Curaçao day 3, Willemstad

Day 3, off to the city..
Another beautiful morning, the forecast for the week shows 30 degrees everyday, I wonder if that ever gets boring? I saw there is a snowstorm back home, I guess we picked a good time to leave.

This morning we had breakfast and headed into Willemstad, the capital and such a beautiful, colourful city. I haven't seen another place like it, every building is painted a different colour. The styles are all a little different too, it gives off a happy vibe.

We parked close to Rif Fort, an old fort, the sides still intact, a few cannons still remain.

 Now it is a  gateway for cruise ship passengers. There are the usual high end stores, Diamonds international, Tiffanys, Tommy Hilfiger etc. And in between a mix of cafes and tourist souveniers, it's not a place for us to shop, way overpriced. We headed along the water edge, it was filled with locals, selling artwork, sundresses and painted signs.

 


     

    

To reach the main area of town, you have to take the wooden bridge. It is really cool thing to see. The bridge isn't fixed, it moves up  and down on the water, you feel a little drunk. It is actually on floats. The cool part is, it swings open, very slowly. This allows large boats to move in and out of port. They give you a warning to stop walking on, and then close the bridge. There is nothing stopping you, if 

your already on the bridge and want to go for a ride, lol. Rob says the bridge is called the Queen Emma..I have never thought about it, but he says all bridges have names.

  

  

Once you walk over the bridge, you are in the main city. So many shops, restaurants, a few hotels. So many little side streets, with cafes and places to eat. We stopped for coffee in the middle, it was shaded. The temperature was climbing and we were glad of the shelter. It was fun to listen to the accents of all the people. Today we heard a lot of English accents, usually we hear mostly Dutch tourists, hardly any American, I think they like Aruba better.

   

Rob was in charge of directions, I was happy to wander into shops, I was hoping to find a hat, but couldn't find anything I liked. Rob wasn't bothered if I went in or not, it was a good way to cool down anyways.  After a few stores, I gave up looking. Rob wanted to go back to a bar we had visited last time, it is so cool. He found it and because it was 11am, I knew it meant beer time..it was purely by luck, this little bar was right next to door a great hairdressers! I sent him for a drink, he was happy, I was happy! You know when your hair is to the point, were you could cut it yourself..I was passed that. So another tradition continues, of me getting a makeover in another country..this time the lady spoke some English( unlike the Italian hairdresser) I told her to cut it short and away she went. So much easier :)

  

     

 

  

The bar is called Bizarro  Mundo, it looks like it's falling down,  it is very ececltic and fun to see.

     

  

Another neat place to see here, is the floating market. All the fruit and veg

you could want, sailed over from Venezuela.  It is only about 40 miles to Venezuela, not sure how long that would take, these don't look like very fast boats. 

   

There is a lot of fun things to see here in town, and all so bright and colourful.

     

One way to make recycled art!

 We almost made it out of the city, but Rob found another place to stop for beer,a local brand called Montana, it was a red beer, he liked it..but then there are few beers he doesant like.

  

 I think these are nuns..not sure why they are playing soccer. The nuns were outside an art gallery we visited last time, it's called Alma Blou gallery. We purchased an original painting of two little girls, on our last trip. Unfortunately they didn't have the same artist, I think she set up her own place. We did like a large yellow picture, but it was close to $3,000 so that's not going to happen!

After a busy day of walking, we were ready to eat something close to home, causal dining, low key. So we headed to E Lanternu, a Dutch run restaurant, just a few minutes away. The temperature doesn't cahnge much at night, maybe a couple of degrees less, it's perfect for eating outside. 

 

  

Our meal was great, I had the BBQ ribs and Rob had the ginger chicken, service was relaxed but not slow. No one is in a hurry to make you leave. Rob went up to pay. It was then we found out, that the internet was down, so no credit or debit cards..I searched my purse, I had $37, not enough. The waitress said the internet goes down a lot in Curaçao, she didn't seem phased. She asked where we were staying, and said ok, write it down and you can come back and pay us tomorrow! Now that's trusting. I gave her the $37 although she didn't ask for it, and told her we would be back. As we got into the car we both felt bad, there weren't any ATMs on our drive home., or we would of gone straight back. Tomorrow we will stop in, I might take some thank you flowers..it's Valentine's Day aswell.