Canada 2024

Good morning everyone,  9:00 a.m. It is Tuesday morning and we've just arrived at Prince Edward Island.  It is a glorious day, sunny and perfectly clear. This place is pretty flat which makes the sky huge. It's about 50 degrees and breezy.  Here are a few photos from PEI this morning as the shipped docked: Yesterday we were at sea all day, so not much to report other than we had a nice relaxing day, mostly reading and strolling around the ship. I'm finally starting to learn my way around after three days.  We are located on the sixth level and most things of interest (i.e., food and beverages) are on the fifth level. One big attraction for us is the Explorations coffee bar, just a flight of stairs down from our stateroom. We usually order a light breakfast in our stateroom and grab a couple of lattes from the Explorations coffee bar.  Really good coffee! While we were at sea yesterday we were treated to a nice sunse...

Some people have suggested that I post more photos. Maybe they're just saying less chat more photos, I don't know. But here we go with some photos that have not been in the blog yet, with minimal commentary.  (L-R) Don, Gail, T and Cath

Hello from Quebec!  We really enjoyed staying in old Montreal with it's beautifully preserved stone buildings and cobblestone streets.  Yesterday we boarded our ship, the Volendam, waved goodbye to Montreal, and headed north up the St. Lawrence River towards the ancient walled city of Quebec, where we arrived at about 7 AM today.   Quebec is even more historic than Montreal.  It's really a feast for the eyes. Here are a few photos of our self guided tour this morning: The above photos were taken on the old lower village which is just steps from our ship.  Here's a photo taken from the lower village that that shows the stern of the ship: We climbed up the rather steep road to the upper village and enjoyed the view looking down on the St. Lawrence River and our ship: There are still cannons aimed ar the river: Although things are very historic here, there's also a ...

Hello all,  On our second night in Montreal,  Cath and I spent a very fun evening in the historic old town with my brother Don and sister-in-law Gail.  We had dinner at, Bevo , an Italian  restaurant right across from our hotel. It was very casual: pizza and pasta mostly.   We shared a vegetarian pizza for an appetizer and got salads, seafood  pasta and mushroom & truffle risotto for the main course.  Everything was super delicious.  Our waiter, who went to McGill University (one of the best universities in Canada), was a fascinating person who we all agreed should go into politics.  Originally from Colombia, he migrated to Montreal with his family when he was a young boy.  He was super smart and could really talk.  We would probably disagree on many political questions but he was just a lot of fun to listen to.  Very interesting and entertaining for us, although the other customers may have been wondering ...