A Fjord, A Miracle and A Crepe

Serendipity can be a wonderful part of the travel experience or not. Our bypassing Prince Edward Island, due to winds, allowed us to travel up the Saguenay Fjord to see the statue Notre-Dame-du-Saguenay. So while we were unable to savor Prince Edward Island Mussels at the source, we were able to travel to a seldom visited spot on most cruise itineraries, learn more about geology than most people would care to do and be told the story of Charles-Napoléon Robitaille.

The weather that day was brisk as we entered the sixty-five-mile long fjord. It was a good day to be indoors and it was hard to believe our eyes when we saw a group of people flying by on a speed boat, all bundled up in their orange and yellow slickers, doing some type of mad adventure tour. We couldn't imagine what they were up to. After all, it was cold, windy and there was snow on the mountains.

                                                                                                                                                                   












From the comfort of our warm stateroom, we watched the fall colors, passed by some small villages and under numerous hi-tension lines, all sagging ominously towards the ship, as we learned about Quebec's abundant hydro-electric power, the Precambrian era and the birth of the Laurentian Mountains, which may be the oldest in the world, and the aforementioned story of Robitaille.

Robitaille was a traveling salesman in this part of the world in the late 1800's. He did his work with horse and wagon and in the winter, with horse and sleigh. Today this area is sparsely populated. It's hard to imagine what it must have been like then, but like a postal worker of old, he carried on no matter the weather, and on a faithful winter's day in 1878, fell through the ice of the Saguenay River while riding in his heavily laden sleigh on the way to make a sale.

With death drawing near, as he flailed to get onto solid ice, he prayed to the Virgin Mary for one more chance and miraculously found himself on the ice and safe. Unfortunately, once he was returned home, he fell seriously ill from the event and when his demise seemed imminent, he again prayed to the Virgin asking for ten more years to raise his children, this time promising to do something to commemorate her miracles (nothing like hedging your bet). He survived and made good on his promise and thus we have the statue of Notre-Dame-du-Saguenay, erected on a point overlooking the river, which in of itself, is a miracle given it's three-ton weight, thirty-foot height, and erection in 1881. It's quite inspiring coming across this beautiful monument to one man's faith in such an out of the way place.

Unfortunately, with a fjord, you go out the exact same way you came in. It was starting to get dark, not to mention colder, and frankly, one can only take so much of the same scenery. Quebec City beckoned the next day and then Montreal. Quaintness would be fading along with the leaves and we were looking forward to a little more action. So we turned our backs on the Saguenay and headed for the wine bar. It was time to warm up a and think about the restaurant reservations I had already made.

It had been almost twenty years since we last visited Quebec City, but when I opened the curtains in the morning, it looked very familiar. Chateau Frontenac stood proudly atop the highest point in the city as it has since 1893, dominating the landscape. It is arguably the most photographed hotel in the world.

The weather was overcast, windy and cold, but being the intrepid travelers that we are, we bravely bundled up and headed out into the fierce Quebec fall. Our goals were modest for the day; shop, stroll, shoot and find the best crepes in the city for lunch.

Quebec City is nothing if not quaint and very European in feel. Split between upper and lower city, it is compact, comfortable and easy to get around especially with the Funicular connecting the upper and lower city. Without it, it would have been much more difficult to get from lower to upper.

The lower city seems dominated by galleries, restaurants, shops and great photo ops. We strolled the cobblestone streets shooting and shopping thrilled by the modern designs in so many of the shops that are so sorely lacking where we live. We could have shopped all day, but it was past noon, we were cold and it was time to find the crepe shop.

Reading a map in the wind and trying to decipher streets that were once cow paths, changing names after every little jog, is quite a challenge, but Kathy was up to it and we found our way to the charming little crepe shop. It was as authentic a Breton crepe shop as one could find outside of Northern France. Staffed by three of the hardest working women one could imagine, with one making all the crepes, one serving the entire restaurant, one washing dishes in the back, we savored our crepes. I had wild boar in a cider sauce, Kathy a traditional ham and cheese and John had a sampler trio that ended with a chocolate/banana crepe. They were from heaven.

Thoroughly satisfied and warmed up enough to brave the cold and return to the ship, we headed out knowing that the next morning our cruise was over and we were headed to Montreal by train. It had been a wonderful cruise. While not transporting us to exotic ports nor adding to our country count, it was by far the easiest going, most comfortable cruise we had taken. 

As we strolled back to the ship, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this sign.

Poutine, actually designer poutine, had come to McDonald's. When will it come to the States?

Quebec City delivered what we wanted. It really is a special place in North America. If you can't get to Europe, this is about as close as you will get. 

We had a wonderful dinner that night at Cafe Du Monde. As we strolled back to the ship, Chateau Frontenac stood guard over the city as it has for so many years.

Nova Scotia

Clouds, leaden, black, heavy with rain, shafts of gold streaking through, being at sea can provide one with some great photo opps, but those same beautiful scenes can portend cancelled ports of call as this one foretold our not stopping at Prince Edward Island thus missing eating Prince Edward Island mussels at the source.

For the third time, during two cruises on the Caribbean Princess, we were awakened by the Captain at 6:00AM, with an announcement that gale force winds would mean canceling a stop, just as they had for Dublin and also kept us glued to the dock for twelve hours in Reykjavik, Iceland almost causing us to miss Greenland.

On the other hand, since we were missing a day on land, there is more time to write and to try to pick the best shots of our time in Nova Scotia, which happens to be quite a beautiful place.

There were four cruise ships in Halifax when we arrived and we were quite happy to get away from most of the crowds and head out on our own. Most of the tours were quite long and we didn’t think John would be up for six or seven hours on a bus, so we rented a car and off we went.

On our way to our first stop and shortly out of Halifax, we entered a heavily forested area dotted with many lakes and our first taste of great fall colors.

We continued on toward Peggy's Cove and Peggy Lighthouse enjoying the scenery and frankly the freedom of having our own car, which became readily apparent as soon as we turned off of the highway towards the Cove and into a tourist bus traffic jam.

There is one road in and out and probably no more than twelve houses in the town and all were overrun, but the place was undeniably picturesque. So we turned around and left to come back later when the crowds were gone.

The myth is that after a shipwreck a little girl, the only survivor, was washed ashore and did not know her name. The townspeople named her Peggy and later Peggy's Cove became this little town's name. What I find fascinating is that this town has been here since 1776.

Not only is the town a magnet for photographers, but the entire area around it is fascinating and beautiful.

As we continued our drive on the coast, we came across the memorial site for Swissair 111.

I had forgotten about it, but Kathy remembered. It is a stone's throw from Peggy's Cove. Unfortunately, all 229 aboard the flight perished.

We continued our picturesque drive past many little coves and very small villages each one worth a camera stop. The common theme, besides beauty, was that each seemed to support a small amount of lobster fishermen and when we finally stopped for lunch, we celebrated with three fantastic lobster rolls, in a tidy little restaurant overlooking the Atlantic. We were so satisfied with our find and lunch, none of us took a picture, but the following shots will give you an idea of the area.

It was starting to get late and we needed to head back to Halifax. What a lovely day we had and we had another port in this beautiful province to look forward to, Sydney.

This charming little town was settled by the British in 1765. It is on Cape Breton Island and today is known as the Fiddle Capital of the World and also boasts the World's Largest Violin.

This is all fitting that Cape Breton and Sydney are truly proud of their Scottish, Arcadian and Irish heritage and the music it has produced. Cape Breton is also home to the Cabot Trail, a stunningly beautiful drive along the coast, which, unfortunately, we passed on do the length of the tours and lack of any rental companies open on Sunday. We also thought that John would be done with touring by now, but he wasn't and kept asking why we were just walking around. Frankly, Sydney, while exceedingly pleasant is pretty dead.

We ended up passing a pleasant amount of time in a pub listening to a fiddle player of some renown, I forget his name, and eating the most delicious poutine yet, this one topped with pulled pork. 

We really liked Nova Scotia and from what we saw from the real estate listings, one could have a beautiful lake or ocean front property at a really reasonable price, but after walking around Sydney all day and listing to the clickity-clack of studded tires and seeing this sign, I thought the better of it.

Wow, those winters must really be rough.

Portland, Poutine and Provinces

Food always plays an important part in our travels and on this cruise it’s even more important. While never having been to Portland, we’ve been to some pretty amazing places in Coastal Maine and one look at the tours that were offered made finding the best lobster roll in the city a priority. Somehow a day at the outlets or the L.L. Bean Factory store didn’t seem that interesting.

Fortunately Portland has been gaining in reputation as a foodie destination. Many of the top destinations are open only for dinner, but we wanted an authentic lobster roll experience and we got it at the Portland Lobster Company.

Located outside on the docks, we sat at the bar and ordered fried clams, two lobster rolls and a crab sandwich. The place was bustling, but the staff couldn’t have been friendlier. After a short wait, what you see is what arrived.

 It could not have been fresher or better. You can have lobster flown in live pretty much anywhere, but sitting on the docks, smelling the sea, listening to music, and eating sweet lobster that was caught that morning, barely dressed, and overflowing on a buttered roll, is pure heaven and pretty much all you need to do in Portland. By the way, the clams and the crab cake were excellent as well.

We hated to leave our perches at the bar, but were too full to have the fresh Maine blueberry pie and we did want to see the harbor area and had booked a city tour on a fire engine from an interesting character on the docks, so we reluctantly left.

The harbor area is pretty non-descript with the usual sprinkling of shops and restaurants, but not nearly as overtly commercial as Newport. The tour was laid back and fun. Not visually stimulating, but certainly Portland has a lot of history although except for the food scene and outlets, I am not sure what else it offers. Perhaps it’s the exceptional views from ocean front homes and most likely a very nice lifestyle, at least in the summer.

We headed out of Portland toward the Bay of Fundy and St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. Our first stop in the Maritime Provinces. Here we were to see the magical reversing rapids caused by fifty-foot tides and had booked a boat tour to see the spectacle. Well, we hit the rapids at slack tide when nothing happens. The river was as smooth as glass. As they say, timing is everything and by the way, their tides are only twenty-six feet. The fifty foot ones are one hundred miles up river.

Something magical did happen in St. John, we had our first poutine. Now French fries, brown gravy and cheese curds doesn’t sound too appetizing, but at Billy’s Seafood they made their poutine with lobster and a light gravy similar to a béchamel sauce. It was fantastic. Filling, but fantastic. What an introduction to a dish first made by the peasants in Quebec sans the lobster.  One has to wonder why the good folks in Wisconsin didn’t invent this particular dish, given all the cheese curds they produce.

Now I must explain the green stuff on top of the poutine. The folks in New Brunswick have a strong affinity for Dulse, which is air-dried seaweed. They eat it all the time and put it on just about everything. They claim this particular seaweed is only found in the waters off New Brunswick and that they are famous for it. Let’s just say it is an acquired taste. Ours was pretty much left intact after a taste, much to the astonishment of our incredibly cheerful waitress.

That cheerfulness is another trait one quickly picks up on. Everyone we met was so nice. Maybe it’s all of the Dulse, but people here seem incredibly nice and friendly, even passersby on the streets.

It certainly is a clean and tidy city with a great Oceanographic Museum, the oldest farmer’s market in Canada, fantastic public art, nice parks and the reversing rapids, but the Downtown area seems a little too quiet for our tastes, but we will always remember it for our first poutine.

Our next stop was Halifax, Nova Scotia where we rented a car and took off for the coast and Peggy’s Cove. We were rewarded with beautiful scenery, fall colors, a magnificent coast, and more great food, this time lobster rolls, in a quaint little restaurant overlooking the Atlantic, but I have so many great shots to choose from, I've decided to do a separate post.