New England/Canada Cruise

We had arranged for a cruise from Boston to Montreal over a year ago. So we headed to downtown Boston on Saturday, September 16 to pick up Ken and Barbara A. from California for our week cruise. Our friends, Liz and Charlie B, from Texas joined us. We departed in the afternoon for Bar Harbor, Maine. The weather was beautiful and it was a lovely sail up the New England coast. It was ironic that we had just been in Bar Harbor the previous week. So we were the tour guides for a walk and shopping around quaint Bar Harbor.

We were off that afternoon for parts north and Halifax, Nova Scotia. The six of us took a bus tour around the town of Halifax. Our tour included a drive around town, a visit to a fort above the town that had never been seiged, and to a cemetery where people from the Titanic are buried. The weather had been a surprise for us. We packed clothes expecting cold, rainy weather and it was sunny and in the 70’s and lower 80’s. No complaints, however.

The Maasdam (Holland America) sailed out of Halifax that afternoon for our next port-Sydney, Nova Scotia. We arrived the next morning and took a walking tour of the small town that included a very old church and quaint restored houses. We returned to the ship after a few hours since the town had very little to offer in the way of tourist attractions or local sites. Anyone considering this trip should opt for the bus tour of Cape Breton instead of exploring the town.

We had another afternoon sailing for Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. We arrived in the morning and took a double decker bus tour of the downtown and surrounding area. The ship docked very close to town and we wished we had just taken a walking tour by ourselves. We did see beautiful waterfront property with lovely homes and parks and we shopped in the downtown area. We were back to the ship for another afternoon sailing.

The next destination was up the Saguenay Fjord. The glaciers had carved a deep river running between forested mountains. The leaves on the trees were turning bright red, orange, and yellow making for a gorgeous sail.

The next stop was Quebec City. This was by far our favorite city. We walked the narrow cobblestone streets with their quaint restaurants and shops. The majority of people speak French but we had no trouble finding people in the city who spoke English. We did take a tour of the countryside and stopped at a maple sugar farm that had been run for generations by the same family. We also toured one of the first established houses in the province of Quebec.

We had to sail early from Quebec City in order to hit the tide at the correct time so as to clear a bridge outside of the city. It was exciting to stand at the front of the ship on the upper deck, and face into a 40 mph wind and watch as the top of the cruise ship cleared the bottom of the bridge by about 2 feet. It was then on to Montreal and disembarkation on Sat morning.

The six of us booked a hotel right on the edge of Old Town Montreal and we spent two days walking around the old town exploring restaurants, shops and local historical sites.

Our first attempt to visit Notre Dame Cathedral (an exact copy of the one in Paris) was stymied because of a wedding that was attended by the head of Afganistan-Karzi. We did succeed in seeing the cathedral the next day.

The weather turned cool and we had some rain in Montreal. It was the only rain that we experienced and we thanked our companions, Liz and Charlie who guaranteed us nice weather.

Liz and Charlie flew back to Dallas and Ken, Barbara, Pris and John headed out in their rental car for the drive back to Boston. It was a lovely drive through Quebec, Vermont and New Hampshire because of the spectacular color of the changing leaves.