Sunday, May 17, 2015
It was very calm quiet sailing last night. I love river
cruising! We were both up early for some reason on a Sunday when it would have
been better to sleep in. I don’t know why. Meanwhile, breakfast began late
since we won’t get to Montreal until 12:30pm. Since we were early, we held out
for Terrace at 7:30am but couldn’t wait until 8am for GDR for Sunday morning.
It was pretty quiet in Terrace this morning. Clay had pretty much his normal
breakfast. He had fried potatoes instead of the hash brown cake today. I found
something new this morning that I hadn’t seen yet, not even on the GDR menu as
far as I recall. It was blintzes. They were like Swedish pancakes wrapped
around cream cheese and topped with red berry compote. I had a pair on the recommendation
of the Indian chef I met last night (who is usually in La Reserve. He came by
as a pair of servers was assuring me the blintz had fruit inside and out. I was
worried about cottage cheese, but he assured me it was cream cheese and it was.
I had some muesli and a yogurt parfait after along with my half cappuccino/half
coffee.
Since we had a letter last night about specialty dinner
reservations, we went past the 5th floor desk after 8am to reconfirm
the reservations Clay made online. It was all set and confirmed. While there I
learned something new. They have a crossword/Sudoku sheet and a trivia sheet
there every day! Now if I can just find a jigsaw puzzle somewhere I’ll feel
more like I’m having a full cruise experience. I have run out of places to look
though. I’m thinking there may be some in the game room but it is too busy in
there for the gamers/card players to ever allow a table to be used for a
puzzle.
Since we had not been out of the cabin an hour yet, we went
up to Horizons and sat in the front window for a while so we could see both
sides as we sail on up river on the St. Lawrence. We were back in the cabin by
9am and Clay soon announced he had seen a large canid of some kind, either a
wolf or a coyote. I don’t think he got a photo. It was gone by the time he told
me. We did pass a small island covered with gulls and in one tree there were 4
eagles’ nests and at least a half dozen bald eagles.
We sat out on our balcony after that and watch our approach
to Montreal. I worked on my cross-stitch too. We saw a big leaning tower that
Clay said was a cruise ship smokestack. I thought it might suspend a cable
bridge or just be a towering building as it seemed too large for a bridge
suspension. As we sat there sailing past a public park along the river, with
the mystery tower in the background, our neighbor came out and called to his
wife about the great golf course. His wife came out and immediately asked him
what that leaning tower was. He told her it was probably for the Marine Corps.
Clay and I looked more closely at the park for any evidence of golf or golfing
activity and could find none. Eventually we came around a giant grain silo
building and could see that the leaning tower was both a building and a cable
support system for a puffy white roof to a round building that we assume was a
stadium. But, it made me think about why we travel and how we do it. I want to
see new things. I want to see old things in a new way or with new eyes. But,
sometimes when we travel what we see is what we bring with us. I try not to do
that, but perhaps on some level it is inevitable.
We arrived in Montreal well before 12:30pm. But it took us a
long time to dock. I think this protected waterway with a man-made island protecting
it from the strong river current may be about as far as a ship can go before
having to use locks. I guess we’ll find out when we come back in August for the
Great Lakes cruise. Anyway, we were docked and cleared well before 12:30pm. It
is a convenient location, but the facility is rustic and I would think it would
be inconvenient as a cruise turnaround location. We had to walk on steep narrow
ramps, through a building across a parking lot and down a long steep flight of
outdoor stairs. To return was the reverse. If you were traveling independently
here with even a small amount of carry-on luggage, it would be impossible. To
be sure there must be an elevator somewhere. We have a lot of disabled people
onboard and I have no idea how they got around today.
We went up to Terrace and got a shady table for 2 overlooking
Montreal. We are docked on the port side today. We have a view of a rusty old
abandoned silo facility with a view to the front of Habitat 67. Clay thinks it
is the ugliest thing he’s ever seen, but I like it. We learned today that it
was built as temporary residences during Expo ’67. It was built on a design
submitted in a contest by a local college student. It is amazing that it has
stood the test of time. It is not clear that the people on the port side have a
better view unless they are on decks higher than the cruise terminal building.
Anyway, we had a light lunch in case we failed to get a beavertail this
afternoon.
We walked down the waterfront to 2 rue de la Commune which
is where Google Maps placed the Beavertail shop. Nothing! I should point out that
the name in French is Queue de Castor. We don’t recognize that usually, so we
missed it on the front of a food court type building attached to the Science
Center and IMAX Theater. (Just as well since it was jam-packed with a long
line.) Clay searched for it again on his GPS phone app that was tracking our
place and there was one at 123 rue de la Commune. We got our 2nd
beavertail each there. It was not quiet but it was not busy and it was an
indoor place to sit out of the sun. The temperature was projected to be 78F
today, but with clear blue skies with nary a cloud in sight, it felt hotter. We
walked down to Marche Bonsecours and back towards the ship on Rue Saint-Paul. We
walked up and down Place Jacques Cartier and saw the town hall. We crossed back
to the waterfront and walked up and down the outdoor stalls. We had passed a
place rented little pedaled carts and Clay asked to do it. I didn’t want to
pedal around and then walk back to the ship. I suggest a Segway tour since they
had one out with a sign that said 30-minute guided tours for $45. We walked up
and asked and the guide was there putting Segways away. She said she could take
us in about 20 minutes if we wanted to come back. We did. She went and ate her
lunch and I got in line for the ladies restroom. We met again about 3:30pm. We
watched the training video, signed our waivers and then took a Segway out from
the crowds and had a lesson. Since we weren’t first timers, she proclaimed us
her best students of the day and off we went. These went much faster than the
ones in Raleigh. It was exciting. It was a great way to see the entire
waterfront area and she gave us a lot of history. It was a great tour. The company is Ecorecreo on Vieux Montreal
pier.
I looked at a whale watching brochure today and evidently
there are 7 kinds of whales living in the St. Lawrence. They have a whales
guarantee on their cruises, if you don’t see a whale they’ll keep giving you a
free cruise until you do. I guess that works great if you are Quebecois, but
not much help for short term visitors. The weird thing is if they have whale
watching tours up and down this river, why shouldn’t we expect to see them from
Marina? We did think we saw one as we sailed from Saguenay. We sat out past
sunset looking for that giant Madonna statue. As it was getting dark, we saw a
big white thing in the water between us and shore. I handed the binoculars to
Clay and it the time of the handoff and him looking the white thing had
submerged and vanished. We still think it must have been a beluga whale.
We got back to the ship about 4:30pm. We have all day here
tomorrow. It is disembark/embark cruise turnaround day and we want to be off the
ship for lunch and most of the afternoon. We have all day to do a modified
food-lover’s tour that I copied out of Fodor’s. We leave Montreal at 1am on the
19th.
We had our beer and wine out on the balcony before dinner
again. We ate all our cheese curds by now and shared a bag of peanuts instead.
I am still drinking the Petit Frog Languedoc white. We think it is causing a
flushing red face reaction every evening. It is either that or the sunscreen or
the facial cloths I am using to scrub off the sunscreen. We don’t know. The
good news is that it is temporary every evening right before dinner. Clay is
still working on the beers he bought in Portland, ME. I don’t know if I have
mentioned that Canada has state controlled alcohol sales and it is difficult to
find a state store and it is heavily taxed. So, Canada has some of the most expensive
and hard to locate alcoholic beverages. We are glad that we don’t have to worry
about that. We passed a giant Molson facility sailing in. Our Segway guide
Andreanne told us that the Hudson Bay Trading Company was the oldest business
in Canada and the 2nd oldest was Molson. You know what Clay needs
now… We’ll see if we find some tomorrow.
We went up to Terrace at 6:30pm. We thought to eat on the back
deck again, but the sun was low in the sky and blinding back there so we went
back in. They had a Canadian beef and bacon stew that we both had and liked. I
had a slice of prosciutto pizza and I found 3 types of Manchego cheese that we
shared and we both liked all 3. I had a warm chocolate cake that I think was
the same Canyon Ranch Guilt Free one I had the other night in GDR. I had a
scoop of sugar free cinnamon ice cream with it. Clay a bowl of anchovies with
lettuce. Then he had mushy calamari and beef stew with German potato salad. For
dessert he had some pistachio goo in a small cup, ice cream and a cookie. He
liked the green goo and thinks it was the same stuff from the cake filling the
other night. After dinner, we wandered around the top of the ship to see the
views. We played 18 holes of putting and self-scored. Clay was either much better
than me or he couldn’t keep count. I can’t say which. I think we’ll have an
early night. The evening entertainment is a popcorn movie at 9pm in the
theater. I wonder if they actually give out popcorn? We haven’t been to one of the
theater movies yet. Tonight is The Theory of Everything and we saw it before.
