January 20, 2020
With apologies to Johnny Cash and his great ballad, “Folsom Prison Blues,” I share with you our ride on the “St. Kitts Scenic Railway.” Actually it was our second time on the SKSR, the first time was our first visit here. Since then we’ve just wandered around, passing through the touristy areas out into town where there are a couple of great churches and a super local bakery.
The excursion begins with a bus ride to the train, then follows an hour and 45 minute train ride, and a bus ride along a different route back to the ship. Altogether it’s a 3 hour tour (the passengers set sail for a 3 hour tour). The excursion is a 30 mile ride with 18 of it being on the railway.
The tracks were laid more than 100 years ago and the railway initially hauled sugar cane, not passengers. The current rolling stock was made specifically for the Scenic Railway when it went into business in 2005. Each carriage has an air-conditioned lower section and an open air upper section. We picked the upper section because you can see more of the beautiful countryside.
A hostess narrates history of the railway and St. Kitts, and a local choir goes from car to car singing to the guests. And passengers are treated to complimentary drinks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic – we chose virgin pina coladas. Some folks were slopping down the free booze.
I took a short video which is too big to upload to the blog, but it shows the cars rocking from side to side as we made the circuit. I don’t think the speed of the train exceeds 20 miles per hour and when we arrived at a bridge – and there are several along the route – speed dropped even lower.
We went through a number of small villages, passed old plantations – some with the plantation houses and parts of the mill still standing.
Back on board the Carnival Breeze I gave my astronomy talk, “Are We There Yet?” When we first came on board, I met with the entertainment director who changed the schedule because he said there were some conflicts with what home office originally designed. Well, I was surprised when we came back to the room last night, and the original schedule was in the Fun Times – that meant I was doing the astronomy talk tonight and not tomorrow. And it appears I will repeat it tomorrow and not Wednesday.
The schedule is no problem for me, but someone should have nudged the Fun Squad because whoever was to be in attendance to pass out complimentary Academy of Fun pins was absent (this is the second time, and the guests really look forward to getting those little pins – I don’t know whether they collect them or whether they go on eBay). Hopefully they’ll get it worked out for tomorrow’s show.
After the talk, a couple we met at dinner the first night of the cruise came up to Bonnie and suggested the 4 of us go to dinner together. We’ve chatted with them often and Bonnie immediately said, “Yes.” It was an enjoyable time and we went to tonight’s variety show with them. Larry and Maritza are from Miami. She came to Florida from Cuba when she was a little girl. The two of them met at a hospital where they both worked, and somewhere during their 40 years of marriage they opened a series of beauty salons – from which they are now retired. Really nice couple.
Well, BonBon is not blogging tonight, so this is all you get. Enjoy the pictures below.
TTFN
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| View of the Atlantic Ocean from the car |
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| One of the plantation sites with the mill to the left and furnace chimney to the right |
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| Crossing one of the bridges |
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