Tuesday 3 January 2012

St. George's, Bermuda

Since Gord and I were unexpectedly spending an extra day in Bermuda, we took the bus to St. George's (about 20 minutes away).

St. George's (formally the Town of St. George or St. George's Town), located on the island and within the parish of the same names, was the first permanent settlement on the islands of Bermuda, and is often described as the third successful English settlement in the Americas, after St. John's, Newfoundland, and Jamestown, Virginia. However, St. George's is claimed to be the oldest continuously inhabited English town in the New World. Although Jamestown is normally described as having been founded in 1607, this was actually James Fort, which was not converted to Jamestown until 1619, seven years after the founding of St. George's. After the capital of Virginia was transferred from Jamestown to Williamsburg in 1699, Jamestown fell into disuse. Only below-ground achaeological remains of the town exist today. As the claim of St. John's to official establishment in the 16th Century, and to permanent settlement since that date are difficult to verify, St. George's is not simply the oldest successful English settlement in the New World, but was also the first such town established.

It was windy and kind of raining when we got there.

You can tell that it is an old settlement ... the buildings were awesome!

The weather got progressively worse as we were walking around (raining and windy) but we kept moving.

Look at those waves!

Gord got too close to the edge and got soaked by a wave.

When we caught the bus to go back to our hotel, it was still drizzling and the sun (what little there was) was setting.

It was a fun place to explore and I'm glad we got to see it.

3 comments:

Teresa said...

Happy New Year hope you have a smooth ride back home.

Tatiana said...

That look stunning, such wide pretty streets.

Way Out Wear said...

Too bad about the weather but it looks like a lovely place, great photos!