Thursday, January 26th, 2023 Queen Victoria, Oranjestad, Aruba
Updated: Jun 20, 2023
This is our first visit to Aruba, another Dutch governed island, just off the northern coast of Venezuela. From the balcony as the ship docked, the port of Oranjestad looks to be quite well developed and I could see other substantial buildings off in the distance across the quite flat island landscape. A very pretty, gingerbread-like, building dominated the waterfront along with a Renaissance hotel. Our plan today was to just explore the town, do a bit of shopping and get lunch; the weather was quite hot and humid. There were three cruise ships in port and, unfortunately, Queen Victoria was docked the furthest way from the port exit – we had about a 10-minute walk to the port gate, past the usual line of trinket-selling huts. The dock side of the street along the waterfront is lined with tourist shops, restaurants and at the far end a small marina. By the time we got to the end of the road we were hot, sweaty, and ready for a cool a drink; our friends Christine and Ray had visited Aruba before and led us to the pool deck bar in the Renaissance hotel. The views from the bar were great and we enjoyed a refreshing break. There was a small shopping mall is attached to the hotel, which included a Starbucks, and many luxury brand stores. Wandering through the town we found ourselves on “Main Street”, which really isn’t. However it is a recently restored palm tree lined street with a streetcar line, though no street cars were running on the day we visited. Many of the shop buildings were empty, though there were a few tourist gift shops – I think this area still needs a little work. We found a pharmacy and stocked up on some essentials. More meandering brought us past the history museum, which was closed, and back down to the waterfront where we found a small open-air shopping area and a few restaurants. It was quite hot, and I was a bit thirsty, so the large beer that accompanied my sandwich went down very well.
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