Friday 17 February - Back to Barbados and visit to St Nicholas Abbey and Heritage Railway

We arrived in Barbados. Before leaving the ship we had to go through an immigration rigmarole and then set off to find our excursion. Today was a visit to a plantation, St Nicholas Abbey with a ride on its heritage steam railway and a rum tasting.

Royal Caribbean's 'Enchantment of the Seas'. Looks like one they should have sold on some time ago!

The coach took us through Bridgetown, past the cricket ground and the street where Rihanna was brought up which has been renamed in her honour.

We arrived at St Nicholas Abbey and watched the engine being prepared and then we're invited to board the carriages.

Mahogany tree. The wood is at its best when the tree is at the end of its life - around 250 years old

The train took us on a short but lovely trip and then back to the house where we were shown some old footage of the plantation from the 1930s whilst we had a very tiny tot of rum.

The loco is over 100 years old

The locomotive runs on a mix of coal and wood

The view from Cherry Tree Hill over the Atlantic

We were then shown how the rum was made using traditional methods and were given a quick look around the house before heading back for a late lunch.

A couple of enthusiasts were allowed on the footplate

Gone to change the points

Putting the sugar cane into the crusher

Syrup from the sugar cane comes out into the drip tray and the crushed cane is then collected, dried and burned to generate electricity for the process

Before the days of electrically-powered crushers

Aligning the canes to go into the crusher

The distillation plant. 92% proof alcohol is produced which has to be watered down to levels that can be legally sold

Mahogany tree

Gin made during lockdown. None was sold as the family drank it all!

The rum is stored in old oak whisky barrels for it to mature. The longer it is stored, the darker and more expensive it becomes.

The bottling room

Gin still

The house faced into the north-east prevailing winds so that the cooler air cold come through the house. The toilet was at the back of the house. It reminded me of the monasteries in England where the monks took their drinking water from the top of the stream which would pass by the monastery and have the privies at the down stream end of the monastery complex.

In the evening we retreated to the Amber Lounge to listen to the cocktail pianist and realised that they have a cocktail menu.  There was only one roving waiter serving there and after some time we managed to attract his attention. E wanted a pina colada and I chose one of the listed cocktails. The waiter promptly put his hands acros a good chunk of the menu and said that only the ones I could see were available.

I chose a 'Filibuster's Quest' and, to our surprise it came in cut glass with ice with an accompanying 'book'. I opened the 'book' to find a few pages talking about the name of the cocktail and there was a bottle inside.

The drink itself was excellent - and powerful - and was much enjoyed.