Second harbour tour
Our history lessons continued when were told that after the successful campaigns in the War of Independence, the French generals asked for Rose Island as a reward for their help. This was categorically refused. On our way back to Newport we passed by Fort Adams again. This was built to protect Newport and is a large fortress. Very little is heard of it as it never came under attack.
The large naval presence in Newport and the military use of the fort came to an abrupt end in the early 1970s when President Nixon closed the base. The Atlantic fleet of destroyers were all re-deployed (70+ ships) and the Naval base closed.
Walking around Newport
Ashore we walked towards the town clock looking for somewhere to have a quiet drink. The first couple of bars we walked into were full. We walked on up the street. At the top to our left we could see another bar with tables outside. We had a drink sitting outside and watched people in cars go by. I was fascinated at the drivers texting or reading their smartphones as they came up to the pedestrian crossing just in front of us. We skipped having a lunch and just enjoyed the rest.
Back down the street, across the small park, in front of the large buildings, we could see shops and we walked along window shopping. The Newport Fat Face store had much the same stock as at home except some of the Airlie sweaters did have Newport logos sewn onto them.
We walked back along the other side of the street to the pedestrian zone and went into a doughnut shop. Much to our disappointment they didn’t have any Boston cream doughnuts.
Late lunch and back to Sapphire
There was a large queue stretching around the quay and stretching into the distance waiting for tenders back to the ship. At the end of the pedestrian zone was a Pantera and we decided to sit outside and wait for the queue to go down. The ship was scheduled to leave mid afternoon and we knew that we could walk across and join the queue whenever we wanted.
The restaurant was very busy and it took over 15 minutes to pick up one of their 50/50 meals. This is a half sandwich and a bowl of soup. I had the sandwich and Linda the soup.
The queue was by now definitely getting shorter and we walked across and tagged on at the end. The ship’s tenders we are being helped by a local boat. We were able to find a seat upstairs on the local boat and get great views of the harbour as we left for our short trip back to Sapphire.
