Holly Doyne

Well, today was another tender port that didn’t happen. The sea looked deceptively calm, unless you went down to one of the lower decks to realize that, just because you didn’t see white caps didn’t mean that the was exactly calm. The positive side of traveling on a smaller ship is the ability to visit smaller ports and less traveled locations. The downside is that most of these locations are accessed by tender rather than having the ship dock. As a result, with a very conservative captain, any sea more than about a meter of swell becomes a potential cancellation.

This would have been Cap-aux-Meules, Iles de la Madeleine. Ah, well. We sat in the bay for several hours looking at the shore which was so near, yet so far.

Did I share a cabin picture?  No?

Unlike a lot of the ship’s crew, we didn’t get off the ship last evening. I am not much for wandering around away from home in the evening and even less likely to do so while in a city that is not my own. Sound better than saying I don’t go out at night in strange cities, doesn’t it? Anyway – today presented a completely different challenge. There were three other ships in port which meant the number of tourists on the streets was significantly higher.

In fact, I am not sure that anyone who was local and not involved in the hospitality or tourist trade (to include a lot of so oriented shops) was out and about today. Neither the Seabourn Quest (458) or the Seven Seas Grandeur (748) are particularly huge ships nor actually is HAL’s Volendam (1432 – and by far the oldest of the four in port) but their presence certainly made our measly 312 passenger ship look tiny.

Anyway – we walked out and away, through the art district and I made the mistake of turning left at a corner …

Oh, well …. and turned to the opposite direction and found  yet another cannon emplacement. That I could ignore, but  there was this artist installation … (on the website you should be able to click on the photo and enlarge it enough to read it.0

I am sorry – I don’t find this art –

It is books, in many languages and most were obviously readable prior to her fastening then to an understructure. Especially in a city which has both antiquarian and used book stores.

I am not sure that it is balanced by this particularly lovely building –

with a bit of close up –

and so we decided to explore a bit more up the hill and along what appeared occasionally to be streets of shops for those who just might live there. But there were constant reminders of the long standing military strategic importance of the top of a hill overlooking a river (sound familiar to anyone living in Europe?)

and so –

and gates (obviously more recently repaired)

and, of course, more canon emplacements.

At that point, I felt it was more than reasonable time to hike back down toward the ship, avoid all the extra tourists and contemplate a nap, stitching, or another audio book.
 

After leaving Montreal last night, it was a fairly short journey back to Quebec City. We are here today and tomorrow. Today’s plan was simple, out, wander, visit a couple of museums, maybe climb the “hill” again, avoid the pink balloon babies, and see what there was to see.

When walking by the lovely small restaurant that George stopped at the last time we were here was obviously closed, I realized that we had headed out well before any reasonable opening time…

OTOH, I took a chance and made a quick hike up the hill, ?mountain?, to check on the Starbucks. Yes, they were open, yes, they were packed with customers, no they didn’t have any of the thermoses which left me headed right back down. And spotted yet another one of the

But still, it was a lovely day.

We made a stop at the Museum of Civilization – featuring exhibits wide ranging from original peoples through exploration of the area by the Europeans to a discussion of more modern times.

because, of course, the known universe had to be mapped by the Europeans with a bit of imagination.

Early snowmobile developed prior to WWII were important in areas with cold and snow.

and judges, even female judges just have to wear lace ties/jabots.

Our next stop was to be the Maritime Museum …. closed. Since it was a weekend, the Fleet training school also seemed deserted.

At the end of the day ,

came on board for a concert. They were excellent. One of the new passengers wasn’t – as she apparently thought that teenage (trust me, she had left that decades prior) behavior of standing in front of the band, moving around and sticking her arms up in the air was appropriate behavior.

I mean seriously. Large, pink, creepy pink balloons which were glaringly obvious just on walking into Old Town Quebec City.

there were more, oh so many more. 

Enough Said.

The ride on the tender into St Anthony wasn’t all that far, nor was it rough. On a Sunday, this is a quiet place with most, I would guess home, or minding their own business. Not all that many people here in any case.

According to the history, it is not one of the early settlements, instead dating in the 1800s..

The war memorial is near what appears to be the oldest church. It lists those killed in WWI, WII, and the Korean War,

We walked to stretch our legs and mostly saw others from the ship.

The municipal building includes the Public Library and the Fire Department is next door.

From the normal looking phone number on the building I strongly suspect a department with a paid chief and otherwise staffed with volunteers…

We skipped the small shopping center which included a Subway. Who knew?

There is a a small museum which has a craft store downstairs. Selling souvenirs, locally made quilts, placemats, etc, one end is also stocked with the supplies that those who live locally would need to sew, quilt, or knit.

Some of the early pieces were on exhibit upstairs, including the start of a rug hooking piece.

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We finished our walk, headed back to the ship and I spent the afternoon on line with the Stitch Summit.