Thursday 3 July

Another honeymoon posting.
On our first full day of our honeymoon, we went over to Philipsburg on the Dutch side of Sint Maarten. Some things we hadn't known prior to our trip: the island is duty-free, there are lots of jewelry stores (especially on the Dutch side), there is more going on on the Dutch side. So we walked about, doing some shopping, getting, among other things, some jewelry for Rachel and some liquor (the prices were fantastic! Generally, bottles of liquor were half of what they are in the US). We chanced upon Nick Maley's That Yoda Guy shop. Maley helped create Yoda and worked on the Mos Eisley Cantina scene in the first Star Wars movie. When we walked into the store, an Englishman greeted us and, at first I didn't think it was him, but, indeed, it was. I got a picture with him after purchasing something. He was a very nice guy, who said he has plans to expand his store and has some stuff from the Star Wars movies, as well as some other movie memorabilia.
We also saw the Guavaberry Emporium, the building of which is described on their website as "The old cedar townhouse on Frontstreet is a local landmark & legend. Built on the site of an ancient synagogue (abandoned in 1781), it was once the Governor's home. Now it is the Guavaberry Company's World Headquarters." So, as far as I know, this was the only point of any Jewish interest on St. Martin (although, apparently, on the nearby island of St. Eustatius, there is an archaelogical dig of a synagogue (thanks, Barry!)).
After about five o'clock, the streets were clearing out as most of the people walking on the boardwalk and along Front street, as the two cruise ships which were docked were departing a little after that point. So, around six o'clock, we took a taxi ride back to our hotel and that was our evening.

Friday 4 July

After checking out and taking a taxi over to the airport (which was fairly empty, but it could just have been the morning), we then caught our flight to San Juan where we had our connecting flight to PTP.
When we arrived in San Juan (yes, we were briefly in the US for Independence Day), instead of just going to the next gate over to catch our next flight, we went through customs, then picked up our checked luggage, then deposited it with the TSA agents, then had to go through another security checkpoint, even though we had already gone through one in St. Martin, and then finally were at our gate.
After we got to our gate, we got on a bus that took us only about 200 feet away(!) to our plane. After we were on the plane and started to taxi, we then waited for an hour to take off - apparently, it was due to some radar problems in the Guadeloupe area(?).
We then arrived in Guadeloupe and took a cab to our hotel. Whilst leaving the airport, we noticed cattle grazing nearby. In fact, as we went, we kept seeing more and more cattle, which was weird to me (finally, on Wednesday, I would find out why).
Eventually, we got to the hotel and it was fine - we then looked at the bar, the pool, and then the beach on the hotel property, which was neat.
We then walked over to the synagogue, which was about a ten minute walk from the hotel, and inquired as to when services would be that evening. We headed back to our hotel and got ready for shabbat and headed over to the synagogue.
There were between 30 and 50 men there and several women there. For Kabbalat Shabbat, they were using the regular Sefardic tune thing until they reached Mizmor LeDavid, when they used the tune that is commonly sung in America. Some of the youths were wearing shorts, though all of the adults were wearing pants.
After services, we headed back to our hotel, where we had some food and went to sleep.