St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands: 2 Vacation Travel Treasures

In the harbor city of Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, shops compete for the attention and wealth of cruise ship shoppers and tourists. Amazingly, a store will establish multiple sites only a block apart from each other.

Taxi drivers and cruise activity guides add to the frenzy as international consumers race from diamond shop to diamond shop. However, all of them are missing beautiful wonders of St. Thomas.

Visitors looking for aesthetic riches will find two treasures in the harbor area.

One particular shopping mall is on the tourists' must-do lists, but only for the stores. They aren't told about its museum-like structural beauty.

The other, a synagogue, is marked on maps, but often neglected because what it offers is inspirational beauty and history. Nothing that can wrapped and put in a shopping bag.

About three blocks from the harbor area of Charlotte Amalie is a one-way street merely four blocks long. It is narrow and steep and known as Crystal Gade.

(Although control of the Virgin Islands has switched among multiple nations over time, Danish is used for street names. So, a street is called a Gade, pronounced - GAW-duh.)

Near the crest of Crystal Gade sits this unique worship center. It is hundreds of years old with carefully tended mahogany.

And the floor is covered in taupe-colored SAND. Yes, sand.

The congregation Beracha Veshalom Vegmiluth Hasidim is better known as "the historic St. Thomas synagogue." It is the only synagogue on the island.

Founded in 1796, it provided a safe haven for worship for the Jewish families settling there. Although the current building was constructed in 1833, there never was a time since 1796 that the congregation dissipated or moved, no matter the government-du-jour.

Since the synagogue is now in a United States territory, it holds the honor of being the oldest continually used synagogue under the U.S. flag.

The synagogue is open for worship and graciously open to tourists. It is peaceful, cool, and shaded, and adorned with European fixtures as well as island-made furniture. Please take note of the pineapple finials in the photo below.

If you are not right on a beach, can you imagine the central gathering room of a church or place of worship with - not a sprinkling - but a hefty, substantial, intentional layer of sand meant to be the floor covering?

It is quite surprising and, as an island synagogue, so fitting.

The sandy floor is calm and quieting, in concert with Mother Nature, with the Gaiam of the Caribbean beaches. It feels absolutely welcoming to an island soul. This rolling sand on the floor greets the eyes like rolling waves of the sea. It is gentle, yet dynamic. It has a comfortable feeling. Nature. That of God’s world.

And, it is so quiet---which was probably the point. Anti-Semitism of the past may have led the congregants to muffle the sounds of their unique, non-Christian worship with a sand-covered floor.

Another reason offered is that the sand symbolizes the Egyptian desert crossed during the Exodus.

Whatever the reasons, the sand worship floor is something to be experienced.

After spending quiet moments appreciating the synagogue, you can re-enter the sunny, bustling world.

Walking from the synagogue into the harbor shopping district, the visitor finds the second treasure for the artistic spirit, the Royal Dane Mall.

It is a shopping "mall;" make no mistake about that. But what an environment!

Appealing to the fashion of renovating old industrial spaces, the development company, Armour Enterprises, embraced - rather than demolished - three adjacent warehouses.

These three incredibly narrow buildings are said to have been constructed from the late 1700's to late 1800's. Running parallel to each other, they are separated by six foot wide alleys. Occasional connecting walkways make the three a beautiful unit.

The entire mall is a treat for anyone who connects on a spiritual level with natural elements. Brick and cobblestone alleys transport the imaginative passer to the eighteenth century, if not earlier. The exterior and interior walls of these warehouses are also exposed with distressed brick and wood.

Some of the locals suggest that these warehouses once may have been used by pirates to store their booty. However, the date of their construction lies after the great age of pirates and privateers. Nevertheless, who is to say?

The Royal Dane Mall has nooks for sitting down, staying cool, and inhaling the beauty of its structure. Much care has been given to these non-income producing spots.

Fountains, plants, wooden benches, pergolas, and a sundial obelisk grace a few choice "get away" recesses.

As in the old maxim, the photos in this article convey much more than my meager words. If you are drawn to aesthetic experiences, when spending time on the lovely Caribbean island of St. Thomas, be sure to seek out these two treasures. No purchase required.

Maren Morgan loves the tropics! A mi, me gusto!