It is hard to believe that our cruise is almost half over and I haven’t even started on making headway on this blog. But I hope to be catching up before we dock in Boston on Saturday. I will begin with Quebec and then get back to Montreal later.
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Quebec City, Quebec Province, Canada
We rise early with the sun today as we pass under a pair of bridges (one highway and one railway) over the St Lawrence River, connecting Quebec City to the southern part of Quebec Province, at 6am. It is cool on the veranda, but we brave the breeze for the spectacular view and morning light as we pass under the bridges (one suspension and one cantilever, almost like smaller versions of the two bridges crossing the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh).
The
Maasdam does a U-turn before docking
up against the streets of the Lower Town of Old Quebec. We enjoy a continental breakfast in the
private Neptune Lounge reserved for suite passengers only and then head out for
an early walk through the city. Although
the shops and galleries are not open this early on Sunday, the streets are
pleasantly quiet with few tourist groups yet crowding the pavement. We follow the cobbled streets between two-
and three-story houses built by the French and the British during the early
settlement of the city. We ride the
short funicular up the escarpment face that separates the Upper and Lower
Towns.
The
upper station of the funicular is at the Dufferin Terrace that follows the top
of the old battlements along the river side of the Upper Town. The famed Chateau Frontenac Hotel—the best known
symbol of Quebec—stands at this very spot and towers over this old section of
the city. We follow the route suggested
by our Michelin Guidebook that takes us along the eastern side of the
battlements for views of the port and the river, and then winds through the
residential and business area of the old city, with many churches and public
buildings. There is a distinctly
European “feel” to Quebec, partly the result of the use of French to the almost
complete exclusion of English (in spite
of official dual language status), and partly the result of the relaxed pace of
life (especially on a Sunday morning).
After
about two hours of walking in beautiful sunshine, we head back down the
Funicular and back through the Lower Town to have lunch back on board the Maasdam.
We are scheduled for an official afternoon walking tour of the city and
tea at the Chateau Frontenac, but since the tour covers much of the same area
we saw in the morning, Will decides to stay aboard the ship. I head out with the tour, which is led by an
excellent guide with lots of knowledge of the history and architecture we are
seeing (which, of course, I could not provide on the morning walk). But after taking the Funicular again, it seems
to be more of a “running” than “walking” tour and the guide is often a block or
two ahead of most of the group. We make
a number of stops for short talks about the sights, but there is little time to
take pictures when we are moving between stops.
Tea and pastries at the hotel provide a nice respite before we walk down
a series of ramps and stairs (including “break-neck stairs”—don’t ask!—back to
the ship.
We
sail out of Quebec City at 5pm, heading toward the Gulf of St Lawrence and a
day at sea tomorrow. We take our gift
bottle of champagne to dinner with us, so we will settle in for a good night’s
sleep
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