Canada Part 1

After Greenland, we crossed the Labrador Sea to Canada.

Corner Brook

Corner Brook is a city located on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. So once again it was time to open the room safe and change the local currency we carry in case of emergencies. There have been many changes in the way we spend money overseas since my first visit to the Mediterranean in 1968. Gone forever are travelers cheques. Almost gone is the need to get any foreign exchange before leaving the country. On this trip, I did get some small amounts of foreign currency just in case. Travelling on a cruise there is also a limited time in port and mostly we are rushing off the ship directly to busses for excursions so there is no time to visit an ATM. For the most part, we have not needed any cash. Tipping Guides and Toilets have been the only places it has been needed (except in Iceland where we could pay the 2 Euros via card.) Everywhere else and for everything else card has been accepted. I have been using my phone to pay everywhere and it has worked brilliantly. I did have to use the physical card once in a winery when their system had a limit on how much could be charged via tapping.

In Canada, people from Newfoundland are sometimes referred to as Newfies and there are lots of Newfie Jokes along the lines of Irish and Polish jokes elsewhere in the world. We skipped the Newfie-specific cultural event offered at the town hall. Typically, you’re made to repeat some local sayings, kiss a codfish, drink some Screech rum In return, you’ll get a certificate confirming your title as an honourary Newfoundlander!

Instead, we focused on more generic Canadian pursuits and had breakfast at a Tim Horton's coffee shop, purchased a large bag full of chips at chocolate at a Dollarama store and had lunch at a bar called the Crown and Moose.

At the bar, we found ourselves in a line waiting for a table and directly in front of us was the Captain with his mother, Daughter and Niece who are on this cruise with him. Captain Pears is from Ireland and joined the ship in Cork. His forthright manner and sense of humour have been much appreciated by the passengers since he took over.

We saw some of the scenic beauty of the area as we sailed in and out of the port. The town itself was dominated by the paper mill which was once actually owned the whole town as workers' accommodation.

At each of the port stops there are a variety of activities available. We do a mixture of tours, some organised by the ship, some arranged privately. We generally avoid anything too strenuous and the tours are mostly aimed at the passenger demographic. After visiting this port we were discussing with some new friends a mature woman they had met at the craft group who was thrilled with the ziplining excursion she had taken and was keen to show off the bruises on her torso from the harness. There were also the reports we seem to get at every stop of somebody having a fall and returning to the ship with a bloodied face or a broken bone.

From Corner Brook, we headed for 2 stops in the French-speaking province of Quebec. While the same currency is in use and Tim Horton's is everywhere there are cultural and political differences between the French and English-speaking parts which we did not perhaps fully appreciate before visiting.

Québec City

Québec City sits on the Saint Lawrence River in Canada's mostly emphatically French-speaking Québec province. Dating to 1608, it has a fortified colonial core, Vieux-Québec and Place Royale, with stone buildings and narrow streets. This area is the site of the towering Château Frontenac Hotel and the imposing Citadelle of Québec. The Petit Champlain district’s cobblestone streets are lined with bistros and boutiques.

Québec City has an undeniably European feel. It is also pronounced KehBec by the locals and the signage is often in French only. We did a walking food tour at this stop and had to make our way up to the higher part of the old city to start the tour. Using google maps to navigate we discovered that there is a missing setting saying something like "use funicular when available" or "climb the least number of stairs" as it was only when we had climbed a steep hill and a number of wooden stairs that we found the top of the funicular railway that would have added a hundred metres to our walk and saved us from a mountain climb.

We then set off on our food tour of Quebec (Keh-Bec) City visiting:-

Restaurant La Buche - fine cuisine québécoise
Pea Soup (even Kathy liked it and she hates peas)
Pâté chinois ( literally Chinese Pie but actually a form of Sheppard's pie?)
Maple Taffy

Maison Livernois - Distillery and Pub
Local Gin
Poutine

Chez Bourley
Sugar Fudge

Paillard
Croissant

Beclub
Mac and Cheese
Rose wine.

We returned to the ship which turned out to be a longer walk than anticipated and had a brief rest.

Before heading out again that evening for a Sugar Shack experience. This involved buses to a local Maple Farm where they grow and tap the trees for a presentation on the tapping and boiling process and its history. (hint, somebody discovered the sap was sweet and it could be boiled down to make Maple Syrup and Maple Syrup products)

Then there was a meal of traditional food, a single beer and lots of singing in French. I had some sympathy for the sole entertainer who was giving a spirited rendition of a number of local songs in French and not getting any kind of response from the English-speaking crowd who knew none of the songs and could not understand what he was singing about. He persevered and the crowd did manage to shout "Le Soleil" on queue as we had been trained to do on the bus.

The highlight of the evening was basically just having a night out with a group of people we had come to know during the cruise and the enthusiastic playing of the spoons by one of our group when he went to the WC and was therefore volunteered in his absence for the audience participation part of the show.

It was a late-night sail away from Quebec City, accompanied by some rain and fireworks. We were in bed by this time but here is a great photo somebody else took.

Saguenay

Our next stop was in Saguenay. Described as a city in Québec, Canada. It’s known for Saguenay Fjord, which leads to the St. Lawrence River and other natural scenery and wonders. Plus a huge Aluminium smelter run by Rio-Tino Alcan using the cheap hydro electricity available.

We were met on the dock by local volunteers providing information, amusement and confusion in the style traditional for the area.

Cirque du Soleil was founded just up the road in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 and performers in the area to this day continue with wearing bizarre costumes, inexplicable behaviour and pretending to not speak (English)

From the port, we headed out to avoid the natural scenic beauty by visiting instead a Winery:-

Domaine Cageot, Winery (where we had to wait 25 minutes for a person who could speak English to be found to conduct the tasting) They do a range of liquors and jams using the blueberries and raspberries they also farm on the property.

Then 3 Micro Breweries

Anormalt

Voie Maltée (lunch)

Saint-Fût

All in a 12-seater bus. A good day was had by all even our driver. We then sailed away down another spectacular Fiord into another beautiful sunset.

Stay tuned for Canada Part 2 where more ethnic groups maline the English in foreign tounges (Scottish and Irish Gaelic) There is another Winery, more beer and Cider plus spectacular scenery and unseasonably warm weather. Also another on-shore encounter with the Captain.