Monday and its Barbados. We leave the boat and head for the port, find a taxi that is willing to carry us around and show us the island. Hugh is the man that got stuck with us… not really… as it turned out, we all had a great day together.
We then left the port and headed to the East to visit our friends Richard and Gail Seale at the Foursquare Distillery. We caught them at the start of a tour and were able to tag along enjoying the tour of the distillery and the bottling plant. The highlight of the tour was the visit to the tasting room where we got to try the Rum Sixty-Six and the Doorly’s XO as well as the new 3 and 5 year old Doorly’s Rums. Adding J. D. Taylor Velvet Falernum to the Doorly’s XO gave us a Corn & Oil Cocktail that just couldn’t be beat. As usual it is always a pleasure to spend time with the Seale’s here in Barbados.
Next, we headed cross island to Cherry Hill to visit Larry Warren and his family at the St. Nicolas Abbey. The Warren’s have been restoring the abbey for several years now and each time that I return it is absolutely amazing how much they have accomplished. This year the still is running at full production and there is a new 12 year old St. Nicolas Abbey Rum for sale. This is rum that needs to be added to any serious rum collector’s shelf. Larry was the perfect host, as usual, allowing us to spend time wandering around the grounds and looking at the Steam-powered cane crusher used to produce the cane syrup that is fermented to make the rum. After a fine lunch at the Abbey it was time for us to bid adieu to the Warren’s and their beautiful St. Nicolas Abbey. Next we headed toward the western coast to visit a number of the “rum shops” that the island is famous for.
The next few hours took us from one rum shop to another and beaches in between. The rum shops are really Bajan bars. In the more traditional “rum shops” you buy a bottle of rum, your mixer and how many glasses that you will need. The glasses are filled with ice…then taking the mixer, glasses and rum – you mix your own drinks tableside. Six of us drank a rum and coke at each stop - the bill averaged about $ 16 to $ 18 Bajan or about $ 8 to $9 dollars American. This is absolutely a wonderful thing that I wish could come to Key West or anywhere in America. Working our way back to the ship, we managed to visit around nine of these rum shops, and four or so beaches. To say the very least, our group had a really enjoyable day in Barbados.
Now we are back aboard the Celebrity Summit headed for St. Lucia where we will disembark at 8:30 am for another adventuresome day on the Rum Cruise. ;o)
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