Aruba - Everything Else

OK, so you've probably seen enough pictures of Aruba.  This is the last post...I promise!  We took close to 600 pictures, so the fact that I've narrowed it down the way I have is pretty good.  So, this will be pretty random, just a few more pictures of places/things I want to be sure to mention so that when I read these posts in a few years, details I may not remember will come back to me!

Just steps away from the front door of our hotel was the Renaissance Marketplace - and one of the restaurants at the Marketplace, 'The Dutch Pancake House', turned out to be a favourite spot of ours.  The reason we loved it - it had amazing crepes and poffertjes (a Dutch batter treat), and the prices were very reasonable!  You'd think this would be a breakfast spot, but we like it so much we went back for lunch too!  I think we ate there three times throughout the week :)

Curt, about to enjoy his poffertjes.  The small pancake like things are covered with icing sugar...and that's a strawberry sauce he's about to pour over them.

Our hotel was right in the heart of Oranjestad, which is also where the cruise ship terminal is located.  This ship was at the terminal on Monday, so the downtown area was a lot busier that day than the rest of the week.

One of the main shopping areas in Oranjestad.

One of the trademark Aruba signs...this one was in a shopping area near the hotel district - we took the bus there one day to check things out. 

 

There was actually a larger version of this sign close to our hotel, but there was construction going on in front of it, so it was impossible to get a good picture of it.

This is another picture from our first day when we went to check out the hotel district.  We were doing a lot of walking, and it was HOT - it was tempting to dive in, but we didn't have towels or anything, so we just waded in to get cooled down.  The water was just so beautiful!

 And finally, a beautiful night sky.

So there you have it, our trip to Aruba in five short posts :)  ha!  If you've read all of them, thanks!  I hope you've enjoyed looking at the pictures and learning a little bit about the island of Aruba. 

On our way home, Curt and I talked about whether or not we would go back to Aruba - neither one of us had a simple 'yes' or 'no' answer.  If the opportunity arose to go back, we would go...but, we probably wouldn't choose to go back there on our own.  It was amazing and beautiful, but it's a small island and we feel like we experienced everything we wanted to, so we'd rather try a different island next time.  I suggested we try Bonaire and Curacao, the other two islands that make up the 'ABC Islands' in the Dutch Caribbean :)  Maybe I'll have to add those to my 'Bucket List'.