Malabrigo Cruise, St Maarten Part 2- Philipsburg

It's interesting to note that in both Nassau and Freeport, the mostly-stucco buildings are all painted bright colors. The streets are a riot of hues. In Charlotte Amalie, there was a lot of peeling paint on wooden buildings, and a lot of brick. In Philipsburg, there was also a lot of stucco, but most of it was painted white or a pale beige. I have no idea why, but I thought it was worth noting.

Also worth noting: with the exception of our impromptu bus ride around Nassau, we never wandered off the beaten track. I am sure the non-tourist areas of all of these islands are markedly different from the *public* areas.

 Philipsburg was flat. After the 99 steps, we liked that in a foreign city.

The streets were lined with palm trees and some other smallish leafy trees. It was all quite beautiful.

Close to the shore, there were splashes of color on the store fronts.

But deeper into the city, we were back to neutrals. Philipsburg is an old city- the streets are very narrow.

I liked this clock.

Many jewelry shops... many many

I was hot and tired and getting a little cranky, so we stopped at this open air pub for a mango smoothie. Cool, sweet, and delicious- it was just what I needed.

We missed the beach in Nassau, and were way too hot and tired to try to find one in Charlotte Amalie, but in Philipsburg, we finally got to stick our toes in the water. The beach fronted this street.

aaaahhhh.....

We were told that this beach was quite polluted due to the ship traffic, but it looked pretty to us. We weren't afraid to wade.

More aaahhhh.....

Deeann, lovin' the warm water.

For $15 you could rent a chair and an umbrella and get a drink served right to you on the sand.

  Yep. Paradise.

There were lots of alleyways in Philipsburg, each one was lined with more stores and restaurants. I had already spent my jewelry allotment, so all I bought in the city was a fridge magnet, but we definitely enjoyed our time there.

Philipsburg was our last port day. The final two full cruise days were at-sea days. We managed to have a marvelous time even without getting off the ship.