Canada/New England Trip Fall 2016

We began our Fall 2016 trip by flying in to Montreal--where we were immersed in the French Canadian culture.  We stayed in the downtown (Hotel Omni) area, which was able to easily access the Metro and buslines.  Using a 3-day pass for both, we travelled the city to the old town area, visiting the Basilica of Notre Dame, the oldest church in the City, dating back to its founding of the city for the fur trade in the 1600s. 


Also in the old town area was a museum centered over ruins that pre-dated the French colonization and had been an Iroquis burial area.  Then, explorers arrived, first the French, then the English, then warring--each settlement built by the victorious on the same ground over the ruins of those that
came before. 


As we walked along the waterfront (replete with lovely bike and walking paths) we could see the biosphere in the distance, and hoped to visit it, but never made it close.

The culture is decidedly French now, and the food is wonderful.  Our hotel and all the tourist areas had bi-lingual speakers, but store front signs, and street signs, and almost all signage was in French, and the talk on the street was entirely in French.  We took the metro (subway--green line) and toured the Olympic Park the second day, which was built for the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, and visited the Biodome, planetarium, briefly the botanical gardens (lunching there), and took a ride up the outside of the biodome on the skyway that reached very high and gave us a complete 360 view of the City (the video is posted on my FB page, and the structure plus biodome is shown below).  This Olympic Park area is well worth 2-days of visit, but we had only the one. After our third night in Montreal, we said goodby to this lovely city and travelled to Quebec City where the Holland America cruise ship Zuiderdam awaited us.

The 3-hour journey took us through wonderful flat vistas of vast corn fields, interspersed with hardwood forests that were bright red and yellow as they changed color for the season. Small hills appeared now and then, but it is mostly flat terrain. Quebec City looks like it would be a wonderful City to spend a few days in, too, with old buildings and new City structures, plus great walking and biking trails along the St Laurence river.  We did not see grafitti or litter--everything looks fresh and lovely. 

Due to a late passenger on our bus, we boarded the Zuiderdam late and had to scurry to join the sailaway party.  We were in shirt-sleeves, as it was easily 75-80 degrees, until the sun went down at least!  We left the beautiful port of
Quebec City and sailed down the St Laurence River as night fell.


Early the next morning, we awoke to sailing up a fjord toward Saguenay.  This City is in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada, on the Saguenay River, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Quebec City by overland route.

Today it is overcast and grey, and rain threatens.  In fact, as I sat along a walking trail near the bow of the boat (so Laura could see me on the webcam), it started to rain heavily, and I dashed back on board.  Helen and Liz were already on board, as they are heading out later to a theatre performance, which I decided to skip as it is going to be a busy evening tonight (I think). For Sue Hay's benefit, there is a martini tasting at 4:30--several flaviors of martinis-- but I have to skip it because I want to go to the sailaway party in the Crow's nest on the highest observation deck. Those are always quite fun. 

Tonight we will sail out the fjord, and back to the St. Laurence as we make our way toward Prince Edward Island for a day of at-sea, before coming into port a day later at Charlottetown.  I will try to blog again after that section of the cruise is completed!