Canada Day 6 (Gaspe, Canada): Riding A School Buss, A Store Turned into A Museum and The Indigenous People of Canada

Today we went out on a bus tour and only made a couple of stops. 

After we got up and got ready we had a lot of time before we had to head head out to the tenders to the buses. We actually had a hard time filling this time. Our tour was an early afternoon tour and and we would before lunch was served and we’ll be coming back after lunch was over. This was an awkward time slot. I ordered room service for lunch and lounged around and played video games until it arrived. Room service took a little longer than expected and arrived five minutes before we had to leave so we shoved a crap ton of food in our faces and called the rest of our group over to help us. 

Our busses today were school busses. It’s been forever since I’ve been on one of these. Seats are much smaller than I remember. Our tour took us around the city and we stopped at a store and a museum. Gaspe is quite a large remote town with a small town feel. It’s very secluded and seems to be far away from any big city. Most of the residents order things online and things ordered using Amazon Prime take more than 5 days to get there. 

The Hyman and Son’s General Store was the neighborhood store built in 1864 and is now a museum. We thought it was going to be a gift shop. This also served as the home for the builder of the store William Hyman, the residence was the second floor. 

Our next stop was Site d'Interprétation Micmac de Gespeg, a museum dedicated to the Micmac people of Gaspe. We didn’t have a lot of time here our guide had to squeeze 2 hours of material into a little less than half an hour. I had a hard time keeping up. At the end of the tour we sampled Bannock with maple syrup. Bannock is the Micmac people's version of fry bread. it was really good.

We got back and had lunch at the grill because nothing else was open. It seemed like everyone else in our tour group had the same idea, it was crowded! We didn’t go back out after our tour this time, there wasn’t much within walking distance of the port. 

Nothing much happened for the rest of the day. We lounged around, had a late dinner and went to bed. 

Tomorrow we’ll be doing some scenic sailing. I don’t think we’ll be getting of the ship.

Canada Day 5 (Day at Sea): A Very Lazy Day

Today was our first day at sea on this trip and we didn’t do much so there’s not much to write. This is going to be a short one.

I really wanted to sleep in but ended up waking up earlier than I wanted to. Because we had nothing but time we dined at the sit down restaurant for breakfast. There's no dress code for breakfast or lunch. Service here is a lot slower and the atmosphere is a lot more formal than the buffet. Some guests had to wait 45 mins to be seated. 

We had a lot of time before lunch so we lounged around the ship for a bit. I used this time to catch up on emails, social media and play video games. We opted to dine at the sit down restaurant for lunch too. The menu's at the restaurant are almost identical to the food that they serve at the buffet

While we were at sea there was a lot of things going on around the ship. There was a lecture on the stereotypes of Vikings another one on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and a Port Talk on the history of Gaspe, Quebec. I didn’t participate in any of that. Today was also that reception for returning travelers that happens every trip. Which, I also didn’t attend this time around. I’ve written about that experience in a few of my other blogs.

Before dinner we attended afternoon tea and went to the show put on by the ship’s resident entertainers. DUETS is a cabaret style show showcasing showcasing some very iconic duets.
After the show we had a late dinner and went right to bed. We’ll be in Gaspe tomorrow where we'll be out and about again and I’ll have a lot more to write about.

Canada Day 4 (Saguenay, Canada): A Pyramid, A Little White House and A Pulp Mill

Today we’re going on a buss tour around Saguenay, Canada. Saguenay is an interesting town. It’s the largest in Quebec and seems to be culturally independent from the rest of the of the country. Most of the population speaks French and most of their education is conducted in the French language. Some students aren’t exposed to formal English instruction until they reach university. Saguenay was created in 2002 when the former cities of Chicoutimi, Jonquière, La Baie, Laterrière, Lac-Kénogami, Shipshaw and Tremblay merged to form a single city.

I ordered room service as soon as I got up and got ready while I waited. This routine is becoming too convenient. I grabbed some coffee on the way out and headed to the busses. Everyone in our group had different tour times so we decided to wait on standby for the early group in hopes that we can go on this tour together. On our way out there were a bunch of circus performers outside the port it was exciting. They interacted with everyone and it kinda felt like we were part of a street show. We were able to get on the same tour so off we went.

On our way to our first stop we passed the Ha! Ha! Pyramid. The Ha! Ha! Pyramid is an art installation commemorating the floods of 1996. This pyramid is made of 3000 yield signs and has the name of the displaced citizens on the back. 

Our first stop was La Petite Maison Blanche. After the floods of 1996 this little white house was the only standing structure and has become a symbol of persistence. It’s now a museum and a park was created around it. I think the surrounding park is much more impressive than the house itself. A little ways up the road was Eglise Sacré-Coeur. This church is a Neo Gothic Roman church. I couldn’t find much out about this church. There isn’t much listed about this church online and we didn’t have a formal guide to tell us anything about it.

Our next stop was a short one at the Old Chicoutimi Pulp Mill. This pulp mill was the largest in Chicoutimi and was known for the quality of it’s output. They played a key roll in Canada’s economy and supplied products to customers as far as Kentucky. 

After we had lunch on the ship we headed out to town. There isn’t much near the port here. Just couple of shops, boutiques and cafés. There was an area that looked like a mini town square where a few vendors sold their wares. It was kinda cute.

We ended our day early so I’m probably going to spend the rest of the evening lounging around  after dinner and probably order room service later. 

Tomorrow we’ll be at sea all day. I might participate in some onboard activities but I normally use those days to catch up on sleep. I’ll let you know how that goes. 

Canada Day 3 (Quebec City, Canada): A Walking tour, Down Time and A Lot of Food

I woke up earlier than I needed to today. Yesterday, room service took quite a while to I ordered as soon as I woke up. Today, they took even longer. Can’t seem to time things the way I want to. Our tour was scheduled for later this afternoon and the rest of our group was put on earlier tours. Earlier in our trip we tried to rearrange our schedules so we were all on the early tour but they didn’t have any room. If you show up to a tour outside of your scheduled time, you can wait on standby and there’s enough room you can join that tour group. So standby it was! We were all able to get on the same tour group but we didn’t have the best seats on the bus.

The bus took us out to Quebec City for a walking tour. In an earlier blog I talked about Montreal looking very European. Well, Quebec City is extremely European. It reminded me of the area around the Prince’s Palace of Monaco. The town we went to was a pedestrian town, with little boutiques, cafes and narrow roads made of cobblestone. You know, like the little towns you see in movies. The main attraction of the city seemed to be the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac which was the only place we didn’t go. Château Frontenac was built on top of what looked like the highest hill in the town which seemed to be visible anywhere you went. A quick google search later on told me that it was a hotel and we probably wouldn’t be able to access the chateau without booking a room.

Our day was actually pretty short day. When we got back we had lunch, headed back out to town to go to the shops that we weren’t able to check out during our tour and lounged around for a bit. We went to tea and I was able to catch a quick nap by the pool before we grabbed some food at the grill right before we met up for dinner. The more down time we have the more we seemed to eat 

Canada Day 2 (Montreal, Canada): A Bus Tour, A Basilica and a Bank

Today I woke up two hours before my alarm went off which wasn’t good considering I didn’t sleep much before. But there I was, up before anyone should be. When one wakes up with extra time the only logical thing to do is order room service! We ordered a bunch of random things, Fried chicken, a fruit plate, a Cesar salad and jalapeño cheddar chili fries. You know, your regular breakfast items. We also went to the breakfast buffet, which had normal breakfast food, after we got ready to go. 

Our tour today was a bus tour that drove us all around Montreal. We stopped at the 

Notre Dame Basilica of Montréal. This Basilica is the first gothic revival church in Montreal and is designated Montreal’s mother church. It’s also considered one of the most beautiful basilicas in the world. I can vouch for that, I’ve been to a few. The lighting in Notre Dame Basilica is amazing and the dramatic design bridges the gap between art and religion. The stained glass windows depict the history of Montreal instead of religious stories, which is not done very often. 

The second stop we made was to the Bank of Montreal, Canada’s oldest bank. This bank almost looked like Gringotts Bank in Harry Potter. It was built with traditional marble floors, gilt molding, stone pillars and had brass and iron gates mixed with modern fixtures and had museum pieces placed thorough out the lobby. The Bank of Montreal also issued its own bank notes at one point.

Before we returned from our excursion we made a mini hike up to Mount Royal Chalet in Mount Royal park. The chalet was built on top of Mount Royal as a project to stimulate the economy during the great depression. It’s a social space with large windows, murals of Montreal during the French regime a cafe. It looks like a great hall that would make a really good event venue. The view of Montreal from the chalet is amazing. 

After we got back we had lunch and headed right back out to explore the city. We came across a lot of the places that we saw earlier this morning on our bus tour. The route the bus driver took around Montreal made these places seem a lot further away. Most of it was in walking distance. We also went back to the area around Cirque du Soleil, obstacle course and the ferris wheel. We walked around the shops and found a few eateries. 

We had dinner at the buffet tonight, walked around the ship for a while, spent some time in the explorer’s lounge and went back to the rooms for the night. We walked a lot today!

Canada Day 1 (Montreal, Canada): An Inconvenient Flight Schedule, Settling In and A Lot of Food

Today I made my way out from Sacramento to Montreal with a layover in Newark. 

We were scheduled on a red eye with no possible way to get any amount of decent sleep. Our first leg from Sacramento to Newark was a four hour flight with a two hour layover and an hour flight to Montreal. With those flights, it’s time to move by the time you get comfy. Needless to say, I’m running on very little sleep so we’re going to get some words out into the blog-o-sphere and go straight to bed.

Once we got to the ship we got settled and headed to get some food as quickly as possible. The lunch buffet was really good. I had prime rib, roasted veggies and mashed potatoes. I was hoping to get a quick nap in but no such luck. I grabbed some coffee and headed out to town. 

Montreal is nothing like I thought it would be like. I’ve been to British Columbia before and expected to be a little like that but nope! I was completely wrong. It’s extremely European and most everyone’s primary language is French. The architecture definitely has a heavy European influence. If you dropped me off in Montreal without telling me were I was, I would definitely think I was somewhere in Europe. 

We were exhausted so we didn’t spend much time out there today and went back pretty early. Back at the ship we unpacked and lounged around before dinner. 

Dinner was something else today. We’ve traveled with this company before and they’ve always had a pretty loose dress code for dinner so I didn’t pack any slacks or button-downs. Welp, not this time around. When we got to the dining room they allowed us to dine there tonight but we won’t be able to again unless we adhered to the dress code. I’ll be on the look out for fancier clothes as we explore more places around here. If I can't find anything suitable, this might be my last blog about the dining room on this trip. The dinner in the dining room was pretty good but nothing to write home about. I ordered a shrimp cocktail of some sort, a Cesar salad and a beef tenderloin dish that I forgot the name of. Everything was good but, like I said, it wasn’t anything to write home about. Earlier, during lunch, we asked about sushi at the buffet and was told that sushi was going to be put out for dinner. There’s always sushi on these ocean liners. So it was up to the buffet after dinner. The sushi this time around was amazing. The salmon was buttery and the texture was perfect! I always end up eating too much on day one.

While we were out and about earlier today we came across the Cirque Du Soleil: ECHO touring group, a ferris wheel, a crazy medievaly-pirateish themed obstacle course and a few other interesting things. Maybe we’ll go back out, explore and find out more about those things tomorrow.