COLONIAL CITY SANTO DOMINGO

SANTO DOMINGO THE CITY OF FIRSTS 

Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, is the oldest city in the New World founded in 1496 by Christopher Columbus’ brother. One of the Caribbean’s most interesting cities, its colonial old town with limestone 16^th century buildings boasts the first cathedral, the first monastery and the first hospital built in the Americas. 

 Santo Domingo also has the first metro system in the Caribbean but I prefer to explore on foot especially along the cobbles of Calle las Damas (Ladies ‘street) which got its name in 1509 when Maria Del Toledo, wife of Diego Columbus, stepped out with the fashionable wives and girlfriends of the day.

To get into the role, I am staying at the unusual Casas XIV in the heart of the Zona Colonial. Thehotel is found in a series of renovated 16^th century houses.  Entering my home for the night in Casa Del Pozo is to step back in time into this former convent filled with antiques and artworks with a courtyard featuring the original well. 

CHURCHES OF BERMUDA

Unfinished church in St George's

BERMUDA  is famous for its pink sand beaches, turquoise oceans and of course that Triangle, where countless souls have supposed to have disappeared.

Bermuda is thought by scholars to be the island in Shakespeare’s The Tempest about a group of noblemen brought to a magical island by a violent storm. And indeed the tiny 21 mile island was discovered by a shipwreck.

St George’s is one of the earliest English settlements in the New World where British sailors were  shipwrecked in 1609 while travelling to Jamestown, Virginia. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site there is  twisting alleyways leading to quaint shops and cottages and many Anglican chapels including the lovely St Peter’s Church and Their Majesties Chappell. The magnificent Gothic Unfinished Church was meant to replace St Peter’s in 1970 but the project was abandoned. Now the mysterious building, open to the elements and nature, is a popular wedding spot.

Throughout the island one finds hundreds of churches which wouldn't look out of place in English villages and towns. 

St Peters church St Georges

Cathedral, Hamilton