Gene and Jan's Long Trip Too

It was sunrise when the Viking Sun prepared to dock at Old Quebec City.  Hotel Frontenac welcomed us from its perch high above the St. Laurence river.  This is the most photographed hotel in the world.  After leaving Montreal, we headed back down the St. Laurence River toward the Atlantic Ocean.  In doing so, we are stopping again at Quebec City and Saguenay which we just visited a few days ago.  This is for the benefit of the 600 "short timers" (new passengers) that boarded in Montreal and will disembark in New York.  (Only 180 of us are booked on the half or full world trip.) Our excursion today took us to the pastoral island of Île d'Orléans, one of the first areas of Quebec settled by the French.  Originally this was farm land, but today the island is far more valuable as a summer retreat for city folks looking for a place to unwind on the weekends.  There are, however, a number of small wineries here.  We visited one. Its...

We arrived in Montréal for a two-day stop.  The weather -- you guessed it -- RAIN.  Since we are "travelers" not "tourists", we adjust to what is given us without complaint.  (As the Norwegians say, "there is no bad weather, just bad clothing,"  so we adjusted our clothing for the conditions and went out to see the city.) Our first evening we strolled through Old Town with a tour group headed for the historic Notre Dame Basilica.  The evening was cool but the rain had stopped as our group dropped by a local pub for a glass of wine and tapas. The twin towers of the Basilica reached into the overcast evening sky.  The first church on this site was built in 1672.  By 1824 the congregation had outgrown the building and a replacement church was constructed between 1824 and 1842.  At the time it was completed, it was the largest church in North America. We were attending the Basilica to view their spectacular multimedia production titl...

Day 28 we arrived in Quebec City and for the first time in a fortnight, the sun brightened our day!  We have toured the historic part of the city in the past, so instead decided to visit the Huron-Wendat (Indian) Village.  Located in Wendakt, the reserve is now totally surrounded by greater Quebec City. The early French explorers nicknamed the Wendat "Huron" (meaning boars head in French) because of the men's hairstyle. Arriving at the village we walked past the Wendat Nation's Church built in 1730.  The French  converted the natives to Christianity and today they are predominately Catholic. Across from the church is a park depicting the Nation's "Myth of Creation."  According to the legend, The "Sky Tree and Mother of Creation" fell into the "Water World" from the "Sky World" above.  Seeing this, the astonished geese, otter, muskrat and beaver sacrificed their lives to rescue her.  The turtle gave up his shell t...

We have now been cruising up the St. Laurence River for two days -- in the rain!  Over night we docked in Saguenay, Quebec, located on the Saguenay River 65 miles upstream from where it empties into the St Lawrence River.  This deep-water stretch of the river forms a fjord. With only an afternoon excursion planned and the weather quite rainy, we kicked back and relaxed during the morning. (Jan has read 8 books so far.) In the afternoon we traveled to the local theater to see the live performance of La Fabuleus,  Wow! What a show! Using story telling, dance and song, the production traced the history of Saguenay from the arrival of the french 400 years ago to the present.  The theater had seating for more than 1,000 people and used state-of-the-art audiovisual effects in the 1-1/2 hour non-stop action presentation. The huge stage provided plenty of room for the 150 actors, 6 horses, a gaggle of geese, and a pig to perform this panoramic block-buster...

The Viking Sun anchored at L’Anse aux Meadows overnight in calm waters. At first light, the sun threatened to break through the overcast that had plagued us for days.  L’Anse aux Meadows, located at the northern most point of Newfoundland, has a population of 19.  Today, 18 of the village’s 19 residents assisted us as hosts and guides, the 19 th was in school. At 7:55 AM we tender ashore shivering in 40-degree temperatures.  Back home it is in the 70s to 80s.  (Just wait, soon we will be in the 80s  and 90s and you will be in the 40s.) Greeting us with a ROAR as we disembark our tender, a local resident dressed in Viking attire enjoyed his role as a host. Nearby we visited the site of the Norse village Erikson, predating Columbus’s “discovery of the Americas” by 500 years. It has been designated a Canadian National Historic Site and more recently a UNESCO World Heritage site and is the only authenticated Viking settlement in North America....