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We had a great time, apart from at Customs

My wife and I spent a wonderful week in Bermuda earlier this month.The main purpose of my letter is to express our pleasure at the friendliness of the people of Bermuda. We were especially gratified with the help we received when our rental "bike" broke down in Southampton ? a long way from Wheels in Hamilton.

April 26, 2005

Dear Sir,

My wife and I spent a wonderful week in Bermuda earlier this month.

The main purpose of my letter is to express our pleasure at the friendliness of the people of Bermuda. We were especially gratified with the help we received when our rental "bike" broke down in Southampton ? a long way from Wheels in Hamilton.

A young man did a "U" turn on South Road when he saw us examining our bike. We suggested he call the company for us and we would wait for their truck to bring us a new bike. He would not hear of this and insisted on driving us into Hamilton. We thanked him profusely, but he said he wanted no money! The bike people cheerfully gave us a new one and we were back off to beautiful Dockyard.

The only real hitch in our Bermuda experience (our tenth one over 20 years by the way) was the agonising wait at Customs in the Bermuda Airport. We heard Tourism is down, but the holdup at Customs is a slap at tourists anxious to get on with their holiday.

Following a reasonably quick flight from Montreal via Toronto, we snaked along for over an hour in the Bermuda Airport. The zig zag line was at least ten rows long! Someone said a number of flights arrived close to one another. Surely, Bermuda Airport is not so busy that this blow anxious tourists could not be dealt with.

Once accepted and passed as Customs, we had a wonderful vacation zipping to every corner on Bermuda and enjoyed interacting with people.

It is a little dismaying to sense an undercurrent of racial tension. Such a small nation with a wonderful blend of people could and should be a model for the whole world!

Though we certainly did not witness any racial discord anywhere ? in fact, quite the opposite (especially at St. John's Anglican Church in Pembroke ? where the Bishop was rector when we first went there in '87), there is a sense reflected in the news ? the political and judicial news and in letters to the editor, ? of unease.

My wife and I hope Bermudians can address racial concerns openly and, indeed, become a model for the world!

Thank you for a wonderful week, Bermudians.

We are white ? the young Bermudian who insisted on helping us was black.