QM2: A Trip To Nevis Island

Wednesday morning the Queen Mary 2 arrived at St. Kitt’s, the neighboring island to Nevis. Since we’d been to the larger island before, we signed up for a boat trip to Nevis. After about an hour we arrived at Charlestown, and were shown the local sights in a safari van. Chief among them were the building where Alexander Hamilton was born, which was subsequently turned into an assembly room and also the local history museum. The Episcopal church dated from 1690 and there were stone walls remaining of the former slave market. The economy of the island centered around sugar and the laborious, dangerous process of boiling the cane was cruel to the islanders until slavery was abolished. From the town our van took us to Montpelier Plantation, which had been the grandest sugar manor of them all. Today it’s a luxury hotel where Princess Diana stayed once upon a time. We saw the mill where the sugar cane was processed before we left the grounds. Finally, we had lunch at Pinney Beach, at the Lime Beach Bar. We were served a typical Caribbean meal of grouper filets, rice and beans, and coleslaw, all washed down with plenty of mild rum punch. Then Jim frolicked in the water while Dan observed the ocean, before we were transported back to our ship. -Dan