West Indies Adventure: Charlotte Amalie, US Virgin Islands (12/19/2023)

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

The view from our stateroom of some super yachts in
Charlotte Amalie, capital of the United States Virgin Islands

Our included shore excursion, Scenic Island Tour and Mountain Top, by safari truck, made several
stops for scenic views of Charlotte Amalie, with Hassel Island and Water Island beyond the city harbor

The tour companies seemed to want us to
see our cruise ship from way up high

And look, Lionel Roberts Stadium - a baseball stadium!

View toward the cargo port

This was our safari vehicle today

View from Drake's Seat toward Magens Bay Beach, Hans Lollik Island, Little and
Great Tobago Islands of the British Virgin Islands, as well as Jost Van Dyke to the right

Another look at Magens Bay Beach, the best beach
in all of the Virgin Islands, nearly 1.2 km/three-quarters
of a mile of white sand in a protected Bay

Yes, Drake's Seat (c 1930s by the property owner at the time)
claims to be where Sir Francis Drake looked out for
enemy ships when he was a privateer

World Famous Mountain Top had pirates
everywhere, and also the Caribbean's largest
Duty Free gift shop, bar and observation deck

Many of our fellow travelers loved the variety
and quantity of souvenirs

View from Mountain Top of Magens Bay and Beach, Hans Lollick Island, and of
BVI Little and Great Tobago, Jost Van Dyle, and Tortola Islands, then a dark hump
 of USVI Grass Cay and the larger St John Island on the horizon on the right

Mountain Top is the home of Banana Daiquiri,
over seven million sold (but no free samples)

At last, a photo of the Ixora coccinea/West Indian Jasmine
in red that did not oversaturate

Alternanthera brasiliana/Brazilian Joyweed

Back in Charlotte Amalie, we asked to be dropped off in town.

Fort Christian (1672-1680, by the Danes who held these
islands until sold to the United States in 1917

Oddly, in the United States Virgin Islands, they drive on the left side of the road.

Emancipation Park bandstand, in a square
that was a slave market

Conch Shell Bower (1998, by Bright
Bimpong) was initially placed on the periphery
of the park, but in 2021 it replaced a bust
of Danish King Christian IX in the center;
the conch blower memorializes the 1848
Emancipation Proclamation by the Danes

The park also has a replica Liberty Bell, and
a plaque from Jamestown, VA recognizing
the stop the settlers made here before
going on to Virginia to establish the first
pemanent English settlement in the New World

I Heart ST T (St Thomas) letters

Vendors' Plaza

Grand Hotel (1840-1841) is now Grand Galleria
of offices and shops

Frederick Lutheran Church (1789)

Alvaro de Lugo Post Office (1937-1938)

Gate for the King Christian Walk (1699)

Dronnigens Gade/Main Street architecture for
what are now duty-free shops

Ended up at St Thomas Synagogue (1833), the second
oldest Jewish temple in the Western Hemisphere

The sand on the floor is in reference
to the Exodus

Interior of St Thomas Synagogue

The holy ark for the Torah

St Thomas Reformed Church (est 1666,
1846-1848) was mislocated on my map

Danish influence seen on the island of St Thomas

How many diamond and jewelry stores can there be?

Pissarro Building is where the painter Camille Pissarro was
born in 1830, and lived until he was 12 years of age

Market Square was originally a slave market; however,
now the descendents of the enslaved sell fruits and
vegetables; the roof was purchased from a European
railway company in the early 1900s

Christchurch Methodist Church (1867)

Bronze doors, perhaps, of the former
Bank of St Thomas

Sts Peter & Paul Cathedral (1848)

Scenes from the Bible are depicted on the
ceiling of the cathedral

Stained glass in the rear

Below the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual
Help is a statue of St Ursula, the Patroness
of the Virgin Islands

Lavallette House/Hotel 1829 (1829-1831 as a residence
for a ship captain, 1906 became a hotel)

99 Steps (1700s, made with ship ballast
bricks) actually had 103 steps

View west from the top of the steps

View southeast toward the cruise port

Three Queens (2005, by Richard Hallier) commemorates
Queen Mary, Queen Agnes and Queen Josiah, who led
a successful 1878 demonstration ("Fireburn") against
the Danish Government demanding improved
working and living conditions, and better wages

Blackbeard's Castle was closed for renovations; however,
you can still see statues of Blackbeard on the patio, and
the top of Blackbeard's Tower (1679, as Skytsborg Tower) 

Whether Thomas Teach ever used the tower is questionble, but the Danes welcomed pirates and privateeers who paid their dues.

Britannia House (1847, for the British Consulate)

Government House (1865-1867) is the residence of the
Governor of the US Virgin Islands; but the first two
floors are open to the public - Kent tried the locked
door, until a guard opened it and allowed us inside

We came to see the murals and paintings of Camille Pissaro;
however, the murals were by Italian-American
artist Peppino Margravite

A painting of the Government House

A painting (1954, by Ira Smith) of Fort Christian 

We tried upstairs in the reception room

Nymphs in a Grotto (by Thomas Hart Benton)

The ballroom

Another local painting

The governor's view of the harbor

Aha, Two Women Chatting by the Sea, St Thomas
(1856, by Camille Pissarro), but it is a print...

Another view of Fort Christian

Legislative Building (reconstructed 1874, as barracks
for Danish, then American troops)

We had enough energy to walk the 1.5 miles
back to the Havensight Cruise Pier

Took a detour through Yacht Haven Grande Resort
(where the super yachts were docked) with USVI letters
and a Mocko Jumbie/traditional stilt dancer
sculpture (2022, by Edney Freeman)

Welcome Handshake Mocko Jumbie
(2022, by Edney Freeman)

Tomorrow we fly back to Philadelphia from San Juan, Puerto Rico.