Nassau, Bahamas

Our first port on our most recent cruise was in Nassau.  Oddly enough, I have never been there.  Honestly, I was not that interested in visiting. The only thing I knew about the island was that Atlantis is located there and there are lots of beaches.  

My husband put together a walking tour for us.  There were six ships in port.  We estimated that there were about 25,000 people total. The first part of the walk entails walking by a million people asking if you want a taxi or to go on an excursion or rent jeeps or ATVs.  It’s annoying.  Then you walk by all the shops in which people are trying to entice you to eat or buy things from them.  Finally we were in a regular neighborhood. We went to a house that was actually an art gallery. 

The exhibit was about dots.  This was my favorite painting.  It reminded me of a modern Impressionism.  

We then walked over to Graycliff which has a chocolate and cigar factory.  We checked out the chocolate factory store.  Outside they have umbrellas strung up, but most of them are broken.  It was disappointing.  The houses nearby had some beautiful murals though. 

There was a beautiful Greek Orthodox Church nearby, but we could not go inside because they were holding mass. 

The government building was tricky to get a picture of because the sun was right over us and the sidewalk turned into a one person walkway, but I liked this one with the Christmas tree.  It was well guarded. 

My favorite stop was the Balcony House Museum.  Build in the 18th century, it is believed to be the oldest standing house in Nassau. It was restored in 1992 to a museum.  In 1947, the female heir to the A&P grocery store empire bought it and lived there with her husband.  

The dining room had a lovely collection of teapots.  

The living room had a piano (in the right hand corner) and the windows were open to the breeze. 

The staircase was built with salvaged items from a shipwreck.  You can see the floor of the purple bathroom in this picture. 

I loved the color of the main bedroom.  There is a typewriter on the desk since her husband was an author and friends with Ian Fleming.  

The upstairs had two bedrooms and a bathroom and the downstairs also had a bathroom.  I loved this piece of furniture in the second bedroom.  In the 50s, the kitchen was still located outside the home.  There is a building there now that has a coffee shop. 

We did a small amount of browsing on our way back to the ship.  The straw market has both regular souvenir type items (t-shirts, shot glasses, etc) and there were also some wonderful wood carvings.  I thought I found a tshirt that I liked, but it didn’t fit right, so we didn’t buy anything on this excursion. 

Honestly, I don’t need to visit the Bahamas again.  I am not a beach person and if I want a beach vacation, I will go to my favorite island, St. Thomas.