Willemstad and our last day in Curacao

We got to spend a little time here in Willemstad earlier in the trip when we stopped for dinner, but on Thursday, we decided it was time to explore.  Willemstad is the biggest city in Curacao, and it's also where all the cruise ships dock to give their passengers shore excursions.  You can really see the Dutch influence in the buildings here. 

It's two days after the New Year celebrations and the streets are littered with fireworks wrappers.  

There is a large waterway going straight through Willemstad.  Lots of ships travel inland dropping off supplies, as well as oil tankers, etc. 

There is a free ferry that will take you to both sides of the waterway, but the coolest thing is the large floating bridge that rotates out over the water whenever there are no boats going through.

Time to go see the other side.

There is also a floating fruit market

But Theresa didn't end up getting anything.  

We walked through the tourist side with all the expensive t-shirt and flip-flop stores.

Then we walked across the bridge back to our car.  Here's a shot of the huge overpass that most cars take to cross the waterway.    

On the way back to the car, we walked through a little bit of the real Curacao.  It's quite a bit different than the tourist side.  For example, this boarded up barbershop has signs that say "Don't pee here". 

I was really hoping to get some photos from on the top of the bridge.  There was even a walkway along the road, but I didn't see anywhere to park to get to it.  Instead, enjoy these shots that Theresa took from the moving car as we were driving back to the hotel.  

This is actually the next day and our last day in Curacao.  We spent the whole day at the resort doing absolutely nothing.  It was a great way to end our vacation.  We enjoyed a beautiful sunset on the beach. 

We went out and enjoyed one more night under the stars.

What a great time we had in Curacao!  Hooray for last minute trips!