Articles > I Slept in the Queen of the Netherlands' Bed

I slept in the Queen of the Netherlands' bed. Before I am pinned with a charge of lese-majesty I'd better add that it wasn't her usual bed, but a temporary stopover on the island of Saba, a tiny blip in the Caribbean. It is the most charming bedroom on the island and when she is on a tour of the Netherlands Antilles she sleeps there. Still, I'd have to admit to dining out on the story.

Saba is a mere 2.5 miles by three, but it is so rough and mountainous that no road was built there until 1938 (when the islanders requested one, engineers arrived and simply informed them that it was impossible, so the Sabians took a correspondence course in civil engineering and built one themselves). Like all its volcanic neighbours, Saba is immensely fertile. From a carpet of elephant ears and grasses on the flanks of the formidable but curiously named Mount Scenery (2885 ft), ferns, palms, banana and breadfruit explode in hundreds of shades of green. Curiously enough for an island of just five square miles and so far from Europe, Saba has the highest point in the whole Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Saba is also unfeasibly neat. Some of the Caribbean's prettiest clapboard houses can be found in the villages of Windwardside and the island capital, The Bottom. Standing in gardens of bougainvillea and hibiscus, they are made of white wood, with shutters painted green or red, and verandas decorated with intricate gingerbread fretwork. Oddly, following a newly-introduced law, every house in Saba has a red roof (it seems a little draconian, but the red looks so good against the green of the mountainside that in the end you have to agree with them).

Queen Beatrix of Holland makes a tour of the six Netherlands Antilles every five years or so. An already neat island is tidied up yet further and most importantly, the Winair plane is overhauled. An island as mountainous as this has few places on which to land an aircraft and so the airstrip (on the optimistically named 'Flat Point'), is just 400 yards long, shorter than a self-respecting aircraft carrier, and has a hundred-foot drop at either end. The reverse thrust is given a thorough going over at each landing.

In the way of the Caribbean the Sabians are easy to get to know and they will plug you straight into local gossip once you are on-island. The population is about 1200 and they are divided roughly half-and-half between white and black (there were only ever a few family slaves as there were never really any plantations on Saba). Flying in once I met Will Johnson, who is the island's senator (they send one member to the Netherlands Antilles Parliament in Curacao), the editor of the newssheet and a general island historian, and so I had one side of the island's story, but in Saba you are just as likely to bump into a former sailor in the street (traditionally Saban men have left the island in search of work; they became reputed seamen): "Oh yes man, in dem days you see, de ships was made of wood and de men dem was made of iron".

The Captain's Quarters is the most charming hotel on the island and it has the best in old-time Saban charm. It stands at the bottom of the hill in Windwardside (still 1500 ft above sea level) and its central wooden building, the original sea-captain's home, is white with a red roof, louvred windows and wooden floors. I was shown up to my room on the first floor, where there was a neat four-poster and antique furniture, the nicest room in the hotel I was told. When I came down later I noticed a residual buzz of excitement in the hotel. I discovered that Queen Beatrix had left earlier that day to continue her tour on nearby Sint Maarten. They hadn't told me of course, nothing so immodest, but it suddenly occurred to me: I would be sleeping in the Queen of the Netherlands' bed.

Saba is untypical for the Caribbean in that there is not really a beach there (a migratory patch of grey volcanic sand appears each year in the spring and stays for a few months), but it does have real, slow, small-island charm and it offers a satisfying visit. It is hardly a traditional Caribbean destination (except for divers, because its slopes are as impressively fertile beneath the sea's surface as above), but is well worth adding Saba to an island-hopping tour of the north eastern Caribbean.

In general it tends to be independent travellers and divers who make it to the island. I was in a small plane, flying to the Virgin Islands, when I met another visitor to Saba. She was surprised I had been there and said with a Southern drawl and a winning smile: "Hey, nice island. Do you know, when I was there I slept in the Queen of the Netherlands' bed...". I made as if to look suitably impressed, but hardly felt that I could compare notes. After all, with due deference to Her Majesty, it was suddenly beginning to look a little indelicate.

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