Wednesday April 15th, 2026 Queen Anne, Willemstad, Curacao
- Neil Wylie
- Feb 2
- 5 min read
It’s been 22 years since our last visit to Willemstad on the island of Curacao just off the coast of Venezuela, and we have fond memories of this small but picturesque town. Today Queen Anne is docked at the exact same place where the Queen Mary 2 docked all those years ago. Curacao was captured by the Dutch East India Company in 1634, and they established the town of Willemstad; it would soon become a major player in the slave trade. The town spans the mouth of a waterway, St. Annes Bay, that connects to a large inland bay called the Schottegat. The town oozes Dutch influence with architecture very reminiscent of Amsterdam.
The dock location made the town very walkable; the sun was out and even in the morning it was already getting pretty hot and as we walked down the gangway, we could already see the Rif Fort just a short walk away at the end of the dock. The Rif Fort occupies the northern side of St. Annes Bay and at one time would have provided menacing canon fire to any approaching unwanted ships. But unfortunately, nowadays the fort has been completely bastardized with a small shopping mall built into the lower walls. Rather than proceed across the amazing Queen Emma pontoon bridge to the allure of the multi-colored Dutch houses we decided to start our day in the Otrobanda district, literally meaning “other side” – on our last visit we had bypassed this district and so it seemed appropriate to pay it a visit.
The Kurá Hulanda Museum was opened in 1999 with a focus on the Dutch slave trade and African culture, located just a few minutes’ walk from the Queen Emma bridge it was easy to find. Before going into the museum we sat at the Rustiq outdoor café and sipped virgin Pina Coladas in the cool shade while admiring a beautiful mural of an African lady adorned with an amazing headdress symbolically adorned with many messages. Given the focus on the slave trade I was a bit surprised to find the first building we entered to be dedicated to ancient African and near eastern culture, including some very old artifacts from 500BCE. There was also one building devoted to Benin bronzes from the 14thand 15th centuries; this was the first time I’d seen bronzes like this and there were both small scale statues as well as relief plaques. Given the detail and quality of the bronzes it’s no wonder that Benin has been pressing governments around the world to return these amazing artifacts. Another building focused on Caribbean history and culture with headdresses, canoes and weapons.
However, the most moving and impressive building in the Hulanda Museum depicted the tools and story of the slave trade. I’ve seen some slave trade artifacts before, but in most cases, I found they were modern day replicas; the Hulanda has a large collection of genuine shackles, neck braces, manacles and other assorted tools of the trade. Seeing these items and reading how they were used was incredibly emotional for me; I find it so hard to believe that human beings could treat other human beings like simple commodities on slave docks only a stone’s throw from where the museum is now located. One section of this building even recreated the conditions below decks on a slave ship; descending a steep ladder I found myself in a tight low ceilings space with a long shelf where the slaves would be chained up and packed in, literally like sardines in a can, for the long journey across the Atlantic. I had extremely mixed feelings about this experience; I felt sorrow and empathy for the people who had to go through this horrendous situation, but also incredible anger and hatred for the slavers.
Just beyond the museum we found Hulanda Village a quaint little enclave of brightly colored shops and cafes with a nice central square. The gallery of the artist Bagira, the lady who painted the mural at the Rustiq café, contained several of her works - mostly large scale brightly colored scenes of people in the Caribbean; we really liked her work, but the prices were very high. We also found a tiny little chocolate shop that would surely not pass copyright infringement if visited by the Hotel Chocolate people; unfortunately, with the temperature being so high there was no chance of any chocolate we purchased making it back to the ship before becoming hot “chocolate”.
The Queen Emma bridge, or the swinging old lady as it is locally called, connects from the Otrobanda side to the Punda side of Willemstad across the St. Annes Bay. The bridge is of pontoon design with about 15 very large wooden boats supporting a wooden deck. There is huge “hinge” on the Otrobanda side and the last boat on the Punda side has two diesel motors and a small control hut; when required, the bridge is opened by the motors driving it in a sweeping quarter circle until it is parallel with the Otrobanda side – it takes only a few minutes to fully open. Originally built in 1888 and much renovated over the years, the bridge originally conveyed people, carts and then cars, with a toll, but was pedestrianized in 1974. When first opened people with no shoes could cross for free. Even though it is a big tourist attraction the bridge is also very functional, providing an essential pedestrian link between the two halves of Willemstad. After crossing the bridge I stopped to watch it in operation; the motors started up, gates at each end were quickly closed and off it went leaving many people stranded on the bridge – stuck until it returned to the Punda side.
The buildings on this side of the town were wonderfully painted and had classic Dutch architecture. The streets were very narrow with lots of tourist shops, cafes and bars; we adopted the well-testing explorer technique in order to stay cool – dodging into an airconditioned shop about every 50 yards along the street and pretending to show immense interest in their wares.
I had picked out a highly rated coffee shop, Van Gogh Specialty Coffee and City Roastery – it was about a half hour walk from the bridge, but by the time we reached the shop we were too hot and sweaty to drink coffee. Located on the lower floor of an old house, complete with verandah and multiple nicely appointed rooms, Van Gogh was very inviting and oozed character – a large coffee roaster and ancillary equipment filled one of the smaller rooms. The lemonade and variously topped open face sandwiches were mediocre at best, and the high prices (50USD) pushed our experience into the “pretty disappointing” range.
Willemstad is a very beautiful town, not your typical Caribbean island stop; it’s easy to wander, very vibrant and lively with lots of shopping and eating options and a really good museum.
Comments