The Town
The best place to start your explorations is the engaging Dominica Museum on the Bay Front (Mon-Fri 9am-4pm, Sat 9am-noon; EC$2), where you can trace the island's history and culture through Amerindian artefacts, a full-scale replica of a thatched Carib house, and King George III's silver mace, given to Dominica in 1770. In the cobblestoned square behind the museum, and filling the alleyway alongside, is the Old Market , formerly the site of the island's slave market, now filled with vendors selling handicrafts. (Fresh produce is sold at the New Market , at the end of Mary E. Charles Boulevard past the ferry docks.) The rest of Roseau's noteworthy sights lie to the southeast and northeast of the square. Those in the southeast are located around the Fort Young Hotel . Due south from the hotel on Victoria Street is the 1905 Free Library , paid for, oddly enough, by American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Across from the library sits the New Parliament Building , a whitewashed two-storey mansion surrounded by landscaped grounds (closed to the public). Alternatively, heading northeast on Church Street away from the Old Market and taking a left turn onto Virgin Lane leads to the colourful Methodist Church , and the staid Gothic Roman Catholic Church , worth a quick look if you're passing by. Past the churches, a right turn on Queen Mary Street leads to the entrance to the fanciful forty-acre Botanical Gardens (daily 6am-10pm; free), below Morne Bruce hill, home to a variety of local flora, as well as an old yellow school bus crushed by a massive baobab commemorating Hurricane David's destructive powers. A few steps away, behind a parrot aviary, a fifteen-minute trail ascends Morne Bruce for stellar summit views.
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