Northeast Passage Part Six

Day Ten

Today we arrived in Quebec City, Quebec Province, Canada. The weather, as has been the case for almost the entire trip was quite warm for this time of year and the skies above are clear. There was quite a bit of watchable foliage in the area for a change and we decided to get off the ship soon after we docked to go and check it out.

The ship was docked adjacent to the Old Quebec or Vieux-Quebec. The cruise terminal was quite large and modern, quite possibly the best we saw in any city on this trip. One person we talked to in Halifax told us that they had close to 150 cruise ships dock there this year with a total of 160 planned for next year. And I think this is all over a period of around 2-3 months per year.

Old Quebec, though a fairly small area was rather nice and we enjoyed it greatly. The tourist area was jammed full of ticky-tacky souvenir stands, quite possibly the densest conglomeration of t-shirts, shot glasses, and coffee cups with snappy slogans like "Kiss Me, I'm French-Canadian" on the face of the planet. Or at least since, Bar Harbor.

Trust Mary to see beyond and behind the souvenir stands and find the art galleries, of which there were more then a few. Actually, quite a few, a surprisingly large number of them. Off hand I'd say from our own observations Quebec City must be the Art capital of Canada, or at least Quebec Province or barring that, say southeastern Quebec Province. We toured many art galleries and fortuitously escaped without purchasing any when the piece Mary really liked turned out to be a bit big for our mantel. Or so I said. But I am an engineer and things like measurement and space considerations are my area of expertise and that's just the way it's going to be. Till she tells me otherwise.

The drawback to Quebec City, insofar as Mary especially is concerned is that the city is situated on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River which rise quite precipitously from said river. Mary automatically downgrades cities that in her estimation require her to snap on a safety line and crampons in order to ascend the streets. And there are lots of stairs and steep streets around there. There is a funicular below the Chateau Frontenac which allows people to bypass the Himalayan like ascent but we wound up going up the hill around on the other side of the Old Town and so did not get a chance to use it till we came back down.

Quebec City is one of the only fortified cities left in North America and there are extensive walls and fortifications facing the river still in evidence. If the United States ever decides to finally conquer Canada and in the process forgo any military developments since the Age of Napoleon, Quebec City will be all set. Though with the state of the dollar recently we might have to contend with Canadian buyouts instead. I wonder if they'd take Texas off our hands?

After the long and arduous trek to the summit of Quebec City we settled into the Chateau Frontenac for a little heavy breathing (not that kind!) and a drink in the bar. I tried a Sleeman Silver Creek Lager and a nice little brew it was too. At one time, many years ago, sometime after the Dark Ages but before the Reformation, I used to imbibe a great deal of Canadian beer as it was at the time both cheap and tasty. Since then I've become what some might call a beer snob but I think this is an unfair and inaccurate characterization. It's not that I've outgrown some beers, it's that there are only so many hours in the day and as Mary is overly fond of pointing out, there are periods during the day where it is inappropriate to consume beer. I believe she developed this thesis when I announced my plans to install a cup holder in the shower. So back to Sleemans - if I ever find this on a beer menu somewhere here down in the lower forty eight I will be quite willing to drink it again.

After liquid refreshment was consumed we decided to try the offerings of the local bistros. Since it was a nice day, all of the cafes had their sidewalk seating open and we partook. We found a pleasant little café with quite good food (we determined this by peeking inside and checking out to see if the place was filled with tourists or locals - when locals we eat). This method isn't always infallible, especially in the US, otherwise places like Hooter's would be out of business. But it works in most other places that don't consider chain restaurants haute cuisine.

Our meal complete we walked about some more, absorbed some more tourist ambiance, and repaired back to the ship, filled with fond memories of Quebec and a couple of coffee mugs emblazoned with pithy French sayings that we don't understand but I'm sure are hilarious.

Day Eleven

Last day of the cruise and we have to spend it in Montreal. And for the first time during a port stay it's raining. And it's still kind of warm. Unlike Quebec City the cruise ship terminal isn't in quite as scenic a spot and it's a bit of a walk from anything. We made the mistake of taking a shuttle bus into the downtown area which is not really what we wanted but we misread the map and did not discover till the next day that the old town area was only like a ten minute walk from the ship.

Downtown Montreal was not quite what we expected, at least the area where we were dropped off. We believe that the intention was to drop us off in an area that had little in the way of visual appeal and was adjacent to the high end shopping district so that people from the ship wouldn't be as tempted to waste time seeing the sights but would instead purchase stuff and help float the provincial economy. Apparently, the high end shopping district butts up against the red light district or Montreal isn't really picky where those type of businesses are located. We walked a couple of blocks in the wrong direction, wrong only if I was uninterested in peep shows and nudie revues, and Mary told me I was indeed uninterested in such entertainment. In any case, we did a circuit of a couple of blocks in either direction from the point where we were dropped off and didn't see anything that appealed. And it was still raining. So we went back to the ship. I'm sure if we had not already planned on staying an additional day in Montreal after we disembarked we would have forged onwards and found the fun. But we didn't today.

Day Twelve

Disembarkation went as smoothly as embarkation. Unlike pretty much all other cruise ships we've been on we sauntered down to breakfast and had a leisurely meal. As we weren't flying out that morning we had plenty of time to enjoy our repast and then go and collect our remaining belongings. No sitting in the theatre for our debarkation group to be called or waiting around in the dining room unlike other cruise lines. On the way out we decided to go up and inspect the penthouse suites since there were sure to be some open. And there were. Same décor but a good deal more room. They looked quite comfortable.

Our bags were ready and waiting when we entered the cruise terminal and we had a porter and a taxi in a snap and in less then 5 minutes we were on our way to the hotel. And thus concluded our cruise on Crystal.

I'll put together a little review of the cruise ship itself and how it compares to others we've experienced. Hopefully I'll have something up in a few days depending on how much cleaning I have to do around the house.