Travel 1 - A Dutch Island

The WestJet flight out of Toronto was uneventful and we arrived, at the side of the Princess Juliana terminal building, like second-class passengers, having to walk on the hot tarmac to the Arrivals section.  We had arrived on a Dutch Caribbean island.

Unlike the previously researched Google Maps, the island of Sint Maarten is made up of many small, but very steep, hills, causing the taxi to wind itself around narrow roads congested with traffic.  Thus, destinations that had appeared to be within walking distance ... were not.

Front (Main) Street

My choice of hotel, in the historic downtown Philipsburg, proved to be a good idea as it enabled me to stroll the attractive, narrow, one-way streets with ease.  Cars seemed to travel at a very leisurely pace, stopping in the middle of a street to drop off passengers — on one occasion, I saw a driver stop to buy an ice-cream — the following traffic just waited patiently, seemingly without a care in the world.  I have never seen so many duty-free jewelry shops on one street before, sometimes there were three or four within one building.  It was hard to imagine how many customers were really there to buy Cartier and Rolex watches.  Do people plan their vacations based on the number of duty-free shops?

Good night!

I stayed at the Pasanggrahan Hotel, on Front Street, an old structure full of character that is more than a hundred years old (Since my visit, a new annex has been added).  It is furnished with antiques, for example, four-poster beds, formally the Governor’s home and once visited by Princess Juliana and her husband.  It backed onto the beach where a new boardwalk (actually, made of stone) stretched the whole length of the bay enabling one to easily stroll from one end to the other, stopping for refreshment at the bars and surveying the tempting restaurant menus in preparation for the evenings dinner.

It was my intention to review the restaurants and eat fresh fish every day ... an undemanding task.  Naturally, my first meal was at the Pasanggahan’s restaurant, a delicious blackened mahi mahi fish with an excellent variety of vegetables.

It was about this time that I discovered that the island’s guilder was not a popular form of currency relative to the ubiquitous US dollar, and one should never hope to use the Canadian dollar ... even in most banks.

Some notable restaurants, and my choice of menu, are as follows:

• Green House - a popular and casual restaurant and bar near the harbour with intermittent service.  I enjoyed fresh swordfish steak stuffed with crab.
• Ocean - a fine dining restaurant in the highly recommended Holland House hotel with two talented European chefs.  I chose the ‘special’ that comprised grilled sea bass artistically set on a bed of spinach and rice - the desert was an innovative white chocolate cheesecake.
• L’Antoine - a restaurant with a wonderful view of the ocean, and a very amenable French manager.  For lunch, I chose an excellent Caesar salad with a freshly-made dressing and shrimps - the shrimps were so large and sliced in such a way that, for a moment, I thought I had been served lobster.
• Fusion - a small new restaurant with a comfortable atmosphere.  I had a nondescript shrimp tempora as a starter, but the  piece de resistance was a marvelous grilled and sliced tuna loin salad set on a bed of mango slices and lettuce, with a delicious ginger and honeyed soy sauce.
• L’Escargot - a very old restaurant recommended, surprisingly, by many.  I experienced a very long wait with the discourteous waiter continually saying. “Your fish is coming.”  It arrived on the fourth comment.  The tiny piece of Red Snapper was swimming in garlic butter, accompanied by vegetables that were extremely overcooked.  Therefore, attempt a visit at your peril.
• Should you be interested, the town has McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC - and I am proud to disclose that I did not visit any of them.

A Typical Side Street

With the narrow streets, bright colours of the historic buildings, and the beautiful flowers set against the steep mountainous backdrop, this is a place enjoyed by many photographers and artists.  Large cruise ships visit three or four times each week.  Perhaps, the French part of the island will be the main attraction next time, because one week was too long for such a tiny island..