Anyway, this blog post is going to be about bikes, not swimming...
On our first full day on the island, Rob and I asked our hotel concierge where we could rent bikes to ride the Railway Trail we'd read about online. He offered this advice: "Well, pretty much the only place to rent bikes on the island is at Eve's Cycles...They're real nice and affordable and they'll take care of you...Let me call them to make sure they have them in stock." - and he proceeded to get us map, point it out, jot down the bus route we should take to get there and all that jazz. We crossed our fingers, hoping that the rental bikes were of decent quality.
So we get to Eve's Cycles and we pay $30 each for a full day rental for these crap bikes:
We actually refer to them as "pedal bikes" there, because if you just say "bikes", people will think you are referring to the other, most popular form of transportation on the island, bikes with motors - mopeds. We're pretty peeved at the crappy bike quality, but figure that with our own helmets and pedals/shoes, they'll at least feel okay and get the job done.
Danielle on her bike in front of the bike shop.
Rob on his bike.
So we hop on the Railway Trail that we read about here: http://www.bermuda4u.com/Transport/bermuda_transport_cycling.html
To keep the mopeds off the trail, they installed these barrier things at every road intersection. Only a few had a bike-able ride around option. So we were forced off our bikes too many times to count during the ride. At the first few crossings, I thought I'd be funny to perform a cyclocross dismount and running remount - but that got old real fast, and by that I mean TIRED, since our bikes weighed somewhere around 45 pounds!
We rode the Railway Trail in a westward direction from the bike shop in Paget. It was mostly flat, with a few exceptions, like this one:
Looks like it'd be fun on a "real bike", huh? On our rental bikes, we walked down it, not because we lack the skills to do so safely, no, rather I blame the geometry on the bikes. They were designed for the 62 year old retirees who appear in those magazine ads for Irritable Bowel Syndrome medications - riding through a grassy meadow, their backs straight and perpendicular to the ground.
This one was so steep that I didn't dare even walk my bike up this one. This trail led up to Gibb's Hill Lighthouse.
I bet that would be really fun on my Super D bike!
All along the trail, we saw signs like this one:
Every view was stunningly beautiful. We stopped a lot to just look out and stare at the water. One time, we even stopped to pick out our favorite house color in a neighborhood (I couldn't decide between the turquoise blue house or the salmon orange one).
When it came time to eat lunch, we stopped in a less touristy area, in the Southampton Parish. The first restaurant we found didn't take VISA, so we scrounged up the money we had left over from taking out cash at the airport. We had 11 dollars and some change. So we check out the menu to see if we can afford anything there, and much to our surprise, we can.
We leave the bikes parked out front, no lock, only our helmets snapped around a spoke and the frame. We figure they'll be fine, as long as we keep an eye on them. We sit at the counter and ask nicely for menus. We decide, we fold up the menus, and sit patiently waiting for someone to take our order. In the 5 minutes we spend waiting, 2 people come in separately and get their orders taken right away (they were locals, knew the waitresses by name). We think it's weird, but we don't want to be rude and demand service. We eventually speak up and ask, "Can we please place an order?" The waitress we asked replied, "You haven't ordered yet? I thought the other waitress had you?" Nope. She asks the other waitress, and she says, no, I thought you had them? Laughter on all ends takes place. We smile, and we explain that we were afraid that we'd pissed them off somehow, and that's why they weren't taking our order! So we feel better about the whole lunch ordering thing, but man, are we hungry! We had been riding for about 2 hours at this point.
For $11, we both enjoyed a homestyle chicken sandwich and some onion rings. Not bad for the price.
After lunch, we get back on the bikes and continue pedaling, in search of the end point at the Royal Naval Dockyard. We had no idea how far, how fast, or how much longer we had, but at this point, we were okay with that, as our "comfort" bikes hadn't yet turned uncomfortable.
There are lots of things to stop and see along the way, like the historic Fort Scaur.
Fort Scaur view from the top
Fort Scaur info
At some point in between the Fort and the Dockyard, my butt, hands and wrists started to hurt pretty bad. I should've brought a pair of cycling gloves from home. Even though I was wearing a decent pair of cycling shorts, my butt hurt from the seat. It was one of those huge, winged shape types with springs underneath. I guess it was just too soft. I don't know really though, as I've never had to ride more than a block or two on a bike of this price point.
Once we got to the Dockyard, we'd been riding for a little over 3 hours total. We did a little shopping at this indoor mall, buying a Bermuda t-shirt each, a candy bar and some vitamin-enhanced water. At this point, my butt and hands still hurt, so we decided to take a ferry back to Hamilton, then ride a short distance from Hamilton to Paget to return the bikes. Here's a short video as we approached the ferry.
Oooh, we're bad. We didn't stop at the stop sign! :(
Speaking of stop signs, early on in the ride, I forgot to look to my RIGHT for any oncoming traffic and almost got plowed over by a local. Oops. From then on, Rob had to remind me to look right at intersections.
The ferry ride was great! It was so much faster than the Ocracoke ferry I took earlier this year. I think I was just happy to have my butt off that horrible bike for 20 minutes.
Back in Hamilton, we stayed off the Railway Trail, and instead braved the traffic downtown a couple of miles until we got back to Paget and the bike shop. Here's the last video clip of the day, riding in traffic:
After that, we caught a bus back to our hotel, napped for a bit, and then....
I will continue my Bermuda story blog later. Promise.
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