Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Clay was up very early this morning. It has turned cold
again too. So, for some reason rather than waiting for 6am and the treadmill,
he headed to the outdoor fitness track in 39F windy conditions. He claimed it
wasn’t that cold out, but I had checked the weather and when he came back it
was only 46F. He didn’t believe that either so I had to verify with weather.com
and the ship had it right. The temperature today is only supposed to reach 60F
or so and be cloudy all day. No sunscreen for me again.
Today we have a tour booked from our last stop here. We are
on Tours Vieux Quebec’s Countryside Tour. It cost us $49.95 + taxes pp. It
should last 4.5 hours approximately. It should take us out of the city today.
We should drive 40 km on the Chemin du Roy, stop Albert Gilles’ copper museum,
stop at Marie’s traditional bakery, visit the Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre Basilica
Shrine, stop at Montmorency Falls (1.5 x higher than Niagara), visit Ile
d’Orleans and stop at the island’s chocolate factory. I believe all entrance
fees are included and they are scheduled to pick us up at the Civilization
Museum across the street at 10am.
Breakfast started at 6:30am this morning. We got to Terrace
after 7am. It wasn’t too busy. I hope we both ate a substantial enough
breakfast because it is not clear what our lunch opportunities will be. There
is nothing about lunch or a stop for it on the tour brochure listing. So, we’ll
take protein bars and Nabs just in case.
Tonight we have nothing planned. There is a new male
entertainer onboard, Mark Newsome from Wales. I assume Marina is taking him
back home and he is performing tonight. We don’t plan to go. Last night we
watched the movie Wild Card on TV. It had Jason Statham, who I love, and we
enjoyed the film. We got to eat dinner out on the back deck of Terrace last
night and that was a first and enjoyable. They were stir frying fish and
seafood at the wok station last night and repeating the Canadian beef and bacon
stew. So while I liked the stew, I didn’t want it again and I had pizza and
pasta.
The ship arrived in Quebec City about 7am this morning, but
we weren’t docked and cleared to disembark until right after 8am. (That was an
hour after the time posted in the Currents. But was the original posted arrival
time.) We are docked on the port side today, so they get the million dollar Frontenac
view today and we get a nice view across the river. Clay saw us arrive around
the cliff and said it was a dramatic entry. I’m sorry I was in the shower! We
learned when we were here before that Quebec was a Native American word meaning
a high place where the river narrows. It was very desirable, because whoever
controlled the cliff top controlled access to the Great Lakes through the St.
Lawrence River. Clay said it was much clearer to see that on the approach from
up river than from down river or from the land including from the fort up top.
I had the TV on the cams channel when I got in the shower
and when I got out I thought I saw the St. Laurent on our aft cam. Shortly
after we arrived at the dock and I was dressed. I opened the drapes just in
time to see St. Laurent cruise very close by our starboard side. They docked
right in front of us. They only arrived in Trois-Rivieres after 5pm and like us
must have sailed to QC overnight. They were literally in our wake when I first
saw the aft cam! I think this was the furthest east point of the current cruise
according to the itinerary maps the port of Trois-Rivieres had posted for
Marina and St. Laurent. It has been cool to see her. Yesterday, we checked our
invoices and her deck plans and then went and checked out where our cabin
windows are. I was OK with the location still, Clay was dubious. We’ll see. I
also checked our invoice for our Marina 7/7 to 7/21 cruise Stockholm to
Southampton and found that we will be in cabin 7090. That should really mess us
up! Instead of slightly forward and starboard, we’ll be slightly aft and port!
At least we will still be on the same deck, so it could be worse.
We are back from a cold and blustery day! We went out an
hour before we had to catch the bus and walked in a different direction than we
had last trip to Quebec City. We headed for the lower ramparts and the lower
section of the old quarter of town. This is right below the Dufferin Terrace
that we toured last visit. It is where the lower terminal of the funicular is.
It was not as busy today. Everything was closed early this morning and the narrow
lanes were filled with trucks making deliveries. We found a Beavertail shop
though for later per Clay.
We were in a large crowd at the Civilization Museum bus stop
today unlike last time. Half the crowd got on the red double-decker HOHO bus.
The other half got on a normal bus that was going to do a city tour after he
dropped transfers up at the Place d’Armes. The bus driver exchanged our receipt
for a boarding pass and the driver of bus 41 took that and let us board. I
would guess it was a 50 passenger bus and was just about full. We went first to
Ile d’Orleans and the Chocolaterie de l’ile. It was a bit of a disappointment.
It was not a factory as described. It was a shop and café. I had high hopes for
an excellent hot chocolate, but it was not to be they were dispensing them from
a machine like a truck stop. We used the rest rooms. We got to see 100’s of
snow geese along the way though so that was a bonus. The chocolate stop was in
Ste. Petronille. There a half dozen or so small villages on the island and it
has a microclimate so it has almost always been all agricultural. Next stop was
Montmorency Falls. If you wanted to take the cable car to the top and back it
was an extra $13pp. Otherwise it was 500 stairs up and then back down. We only
had 1 hour there and we barely got it down riding the cable car! The guide/bus
driver gave us all coupons for about $3 off the price of the cable car tickets
which covered a little more than the taxes that would be added to the $13
ticket, so it was still $13. Next stop was in Chateau-Richer at Albert Gilles’
copper museum which was a family owned copper art producer/shop. It included a
tour and history and a demonstration followed by the shop. We used the
restrooms. We would see the families work again later in the
Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre Basilica. It was impressive work. The next stop along the Chemin
du Roy on the Cote-du-Beaupre was Chez Marie. It was a house in Marie’s family
since the 1600’s and they have baked bread and sold it to pilgrims to the St.
Anne shrine all along. The guide pointed out the traditional architecture with
stuccoed stone house with curved roofs. He also pointed out the ice houses,
root cellars and wood ovens. Chez Marie also had an old iron stove inside like
we saw at the bakery on the Saguenay tour. A sample slice of bread with maple
butter at Chez Marie was not included but was an extra $1.50pp. We had eaten
Nabs/protein bar and some Oreos and maple candies by then, but were feeling a
little puckish, so we each got one. I liked it. Clay didn’t think it was
special. He wants a beavertail now! Our very last stop at the furthest point
out was the Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre Basilica. It was huge and beautifully detailed
and impressive. It is the 5th church built on this site since 1658.
We got back to the Civilization Museum about 3:15pm. We got off the bus and
walked right to Queues de Castor and got beavertails again. I gave up on
poutine some time again and I really didn’t need another beavertail, but I took
one for the team. I switch to a No. 1 butter and cinnamon sugar while Clay got
the maple. The guy put so much maple on his that it was running off and pooling
on the wrapper. So I still got maple! Bonus. We wandered in the tiny old town
section as we made our way back to the ship.
We aren't doing anything anywhere on the ship this evening and it is too cold to be outside without bundling back up. So, I guess it is early to bed because there aren't any movies on TV we want to watch either.
We went to Terrace for dinner again. They had a selection of 6 Quebec cheeses tonight. That was a new and welcome feature. They had the tourtiere again and I liked it before but I didn't want it again. They had lamb at the wok station and I had pasta last night. I had 2 slices of meat pizza and iceberg lettuce for the 1st time. Clay had iceberg lettuce then he had shrimp and spanakopita. He had ice cream, still a waste of milk and sugar. I had the awful chocolate of the chocolate fountain with marshmallows and pastry puffs.
We aren't doing anything anywhere on the ship this evening and it is too cold to be outside without bundling back up. So, I guess it is early to bed because there aren't any movies on TV we want to watch either.
We went to Terrace for dinner again. They had a selection of 6 Quebec cheeses tonight. That was a new and welcome feature. They had the tourtiere again and I liked it before but I didn't want it again. They had lamb at the wok station and I had pasta last night. I had 2 slices of meat pizza and iceberg lettuce for the 1st time. Clay had iceberg lettuce then he had shrimp and spanakopita. He had ice cream, still a waste of milk and sugar. I had the awful chocolate of the chocolate fountain with marshmallows and pastry puffs.
