Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, has witnessed Spanish invasions and hosted pirates, who made it their headquarters while raiding the surrounding areas. The heritage of old Nassau blends the Southern charm of British loyalists from the Carolinas, the African tribal traditions of freed slaves, and a bawdy history of blockade-running during the Civil war and rum-running during the roaring 1920's.
The sheltered harbor bustled with cruise ship hubbub, since two large Carnival ships were docked here in addition to our ship. A block away, broad, palm-lined Bay Street was alive with commercial activity. There was an air of subtle civility and sophistication, derived from three centuries of British rule. There were lots of souvenir shops as well as high-end luxury stores such as Gucci, Breitling, Cartier, etc. However, once we got away from the duty-free shops there were some lovely, quiet neighborhoods.
This afternoon we went on a tour to the Graycliff Hotel and Restaurant for a wine and cheese pairing from around the world. It was only a five minute drive from the ship so we were wondering why they just didn't walk us over there. The driver took us to the main entrance of the property and told us he would return in three hours to pick us up. We were a little surprised since we had no idea what was happening. There was only five of us and we wandered into the hotel/restaurant looking a bit bewildered. After a couple of minutes of standing in the entrance hall someone walked up to us and asked if we were here for the wine-cheese pairing. Finally, we had a direction! She escorted us to a lovely dining room with an intricately carved, grand mahogany dining table. She invited us to take a seat at the table, then left us with no further instructions. We sat there for about 10 minutes, wondering what was coming next. We hadn't expected a full meal, and a couple of people had already eaten lunch on the ship. Yet, here we were sitting at an incredibly beautiful table set in an elegant, formal style. We were in our shorts and t-shirts feeling a little under dressed in such luxurious surroundings.
After sitting at the table for awhile with no one coming to greet us, we started discussing taking a taxi back to the ship and asking for a full refund. Just then, a very nice young man entered and asked us to follow him to the wine cellar for a tour. We politely followed--WOW!! We have now seen such a wine cellar!!!! We walked through the original doors to the former dungeon which has been converted to a cellar with the third largest private wine collection in the entire world! The guide told us that the cellar had a very dark background and people had died here. Now, there are over 275,000 bottles of wine with a wine list of 106 pages. The collection is worth an estimated $20 million. We inched our way through the thousands of bottles which were divided by quite narrow passageways. We walked very carefully, making sure our arms and handbags were close to our side so we didn't knock over any of these very expensive bottles of vintage wines.
We followed our guide as we meandered our way through the sometimes very arrow aisles. We entered an elegant room with a lovely chandelier over a large wooden dining table. This room was initially a water tank but was converted to a stunning dining room with a gorgeous hand crafted wooden dining table in 1974. The entire collection of wine in this room was from Italy.
As we continued our tour through the cellar we passed the oldest known bottle of wine in the world. It was from 1727 and is worth $200,000. We walked very carefully past this bottle. The last room we saw was still being organized. It contained souvenirs collected by the owner, including a couple of Cuban staffs which are believed to keep away evil spirits.
Once we left the cellar we had an opportunity to walk through the magnificent gardens. Unbelievable that a garden this large could exist in the middle of the city. There were two beautiful swimming pools, completely secluded and surrounded by tropical plants and flowers. There was a cattail bush with red hanging blooms which looked like red caterpillars. There were also elephant ears, milk wine lilies, red dragons, periwinkle, among others. There were also two beautiful koi ponds filled with very well fed fish, with a separate area for turtles.
Our guide led us to the cigar studio, where employees, hired from Cuba, carefully rolled 180 cigars each day. Although the people who create the cigars were all from Cuba, no Cuban leaves are used because of the embargo.
Lastly, we visited the chocolate factory where all of the candy is made by hand. The sample was delicious but we were strong and managed to walk away without buying anything. Pretty impressive!!!
We boarded the van and returned to the ship. It's our last evening on board so it's time to say goodbye to the staff and passengers. We enjoyed a delicious dinner and the company of our favorite waiter. Now it's time to close the suitcases (hopefully possile) and put them out for collection tonight.
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