Today was our first port of call, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Our amount of time in port was rather limited (2 to 10 PM) as were our options for shore excursions. We arranged a private car tour of Old Town and the rest of San Juan via Fairway Transportation - we highly recommend their services: http://fairwaypr.com/index.html. Our driver, Orlando, picked us up at the port in a beautiful new Lincoln Navigator and we were off in style. Besides the comfort and class of our car, it was also a relief to have someone driving who knew the area and how to navigate the crazy traffic in San Juan. Man, what a mess! Tiny, crowded streets and what Orlando called the "Puerto Rican way" of driving (i.e. half-hearted observance of stop signs, aggressive merging and constant tailgating) would have made any visitor behind the wheel a nervous wreck, but he took it all in stride with a smile. Orlando gave a great tour and provided a lot of information about his city, his U.S. territory and his people. We wound around Old Town with stops at the two forts that flank the city (the latter included a beautiful park encompassing it and a seaside historic graveyard), a couple of beautiful churches, the capitol building, the governor's house, the business district in the newer part of San Juan and the large Hilton proprety that lies between the new and old sections of town ( this was a request by us for future reference in case we want to stay here again). After the tour, Ashlee and I made the foot-climb from the port back up into Old Town for a peek in a few shops and a stop for a couple of beers at the Old Harbor Brewery (San Juan's only microbrewery). Well worth the walk! As we wondered back to the ship for our late evening departure, we surmised that another visit to San Juan and some of the rest of Puerto Rico is definitely on our list of things to do in the future.
In the den of our home we have mounted on the walls 25 different framed collages representing 33 years of ticket stubs, photos and other memorabilia from our life together. As we were working on our 18th year, we thought maybe it was time to get a little more organized in remembering what we have done. This blog was the answer.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
San Juan via Orlando -Caribbean Winter Retreat - Day 5
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
Today was our first port of call, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Our amount of time in port was rather limited (2 to 10 PM) as were our options for shore excursions. We arranged a private car tour of Old Town and the rest of San Juan via Fairway Transportation - we highly recommend their services: http://fairwaypr.com/index.html. Our driver, Orlando, picked us up at the port in a beautiful new Lincoln Navigator and we were off in style. Besides the comfort and class of our car, it was also a relief to have someone driving who knew the area and how to navigate the crazy traffic in San Juan. Man, what a mess! Tiny, crowded streets and what Orlando called the "Puerto Rican way" of driving (i.e. half-hearted observance of stop signs, aggressive merging and constant tailgating) would have made any visitor behind the wheel a nervous wreck, but he took it all in stride with a smile. Orlando gave a great tour and provided a lot of information about his city, his U.S. territory and his people. We wound around Old Town with stops at the two forts that flank the city (the latter included a beautiful park encompassing it and a seaside historic graveyard), a couple of beautiful churches, the capitol building, the governor's house, the business district in the newer part of San Juan and the large Hilton proprety that lies between the new and old sections of town ( this was a request by us for future reference in case we want to stay here again). After the tour, Ashlee and I made the foot-climb from the port back up into Old Town for a peek in a few shops and a stop for a couple of beers at the Old Harbor Brewery (San Juan's only microbrewery). Well worth the walk! As we wondered back to the ship for our late evening departure, we surmised that another visit to San Juan and some of the rest of Puerto Rico is definitely on our list of things to do in the future.
Today was our first port of call, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Our amount of time in port was rather limited (2 to 10 PM) as were our options for shore excursions. We arranged a private car tour of Old Town and the rest of San Juan via Fairway Transportation - we highly recommend their services: http://fairwaypr.com/index.html. Our driver, Orlando, picked us up at the port in a beautiful new Lincoln Navigator and we were off in style. Besides the comfort and class of our car, it was also a relief to have someone driving who knew the area and how to navigate the crazy traffic in San Juan. Man, what a mess! Tiny, crowded streets and what Orlando called the "Puerto Rican way" of driving (i.e. half-hearted observance of stop signs, aggressive merging and constant tailgating) would have made any visitor behind the wheel a nervous wreck, but he took it all in stride with a smile. Orlando gave a great tour and provided a lot of information about his city, his U.S. territory and his people. We wound around Old Town with stops at the two forts that flank the city (the latter included a beautiful park encompassing it and a seaside historic graveyard), a couple of beautiful churches, the capitol building, the governor's house, the business district in the newer part of San Juan and the large Hilton proprety that lies between the new and old sections of town ( this was a request by us for future reference in case we want to stay here again). After the tour, Ashlee and I made the foot-climb from the port back up into Old Town for a peek in a few shops and a stop for a couple of beers at the Old Harbor Brewery (San Juan's only microbrewery). Well worth the walk! As we wondered back to the ship for our late evening departure, we surmised that another visit to San Juan and some of the rest of Puerto Rico is definitely on our list of things to do in the future.
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