Dateline Quebec
We arrived from Winnipeg Wednesday afternoon, unpacked some of our basic stuff and immediately hit the streets of Quebec City. We are both on the same page when it comes to traveling… unpack your shit and hit the streets for meeting the locals and seeing the sights as soon as possible, which in Quebec City (or La Cite) means until the late hours, and then sleep it off at the hotel. We booked a room right in the heart of the Old City (or La Cite Vieux Quebec) at a really cool French-Canadian hotel. The High City and Lower City are full of narrow winding streets and alleys, lots of quaint shops and interesting people to meet and talk with. Never been to France (but I’ve been to Oklahoma), but Carol (who lived in Europe for three years) says it is “just like Paris.” Steve is still simply still looking for Je Sous and Nuf….
The weather has been our friend since we left. We have experienced about ½ day of rain since we arrived in Canada a week ago, and the local forecast calls for good weather right along our route out the Saint Lawrence Seaway and River all the way out to the North Atlantic above New Foundland. Life is good and we are happy about that!
Carol found a great “Art Alley” and we bought a painting of Old Quebec to have shipped home in December. We walked the streets and alleys, Steve bought a box of Cigaros Cubanos (product of Habanera even), which is a BIG NO NO in the States, but the folks in Canada have forgotten all about Fidel and the Commies down there, so he picked them up here at fairly reasonable prices, if anything is reasonably priced in Quebec, also picked up a few bottles of French wine for the road. This seems to be the most expensive place in Canada, or maybe it is just because they have two giant cruise ships in port right now, with a bunch of dumb-ass touristas looking for “deals.” Taxi’s are outrageously expensive ($9.75 from the hotel to the ship, which would have been about a 15-minute walk without all of the stuff we have brought along in suitcases, backpacks, cameras and computers, etc., etc.). We look like Circus Vargas on the road!
We shipped our favorite traveling bag (Bloaticious) from the States last month, because we did not want to haul our formal clothes around for a week before we met the ship. Had a little issue with Steve’s tux (Canadian customs thought it may have been a temporary elephant tent, so they were suspicious) but everything got here safe-and-sound.
We had dinner at an Irish pub (yeh, in Quebec City, but the beer and fish and chips were excellent!), did some serious drinking and partying with a bunch of professors from America who are in town trying to impress one another, walked until it got too cold and called it a day. We slept in, checked out of the hotel, taxied to the cruise terminal to meet the S.S. Scurvy, dumped all of our stuff in the stateroom, and headed back into La Cite. We toured the Governor’s Promenade, Chateau Frontenac (which doubles as the local Fairmont Hotel), which is quite expansive (and expensive most-likely), la Citadelle, which is a Fortress built by the Brits to keep those pesky Frogs out of the area in 1759, as well as a few parcs and other cool places. Since we are not at a high speed internet connection we are uploading all of the pictures on our Goolge Picasa Album. Check the photos at our google photo album
The weather has been our friend since we left. We have experienced about ½ day of rain since we arrived in Canada a week ago, and the local forecast calls for good weather right along our route out the Saint Lawrence Seaway and River all the way out to the North Atlantic above New Foundland. Life is good and we are happy about that!
Carol found a great “Art Alley” and we bought a painting of Old Quebec to have shipped home in December. We walked the streets and alleys, Steve bought a box of Cigaros Cubanos (product of Habanera even), which is a BIG NO NO in the States, but the folks in Canada have forgotten all about Fidel and the Commies down there, so he picked them up here at fairly reasonable prices, if anything is reasonably priced in Quebec, also picked up a few bottles of French wine for the road. This seems to be the most expensive place in Canada, or maybe it is just because they have two giant cruise ships in port right now, with a bunch of dumb-ass touristas looking for “deals.” Taxi’s are outrageously expensive ($9.75 from the hotel to the ship, which would have been about a 15-minute walk without all of the stuff we have brought along in suitcases, backpacks, cameras and computers, etc., etc.). We look like Circus Vargas on the road!
We shipped our favorite traveling bag (Bloaticious) from the States last month, because we did not want to haul our formal clothes around for a week before we met the ship. Had a little issue with Steve’s tux (Canadian customs thought it may have been a temporary elephant tent, so they were suspicious) but everything got here safe-and-sound.
We had dinner at an Irish pub (yeh, in Quebec City, but the beer and fish and chips were excellent!), did some serious drinking and partying with a bunch of professors from America who are in town trying to impress one another, walked until it got too cold and called it a day. We slept in, checked out of the hotel, taxied to the cruise terminal to meet the S.S. Scurvy, dumped all of our stuff in the stateroom, and headed back into La Cite. We toured the Governor’s Promenade, Chateau Frontenac (which doubles as the local Fairmont Hotel), which is quite expansive (and expensive most-likely), la Citadelle, which is a Fortress built by the Brits to keep those pesky Frogs out of the area in 1759, as well as a few parcs and other cool places. Since we are not at a high speed internet connection we are uploading all of the pictures on our Goolge Picasa Album. Check the photos at our google photo album
Carol is going to tag a Google Earth shot of la Citadelle so you can all see just how big this place is, but suffice it to say that for the mid 1700’s, these people were serious as a heart attack about war.Rules of engagement required us to be back aboard the ship for a 1730 lifeboat and abandon ship drill, which was pretty straight forward. We felt sort of like the people on the Titanic, as this ship is SO big it seems hard to imagine it ever sinking, but you also have to remember the Perfect Storm. NO ONE is bigger than Mother Nature, so we took the drills seriously. Life jackets are in the closet right next to the tux and formal dresses.
We had a really nice dinner Thursday evening with a few people from the U.K., and a couple of cranky people from Florida and New York. It appears we were damned fortunate in getting here and on-board when we did. Some of these folks arrived about two hours before the ship sailed due to screw ups by the airlines, lost baggage, and other stuff like that. They were still throwing bags onto the ship just five minutes before we pulled away from the dock. Thank you Matt Knowles (our niece’s husband and travel agent par excellence who designed this part of the trip for us) for saving us this sort of grief. Our only hang-up was late delivered luggage. We thought we might have to show up for dinner dressed as smelly back packing goats, but or suitcases arrived about 30 minutes before dinner, so life was cool.
The ship pulled away from the dock (all 1,000 feet of this BIG tub) right on schedule at 2200 hours sharp! More from sea tomorrow or the next day. Might even throw in a little “home movie” footage to bore people with!
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