Tourist for a day: Bridgetown and beyond

Welcome to the last installment of the "Tourist for a day" series. Now that you've seen my house/apartment, my neighborhood, and learned about the public transportation, it's time to venture into "town". Bridgetown is the capital city of Barbados, and is the hub for shopping, tourism, and also public transportation (just about every bus route starts in Bridgetown and heads out to the rest of the island in a hub-and-spoke fashion).

This series of photographs will give you an idea of what it's like in Bridgetown. The caption will appear ABOVE the photograph. Enjoy!

A local cricket pitch. Cricket is a game, somewhat like American baseball, that is quite popular in the nations of the former British empire ... except in the US and Canada.


Houses along the bus route into town:


The entrance to the main university in Barbados, the University of the West Indies:


One of the streets leading from the "drop-off" point for the bus, on the outskirts of Bridgetown.




Remind you of home?


The main shopping street, Swan St., is closed to vehicles. Here you can buy groceries, clothes, hardware, appliances, home furnishings, etc., but almost everything is imported from the US or the UK.


One of the stores, Cave Shepherd, tries to promote its multinationalism. If you look closely, atop its awnings are flags from Barbados, the US, France, the UK, Canada, and Germany.


An outdoor market where locals sell fruit, vegetables, and nick-knacks.



Broad Street is the main street of Bridgetown. The embassies of several countries (Brasil, Finland, the U.S. are those I have found so far!) are located on Broad St., along with a small shopping mall, some fast food restaurants, and several outlet stores.


Xinan, this photo is for you buddy! (It's the entrance to the American Embassy ... notice the security camera pointed away from me. After choosing my location carefully, I had to wait for the guard to go around the corner before I could take this shot.)


Yikes! Where did they come from (Mormon missionaries)? So yea, I followed them to their lunch spot and talked to them. One is from Arizona (Univ of AZ), the other from Montgomery Co., Maryland (not in school yet, wants to go to BYU).


I ate a tasty bar-b-que chicken lunch at a fast food joint called "Big John's".




Barbados is famous for beaches, but the island is not one continuous beach. Here's a view of the more typical coastline and harbor port. The boat is proudly marked "Barbados Coast Guard".





Barbados has a few landmarks. This is "Trafalgar Square" in Bridgetown. I visited another, slightly more famous, Trafalgar Square in August, and I can testify that their similarities stop with their names.



This is one side of the "Parliament Buildings"


Broad St., heading back into downtown. Parliament is to my right; Trafalgar is behind me to my left.


Who says Bridgetown lacks culture?




Ahh, my old friend, the Barbados Post Office (main branch).




Hope you enjoyed your tour of Barbados and Bridgetown in our "Tourist for a day" series!