Day 41 - 12/30 - Willemstad, Curaçao

For our second visit to Willemstad, we chose to take the little trolley tour of the Punda district as a HAL tour first thing in the morning. Sometimes it's nice to just sit back and have someone fill you with information and trivia you might not discover on your own. This little Choo Choo train covered the old city in a nice way and we saw the homes of the wealthy early Jewish merchant settlers of the island along with a stop at the National Archives which is housed in a building nicknamed the "Wedding Cake". We had hoped to visit Fort Amsterdam at the end of the tour, but it was closed due to the protest held today by the oil refinery workers over the uncertainty of what's ahead for their jobs following the sale of the refinery and the embargo on oil from Venezuela.

After the tour was over, we continued to walk the streets of this colorful city and enjoy the sights and sounds. We ate a quick lunch at McDonald's (the daily special which was a cheeseburger, fries, and a medium soda for $6). Afterwards, we continued our walk across the floating Queen Emma pedestrian bridge to the Mega Pier area where two larger ships (Mein Schiff 2 and Caribbean Princess) were berthed. There's quite a shopping area there and we climbed the steps up the Fort Kit wall to enjoy the sights from the wall. 

We continued our walk on the Volendam's side of the waterway. The buildings continued to be colorful and we toured the cathedral. The real treasure of the day was our discovery of the Kura Hulanda Hotel and Museum. This hotel covers a 8 block area and has all sorts of gardens and buildings to explore. The museum contains an extensive collection of memorabilia of antiquity plus several buildings documenting the history of slavery in the Caribbean and the United States. It was a very sobering display. 

Before our evening entertainment, we came back to the ship for a shower and cool down. After dinner we boarded a coach which took us on an after dark city tour on our way to Mambo Beach Boulevard where the Folkloric show was performed outside in this large mall and entertainment complex. Afterwards our bus took us to Fort Nassau where we had excellent views of the many fireworks displays throughout the city plus the lights of the harbor area. It was very surprising to see the extent of fireworks displays and it wasn't even New Year's Eve.

Back at the ship, we joined the in progress 2nd show by Jeff Peterson & Indy, his super cute white dog. He's a magician and the magic was good and the dog was adorable. Afterwards we spent time at Billboard Online (dueling pianos) which is another favorite venue for us.  

With an 11pm departure, we spent time outside on deck 9 watching the opening of the Queen Emma floating bridge and our subsequent passing through its opening out into the open sea and the short sailing to Aruba.

We're meeting friends again in Aruba tomorrow and are looking forward to it. Stay tuned.  

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