Trip Report Contents
Part One: Introduction & Planning
Part Two: To Boston & Sailing Away
Part Three: Bar Harbor, These Are Tender Times
Part Four: Cloudy and Windy In Halifax
Part Five: Seeing the Sun In Sydney
Part Six: Sunny Charlottetown
Part Seven: Down the Saint Lawrence, a Day “At-Sea”
Part Eight: Québec City. Again. (This Installment)
Part Nine: Into Montréal; Out of Montréal
Part Eight: Québec City Again
From my perspective, Québec City is
the highlight port-of-call for this cruise itinerary. Québec City has a lot to offer for a few
days, to say nothing of a day-in-port.
If you’re really of a mind to see the city in a day, you’ve got an
impossible task ahead of you, and a lot of planning to do. For us, I’d already seen it and Mike was
happy with just hitting some of the higher points.
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| Breakfast with a view: looking out at Québec City while dining |
Introducing Québec City
The best way to get to know Québec
City is to explore it on foot. Though
never destroyed by war or fire, there was an obscene level of neglect over the
centuries. The city has been restored
and is quite beautiful.
Of course, keeping a living, modern
city restored to its appearance from long ago is difficult. In the old town one sees mostly things
catering to the city’s tourist industry, while the day-to-day business and
living areas are beyond its 18th-Century fortifications.
In spite of a certain museum-like
feeling, the old town is charming. From
the cruise dock we walked through the lower town a bit, and then headed to the
funicular for a quick ride to the Upper Town.
The temperature that day was nearing 90F and the humidity was off the
charts, so minimizing movement and time outside was desirable.
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| In the lower part of Old Québec |
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| In the lower part of Old Québec |
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| In the lower part of Old Québec |
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| In the lower part of Old Québec |
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| The funicular: the best way from the lower town to the upper |
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| In the lower part of Old Québec |
Funicular
There is a steep cliff that
separates the Upper- and Lower-parts of Old Québec. In nice weather the walk up is fine; in the
heat and humidity, the funicular is the way to go. For the unacquainted, the funicular is
basically a large elevator on tracks that climbs a steep cliff or
hillside. From the lower terminus to the
top takes about 90 seconds, and about $2.50, a bargain in time and monetary
cost.
Exiting the funicular station at
the top, one stands with a commanding view of the Seaway, right at the base of
the Château Frontenac. This is the
iconic hotel one sees in just about every tourist photo of Québec City and a
must-see, even if it does have the scent of over-the-top scent kitsch to it.
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| At the top of the funicular, this is the first thing one sees. It's pretty impressive |
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| Looking down at our ship |
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| Plaza at the top of the funicular |
Notre-Dame de Québec
Nearby is Québec City’s Notre Dame,
a beautiful church; a basilica, actually.
This version of the building was restored on this spot in 1922 after a
fire, one of several to destroy churches here over the years. From the outside it is elegant and a little
understated compared to other such structures; the inside is also nice, though less
modest.
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| Inside Notre Dame |
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| Inside Notre Dame |
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| Inside Notre Dame |
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| Inside Notre Dame |
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| Inside Notre Dame, the alter |
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| Inside Notre Dame, the organ |
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| Inside Notre Dame, close-up of the organ |
Parliament
From Notre Dame it’s a nice walk
through the streets of the Upper Town, to the old fortifications—Québec City is
the only walled city in North America—and, just beyond, the provincial
parliament building. We took some photos
and a brief break under a shade tree, before heading onward.
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| Fountain in front of the parliament building |
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| Québec's parliament building |
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| Québec's parliament building |
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| Québec's parliament building |
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| Québec's parliament building |
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| Québec's parliament building |
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| Statue outside the parliament building. If you visit here and hope to learn anything about the building, statues, or anything else, you'd better know French: unlike outside of most other public buildings in Canada, where plaques, memorials, and the like are written in French and English, in Québec English is completely absent. So, we left the ground unenriched. |
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| Looking back, from the parliament building, across town, at the hotel |
Stroll Through Town
Under the shade tree in front of
the parliament building, we decided we’d had enough of the heat and would be
happy to stroll back through another part of town, stop off for some lunch, and
get back on the ship. By our
calculations, by the time we got to lunch it’d be well past one, so the timing
seemed perfect.
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| City bus, the perfect size for navigating the narrow streets of old Québec City |
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| Excellent statue we came across |
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| Streetscape |
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| Québécois dog, taking a rest from the heat |
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| War memorial, from the Boer War |
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| The old city's fortifications |
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| Bust of FDR |
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| Bust of Churhill |
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| ...and, Gandhi |
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| Streetscape |
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| Streetscape |
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| ...and, the statue again. Love it |
Lunch
When Philip and I were in Québec
City first time, we found a nice bistro in the Lower Town, up against the
cliff. It was filled with local business
people and had a nice menu. The food was
quite tasty and the experience was good.
So, I recommended it to Mike and we had lunch there.
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| Lunch: Tartare de Bœuf et Frites, Steak Tartare and fries. Yummy! |
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| Dessert: some sort of chocolate cake that was outstanding. Out-stand-ing! |
Back Aboard
From lunch it was a quick twenty
minute walk back to the cruise dock and we were soon back aboard the ship. This being the last night before
disembarkation, packing was high up on the to-do list, a sad to-do item if ever
there was one. But, we did our
duty: I vacated the room to give Mike
some space and he later afforded me the same.
We met back up in time for dinner, our last supper, as it were.
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| To the ship, one last time |
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| Crap! Time to pack: luggage tags and the mat to lay our bags on. The end of vacation was neigh. Ick |
Dinner
We had our last dinner in the same
spot we’d had our first dinner, in the Pinnacle Grill. For me, on any cruise, this is the way to
go: in the main dining room it’s the
good-bye dinner and show, which I don’t care for at all. Lots of people like it but it’s more circus
than dining and not at all for me. The
Pinnacle was much more what I was looking for, and Mike, too. On this cruise, the Pinnacle is especially
nice on this night because one gets excellent views of the Seaway, which is
very narrow and an interesting waterway to navigate.
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| The Amuse-Bouche |
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| From the dinner table: storm clouds roll in |
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| The salad: traditional Caesar Salad |
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| ...and, after the salad, more clouds rolling in |
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| The starter: the seafood plate ... again |
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| Seafood plate |
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| ...and, meanwhile, outside the weather show continued, with clouds, sun, and lightening |
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| The main: lamb skewers |
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| The main course, with all of the trimmings |
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| Skies begin to clear, in time for the dessert |
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| From the dinner table. Amazing how close we sailed to the rocks |
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| The dessert (well, my dessert): chocolate souffle |
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| The dessert (well, Mike's) |
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| Dusk falls on the scene, just as we wrapped up dinner |
One Last Promenade
After dinner I made a couple of
last laps around the deck, snapped some photos, and headed back in, for the
piano bar and final good-byes.
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| On deck: contrasts |
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| The placid Seaway |
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| Beautiful clouds and water |
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| Back inside, this is the glass sculpture in the atrium of the ship |
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| Looking through the glass sculpture, fellow passengers place their bags out for collection |
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| Lonely bags, ready to make their way off the ship and back home. Ah, the reality of it all! |
Piano Bar Good Byes
On the last day and night of any
cruise it’s all about saying good-byes.
Neither of us made any new, life-long friends on our seven-day voyage,
but we shared some good times with folks from all over the place. Back in the piano bar, we played another round
of name-that-tune, and then bade so-long to our fellow cruisers. The chaos of disembarkation day awaited and a
well-rested traveler is a happy traveler.
