the trip. That chocoholic buffet looks dangerous! I don’t know if I would have walked away like you did, but I will try to follow your example the next time I’m in that situation 🙂
My husband and I went to St. Georges for our honeymoon last summer and traveled around the island – it is so fun to see your photos from all of these different spots! I’m glad you tried the fish chowder…we make it at home, and it is delicious! Enjoy the rest of your stay.
Amazing recap Kath!! I looks like you guys are having such a wonderful time. All of the food looks WONDERFUL! Sorry to hear the weather wasn’t great for your biking trip, but it sure looks beautiful anyways! 🙂
Enjoy your last few days of the cruise! We’ll be glad to have you back! 🙂
Hey Kath, Just thought I would let you know how much I enjoy hearing about your cruise! It makes me want to go on another one so bad!!!
Too much to comment on so I’ll just stick with this
1) your barney butter shirt is incredible
2) Ask Sarah if her company’s hiring. I could stand a move to Bermuda.
wow that was awesome! i was green with envy the whole time. glad you got to have that experience!
i never thought i’d be a cruise person, but this actually looks pretty awesome!
hey i’m from where angela is from too!
OMG I am in love with the towel elephant! He is adorable!!! Too bad the chocolate buffet wasn’t great. I totally would’ve just has that for dinner if I was there.
All I can say is WOW! and jealous! 😀
You ate a tamarillo! I tried one while I was living in New Zealand, and you’re right… blech! It’s probably the only fruit/vegetable I’ve ever encountered and NOT liked.
Enjoy the rest of your trip!
As much as I am glad Kath (and family) are having a great time, am I the only one who noticed that on scooter day there seemed to be a fare amount of drinking and scooting? (Wine at lunch, and then beers at the pub.)
Like drinking and driving, drinking and riding (even bicycle riding) don’t mix.
Love the recap! The cruise looks fabulous and Bermuda looks amazing. The chocoholic night looks great!
I just found your blog last week and am impressed by your intuitive eating. Thanks for being honest with us when you don’t too! I’ve been learning to listen to my body the last few years but am still working on how to not OD on sweets.
How do you pass your uneaten food off on your friends or hubby so successfully? My DH is in great shape and watches what he eats, but he can’t leave food uneaten (the whole starving-kids-in-Africa mindset). So if I order dessert and take just a few bites, he can’t help but eat the rest even if he’s full… then I figure I might as well help… = chocolate cake tummyache. Maybe I should quit worrying what he eats and feel no guilt at pawning food at him. Any tips?
What an amazing time!!!! I love it when you travel! 🙂
great updates. it looks like you are having a great time. I can’t believe that you saw elton john?!
My knees were killing me from being spread open all day.. hahahahaha. I’m such a five year old
lovin the updates! not sure if I would have been as strong willed re: the chocolate! your lil towel friends are adorable! I’m sure the Bears are super jeal 😉
looks like such an amazing time! the pictures are great!
those red fruits look sort of like hachiya persimmons? if they aren’t super ripe, they are incredibly astringent.
Oh my, the chocolate buffet got to me! I’ve never been on a cruise (mostly of the fear of buffets- food all day long available all the time? I would have no control over myself!). Glad you found your camera! My camera fell out once when I was skiing, and I thought it was a lost cause, but fortunately, it was turned in to the lost and found!
Hey Kath,
That red fruit might have been tomate de arbol or tree tomato, at least that’s what it’s called in parts of Central and South America. If so, it tastes much, much better pureed and slightly sweetened as a juice/smoothie!!
What a fun trip…glad to see you’re having a good time!
I was excited to see the Somers Supermart…I am distantly related to Admiral Sir George Somers, who colonized Bermuda for Great Britain. I’ve never been, but always wanted to go!
What great pictures! Looks like you guys are having a great time. I’m jealous of all your soup consumption, I’m a soup-a-holic. That chowder with the sherry and rum pour in’s sounds right up my alley!
Have a great rest of your trip.
PS. I love your Barney Butter shirt! 😀
Haha, your post reminds me of all the fro-yo I ate on the cruise I went on several years ago–it’s so hard to resist all the good food!
WOW what a great post Kath, I am so living vicariuosly through you!
I’m loving these posts of your cruise! Looks like so much fun and I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself! Looking forward to hearing more! 🙂
Hi Kath! Elton was on your cruise ship? How fun! Cute Barney Butter shirt 🙂 Glad you’re all having such an amazing time!
Wow, what a great trip!!
Are you sure that wasn’t Jeffrey Allen? He does an Elton John tribute show for Norwegian cruise lines…
What a GREAT recap, Kath! I LOVED reading and seeing ALL the pictures – such fun times! I wouldn’t want to come back yet either 🙂
It sounds like you’re having so much fun! And I’m jealous that Elton John is on your cruise! Although I’ve going to have to disagree with you re: Benny and the Jets…