Author: admin

Slea Head Drive (½)

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Wednesday

Well, another stunningly perfect weather day. Is it really Dingle we are in? We both took walks into town going separate routes at about the same time. Oddly enough we met up at the Dingle Library where I renewed our library cards and Elaine got some books. And we ended up back at the house about the same time. We had home-made sandwiches and chips for lunch and then decided to take a ride.

For the ride we headed out to Slea Head, possibly the most beautiful drive in the world. It’s brilliant in the sun! We did about half the normal circuit and then cut off to go back into Dingle. We’ll do the other half (and indeed the whole route again) another time. Pictures tell the story here. Nothing you haven’t seen before, but as beautiful as ever. We didn’t hold a baby lamb.

Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews may show just thumbnails of the pictures. By the way, the pictures look much better on a tablet or a computer than they do on your phone. Just saying.

At one overlook there was a piper selling wares and entertaining the tourists.

Next is Trá an Choma (Coumeenole Beach) which was made famous in the movie Ryan’s Daughter. Find Elaine. See one person swimming (that’s not Elaine!)? See the baby lambs?

Next along the route was Clogher Strand, perhaps my favorite spot. First pic is from the road above looking down on the beach (see the Three Sisters in the right background?) and then shots from the beach itself. There is a wonderful short hiking route from here that we may or may not do another time. See the island? It’s one of the Blasket Islands and is known as the Sleeping Giant. See why? The actual name of the island is Inis Tuaisceart. The beach here is usually raging surf and very unsafe for swimming. Today it was as calm as a lake with barely a ripple for waves.

After that we cut off and took the back road home. Nap time! Then it was time for dinner. Our favorite restaurant, the Chart House (unrelated to the American chain) is no more. Jim decided to retire and his premises is now an uninspiring breakfast and lunch place. Still, we may give it a chance one day. But tonight it was dinner at Ashe’s Bar and Restaurant, another favorite. I had local Glenbeigh oysters followed by delicious John Dory. Elaine had seafood chowder followed by Thai flavored mussels. We split a delicious fruit meringue dessert. The wine was French, a Beaujolais. Does Elaine looked stunned by the seafood chowder?

Then we decided to stop in for a quick sip at the Dingle Pub. Well, we stayed longer than expected because Richie O’Brien of Dreams of Freedom was performing. We chatted up a nice young couple from Florida (who graciously took our picture) and a nice young man from Canada. My selfie isn’t bad, but the other picture of us is pretty good. The big guy next to Elaine in the green jacket is the Canadian.

And home to bed. We walked into town. It seemed a lot longer walking home!

Dingle Sleep Zone

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Tuesday

We slept in on Tuesday morning. The sleep of the dead. That travel day did us in. We recovered in time to go out for lunch at the Fish Box, one of our favorite places. Mr. Flannery, the owner, is a fisherman, and he supplies the fish, so you pretty well know it’s fresh. (I have chatted with him several times over the years in Curran’s Pub.) The old place had just six tables, and it was tough to get in. They expanded into the nearby house, and now it’s spacious. The food is delicious. It is open for dinner as well, but we have only eaten lunches here. It’s really a family-run place. The Flannery children run the front of the house. Mrs. Flannery runs the kitchen. We were well remembered and had nice chats with two of the Flannery kids running the place. (They live in a house just two houses away from our old digs on Ard Na Mara.) I neglected to take pictures of the food and of the new interior. Next time for sure as we’ll be back there again on this trip. I had seafood chowder followed by fish and chips. The fish was hake. (Did you know hake is the common name for fish in the Merlucciidae family of the northern and southern oceans and the Phycidae family of the northern oceans. You’re lying if you say you knew.) Elaine had the spicey fried calamari with delicious garlic aioli. We both had Harp beer.

After lunch we had a short walkabout and a return visit to Supervalu for things we forgot yesterday (mayonnaise, sandwich bread, cold cuts, lettuce, and crackers for the cheese. (Cheese and potato chips don’t make a great cocktail hour combination.) I took a few snapshots all within a few steps of the Fish Box. All the pictures so far have been with my phone (Google Pixel 7). Tonight I’ll get the camera (Sony RX100 VII) out and operational. Dick Mack’s is directly across the street from St. Mary’s Church. The Fish Box is just steps away. See the banner for Féile Na Bealtaine? That’s an annual weekend festival with lots of entertainment of all kinds. When I booked this trip, it hadn’t been scheduled yet, but I expected we would be in Dingle for it. Alas, the last day of the festival was yesterday’s bank holiday Monday. The other church like building (located right next and slightly behind the church is the Díseart Institute of Irish Spirituality and Culture. There is a nice garden and some great stained glass windows by Harry Clarke here. Maybe more about them later if we visit the center. Don’t I look tired in that picture? I was. See Elaine in one picture?

For those who ask and for those who have been here, here’s the town layout. X marks Water’s Edge House where we stayed several times. Y marks where 18 and 23 Ard Na Mara are located. We stayed in both a few times. Z marks our current house location.

After lunch I slept some more. Tough getting over these travel connection days. I had planned to go to Curran’s for a beer, but decided to put it off for another day. Rose Byrne, our house manager, came over at 5:30 to see if we needed anything. (We don’t.) We arranged with Rose to have the house cleaned and the sheets and towels changed every Tuesday.

Cocktails were at the usual time and dinner once again was cheese, this time with proper crackers. We watched some tv (mostly The Chase – one of the most successful and longest running game shows on UK television. It’s been on over here since 2009 and has an American version that we have very rarely watched.). The chasers are like old friends as we watch this show every time we come to the UK or Ireland.

I should probably wait and post tomorrow (Wednesday), but I’ll just do it now. The weather, by the way, has been fantastic – cloudless skies and nice warm sun. Temps in the 60’s. Perfect.

Arrival in Dingle

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Tuesday Morning

Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews may show just thumbnails of the pictures. By the way, the pictures look much better on a tablet or a computer than they do on your phone. Just saying.

So, on Sunday we had some time to kill before heading to the airport for our flight. We took a ride through Melrose and then by Tufts where I went to college. Reliving the past. Here’s a picture of the Geoghegan family house for fifty years – 4 Chestnut Park – and a view looking up Chestnut Park as well as one of the Chasse house (yellow) across the street. The Chasses were good neighbors. The Chasse house used to be owned and lived in by Robert Friend, the founder and co-owner (with his brother who lived in the next house down) of Friend’s Beans. They made (in Melrose at their factory) the best baked beans of the day. I was never a baked bean fan! Robert Friend used to drive in and out of his driveway well into his nineties when we were kids. I don’t every remember speaking a word with him. The flowering tree in the front yard of our old house was planted by my mother as a birthday gift for Elaine back in the 1980’s. Looks like it’s doing pretty well.

Then off to the airport. Our Aer Lingus flight left on time Sunday night and we arrived at Shannon Airport near Limerick forty minutes early at 4:50 am on Monday. Being early as the first flight in has advantages and disadvantages. We sat at the gate for fifteen minutes before the staff arrived for work to connect the gangway to the plane. Elaine and I were the first ones through Immigration (I used my Irish passport), and the luggage was already on the baggage carousal when we we got there. Then we had to wait fifteen more minutes before the Enterprise Car Rental staff arrived. Once we got our car we were off for the 2½ hour drive to Dingle. Our car is a nice deep blue Peugeot 3008. It will officially be known as Gorm (Irish for Blue) and our GPS helper will be Fiona. Did we have a car named Gorm once before? Can’t remember. Anyway, this one runs on diesel. Please let me remember not to put unleaded gas into it! I did that once in France. The results are not pleasant.

The drive to Dingle was uneventful under beautiful sunny skies (are we really in Ireland?) and the roads were almost empty that early. By the way, Monday is a Bank Holiday in Ireland. We arrived in Dingle before 9:00 am but our new place was ready for us as we had paid for the previous day. Our address is 11 Marian Park. It’s not as large as our old places, but it’s perfectly fine. Three bedrooms – one with a single bed (downstairs) and two with double beds (upstairs). Since we would kill each other sharing a double bed, we each have our own bedroom. Oddly, there are no wardrobes or bureaus or closets in the bedrooms – just simple hanging areas. But it’s all fine. The single bedroom is our closet/bureau. The TV gets LOTS of channels – much better selection than our old houses). The kitchen is small but perfectly functional. Two full bathrooms – one upstairs and one down. Washer and dryer and dish washer. Nice back yard with a picnic table. And it’s easy walking distance to town. It’s located on the other side of town than previously. Pictures follow.

After unloading Gorm and sort of settling in, we took much deserved and much needed naps. As noon arrived we revived and heading into town for some lunch and some grocery shopping. Because it’s a bank holiday, Dingle was very busy. For lunch we ate at Paul Geaney’s Pub. Tom Geaney, our friend, runs the Dingle Pub which is right next door. In 25 years of visiting Dingle we had never been to Paul Geaney’s. We had a nice lunch and nice chat with Paul Geaney who forgave us for not coming in for a quarter of a century. I had steak and Guinness stew; Elaine had the house special sandwich. We both had Harp beers. Harp is made by Guinness.

Then we stopped in at the Dingle Pub to say hello to Tom and also saw his son David, the Irish dancer. We had just seen David a few weeks prior at his performance at the Irish Cultural Center in Phoenix. We chatted and had another beer. Then it was off to Supervalu to get the essentials – wine, vodka, breakfast stuff, shampoo, soap, Coke Zero, water, cheese, etc.

After that we were knackered – the travel and the time change caught up with us. We struggled to stay awake for the rest of the afternoon and early evening. Dinner was very simple – wine, cheese, and potato chips. At 8:15 it was off to bed. Bed never felt so good. The mattresses and pillows are very good, by the way.

Stay tuned.

And Off to Ireland

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Sunday Morning

So we are off again to Ireland. We are spending a couple of nights in Boston to visit family – my sister and Elaine’s cousins. Then we will jet off to Shannon Airport (near Limerick, Ireland). I won’t be posting much from Boston in this kickoff post. Or will I?

From the plane approaching Boston.

Rental car (unnamed) from Alamo. Black Chevy Equinox. Nice car. We are staying at the Marriot AC in Medford located in the Station Landing complex right next to Wellington Circle and busy, busy roads. But Station Landing is a nice development with lots of expensive apartments for rent – not busy, very good for walking, and quiet as could be with nice restaurants to walk to. When we first got to the hotel, we walked two minutes for dinner at Regina’s Pizzeria just down the street. Same ownership, but not quite the same pizza as the pizzas that you get at their original location in the North End. If you’re from Boston, you know about Regina’s Pizza.

We spent one day in Rye, NH visiting my sister Sue, her husband Jeff, and my cousin Heidi. We’ll all had lunch at Ray’s Lobster Pound in Rye. No pics of our visit with Sue, Jeff, and Heidi. (My bad! I meant to.) We were too busy reminiscing and eating – lobster rolls, fried clams, fish and chips, onion rings, etc. Fried food frenzy. (No dinner that night!) We used to go to Ray’s almost seventy years ago when we were just kids. My mother especially loved Ray’s. I did get a couple of pictures from the road of the area around Wallis Sands Beach where as kids we were beach rats and where I had my first ever jobs – dish washing at Florence’s Restaurant and then behind the counter serving and fast food cooking at Dinnerman’s. Those places are long gone. (See those cabins on the right in the background of the picture of Dinnerman’s? Those were the Rosecliff Cabins which were owned by Heidi’s late husband’s mother and father. The cabins are still there, now converted to very nice small residences.)

Day two we were to meet Elaine’s cousins, Patrick and Mark, along with Mark’s wife for a meal at the Union Oyster House in Boston. Alas, Mark and Sharon had to cancel because of a family situation, but it was great to see Patrick again. Elaine and I were early, so we stopped for a beer at the Pine Bar. It’s interesting that the Pine Bar serves only beer, wine, and liquor made in New England. The Union Oyster House is an institution and arguably the oldest restaurant in America – Daniel Webster ate oysters at the bar here. (He and I have something in common.) More good food! Patrick and I shared some oysters and then we all had lump crab cakes. See Elaine with glasses on? She borrowed my readers to read the menu.

Sunday we were off to the airport to board our Aer Lingus flight to Ireland. We’ll get there at 5:30 am Monday morning, pick up our rental car, and drive to Dingle (about 2½ hours). Our new digs will be ready when we arrive in Dingle. More about them once we arrive.

So the next post will probably be sometime on Tuesday once we have settled in. I think probably I will post every other day on this trip rather than every day. But that’s not a hard rule if I get inspired. If you’ve followed the blog for awhile, you won’t be seeing much new in the way of sights. There are a bunches of old posts of previous trips to Dingle, and much of what you will see this time has already been posted on those old posts.

Toronto

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Sunday

Last full day of vacation. Beautiful sunny day. So, this will be the last post of this trip. We will be back on the blog when we leave for Dingle on Thursday, May 1st.

Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews may show just thumbnails of the pictures. By the way, the pictures look much better on a tablet or a computer than they do on your phone. Just saying.

Here are a couple of night shots from our hotel window (45th floor) last night.

We were up early and had a nice (free) breakfast in the Marriott Club. Then we had to decide what to do with the day.
Hockey Hall of Fame – Been there, done that
Distillery Historic District – Been there, done that
CN Tower – Been there, done that
St. Lawrence Market – Been there, done that
Woodbine Race Track – Been there, done that
A museum – Meh

So we decided on the aquarium which is practically next door to the hotel. Remember Ripley’s Believe It or Not? Well, the Ripley brand is still in business with all kinds of attractions around the world. In Toronto it is Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada. Now, if you don’t want to look at pictures of fish, stop reading now or scroll down past all the galleries I am about to post.

OK, we’re done in the Aquarium. Very well done. And you only saw about half the pictures I took. Next door is the CN Tower. A few pics of it.

OK, some of you knew Gordie Howe. How many remember this guy? I saw him play a long time ago when I first started going to Boston Bruin games. Rocket Richard. His younger brother Henri played too. He was the Pocket Rocket. And his other brother was Claude, the Vest Pocket Rocket. Poor Claude wasn’t very good. They all played, of course, for the Montreal Canadians.

Then it was a 25 minute walk back to Rodney’s for more oysters! Ah, lunch. Elaine had the “best shrimp cocktail ever”. Wild shrimp, no less. I had twelve more oysters (three eel lakes, three Bigelow bights, three Maine flats, and three sand dunes). We both had New England clam chowder for the main, and we both sipped Musoka lager. I can say with confidence that if you come to Toronto and do not go to Rodney’s, you have not really been to Toronto.

That’s all folks. See you in May. Thanks for reading. And thanks for all the comments.

Toronto

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Saturday

Well, we made it to Toronto with no more delays. Our bags were outside our door on the ship on schedule at 10 PM last night. When we woke this morning, we were just docking. You have to be out of your stateroom by 8 AM so the room attendants (Girlie and Mark for us – they were great and got a nice tip.) could ready them for the new passengers boarding starting at 11 AM. We had breakfast and settled down to await the announcement that our baggage group was ready for pickup in the terminal. They were ready by 8:30. Disembarking can sometimes be a logistical nightmare. Today it was a piece of cake. We grabbed a cab and were at the Marriott Delta in our room by 9:15.

The Delta is nice hotel. We have stayed here before. We reserved and paid for Friday night as well as Saturday and Sunday nights so we could have our room ready early this morning. We are on the 45th Floor (maybe the highest hotel room ever?). The Marriott Club, which we are eligible to use, is on the top floor – the 46th. Views from the room including a look at the railroad station right below us forty-five floors down and the historic Fairmont Royal York Hotel:

After a short rest, we headed out for a walk with the goal of having a fairly big lunch and then just appetizers in the Club in lieu of dinner. Here are pictures from the walk. The CN Tower is right across the street from us. And its just a few steps to go through the Lower Simcoe Street Underpass, famous for its murals.

Then we headed to King Street for lunch. Scenes along the way:

We walked along the Canadian Walk of Fame. Who knows who Gordie Howe is? One demerit if you don’t.

I got some exercise on a bicycle built for four along the way. Streetcars are everywhere. Toronto has a subway system, but I’ve never been on it. The public transportation system seems very good.

Lunch was grand! At Rodney’s Oyster House (Barb and Kris know it) is one of our all time favorites. I had a dozen oysters – three Eel Lakes, three Wellfleets, three Maine flats, and three Mere Points. OMG Good! I tried all the hot sauces too – all good but one was deadly. Then I had a bowl of Clam Chowder. While I slurped the oysters, Elaine had a cup of clam chowder and then a delicious Bronwen Special – grilled fish with fries and salad. We both had Musoka Beer. It will be hard not to come back tomorrow.

Then we walked back to the hotel for a nice nap, passing once again through the Simcoe Street Underpass (on the other side of the street). We also passed by Rogers Center, Toronto’s sports arena.

As planned, we had appetizers and drinks in the Marriott Club before retiring to our room for TV and sleep. The views from the club are a little different than the ones from our room.

Toronto is a fun city to visit. Not sure what we’ll do tomorrow. (Maybe the Ripley Aquarium?) We are vacationed out and will need the two-week rest at home (with minimal meals!) before we head out for Dingle.

I’ll be back tomorrow. (Usually I publish the blog in the morning for the previous day. Today I am doing it before I go to bed on Saturday.)

Heading to Toronto

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Friday

Brief post today. Finally left Montreal, sailed through seven locks to get to the lower St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario. As we went along, it was often New York State on the starboard side and Ontario on the port. Overcast rainy day. Passed through the beautiful 1000 Islands area (Todd Weiler, the sailor’s old stomping grounds) and saw some beautiful homes, some of them on tiny little islands. And saw Boldt Castle – pretty impressive and quite a story. Because of the weather, some pictures are from inside through rain spattered windows. I did get outside for a few.

Boldt Castle

Our bags had to be out for pickup by 10 PM last night, and we have be out of the stateroom by 8 AM tomorrow. Then we have an early check in at the Marriott Delta where we will spend Saturday and Sunday night. So more posts to come.

Uhm, Montreal Still

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Thursday

The best laid plans of mice and men . . .
A day late and a (Canadian) dollar short.
Better late than never.
Patience is a virtue.

Know the derivation of those phrases? Click on each to learn more. Which apply to what comes next here on the blog? Maybe all?

So, today we’re supposed be transversing the canals of the St Lawrence Seaway System to go from the lower St Lawrence River near Montreal into Lake Ontario and then chugging across the lake into Toronto, arriving very early Friday morning. Well, not happening. (It also seems transverse is not a verb, so transversing is not a word. Tough. It says what I mean.)

At 3 PM on Thursday we are still sitting docked in Montreal. We could have got off the ship this morning and walked around. We didn’t. We are delayed because the section of the Welland Canal that we need to use is heavily used and we lost our slot. The current plan is to leave Montreal at 7 PM. That means we are delayed almost 24 hours and now will arrive in Toronto at 6 AM Saturday morning, a full day late.

We have adjusted our plans accordingly. I cancelled our two-night (Fri/Sat) stay at the Marriott on the Falls in Niagara Falls and our one-night (Sun) stay at the Sheraton at Toronto Airport. I have cancelled our Alamo rental car that we would have picked up Friday morning. Now we are booked at the Marriott Delta Hotel in downtown Toronto for Saturday and Sunday night and we have a Welcome Pickups car scheduled to take us to the airport at 5:30 AM on Monday. The flight home remains the same, and we’ll be home before noon on Monday.

I feel bad for John and Donna as their oldest daughter was meeting them in Toronto for two days. Now they’ll only have one day together. Cruisers who had their air arrangements made by Viking to fly home on Friday are awaiting new reservation information from Viking. People who did their own arrangements are on their own. We have seen at least ten couples disembarking here in Montreal with their luggage. Most, I think, are planning to take the train to Toronto and will arrive there later today.

These things happen on cruises. It’s not a big deal to us. I do all our own flights and hotels, and I had no problem making the necessary adjustments. The people who are really going to be upset are the people who were scheduled to board the Polaris on Friday after we disembarked. They will all lose a day of their cruise. And Viking will have to put them all up at hotels. (For this ship that only involves 370 odd people – imagine when this happens with one of those 5,000+ passenger behemoths.)

So, anyway we booked another cruise. It will again be on this ship – Viking Polaris – in June 2026. We will tour all five Great Lakes for 15 days/14 nights. Here’s the map of the cruise:

Lunch was in the World C afe.

So, while we sit here in Montreal, look out our cabin window. See that big crane over there? Well, you can bungee jump off of it. Should we have given it a go? We didn’t. And wouldn’t.

We finally sailed at about 7:00 pm. Some pictures as we left Montreal, sailing under the Jacques Cartier Bridge.

We went through the locks to get to Lake Ontario at 9:30. No pictures, sorry. And we had fun in the Hide, a specialty bar in the bowels of the ship. You saw pictures early in the trip when the bar itself wasn’t open – it only opens from 9:00 pm to 11:30 pm. Late for us, but we finally made it down. And our favorite server, Belle, was in charge along with our favorite bartender, John. Belle, by the way, who looks about 20 is 35 years old and has a two-year old daughter.

And we went to bed. A night shot along the locks as we headed back to the room.

Trois-Rivieres, Québec

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Wednesday Winter Wonderland

We woke up this morning to brilliant sunshine in Trois-Rivieres. The temperature was 22º. Coldest day yet but gloriously sunny. And Trois-Rivieres had snow yesterday and during the night. The view from the ship when we got up was a Winter Wonderland. Pictures from the ship.

Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews may show just thumbnails of the pictures. By the way, the pictures look much better on a tablet or a computer than they do on your phone. Just saying.

A little about Viking Expedition ships. There are two – Octantis and Polaris. In addition to normal crew (250) and passengers (378), the ships also carry an expedition discovery team of scientists. It has a 380-square-foot wet and dry lab, developed in partnership with the University of Cambridge, that allows the scientists to conduct meaningful research and encourages guest interaction. They give lectures but also carry out scientific research. Today the team was releasing a weather balloon in conjunction with hundreds of other teams around the world releasing similar balloons at the same time. Shivering more than a little, we watched the balloon launch at 8:00 am.

After breakfast we departed on an excursion that drove through Trois-Rivieres on the way to two stops. Here are some scenes shot from the bus:

The first stop was at the Notre-Dame-du-Cap Basilica where two miracles have supposedly occurred. We did have to get inside a church on this trip, didn’t we? It’s quite an impressive building (despite some scaffolding) and is especially beautiful inside. Worth the stop. Elaine lit a candle.

The second stop was at a Cabane a Sucre (Sugar Shack). Maple syrup at its best! Great tasting of maple syrup and maple syrup taffy. Not great pictures, but we heard all about maple syrup production. Québec produces 75% of the world’s maple syrup. There was even a maple syrup heist and scandal. The story is here. The photo of the race track painting was taken in the Sugar Shack. I thought it was weird that it was there.

Finally some scenes from our walkabout once we got back to the ship. Elaine didn’t want one of the dresses. Icicles are self explanatory. And me and my ship.

Back on board, we sailed at 2:00 pm. The plan is a sea day tomorrow with the only remaining stop in Toronto where we disembark. This involves sailing right through Montreal on the St. Lawrence River, then through a series of locks to take us onto Lake Ontario, The locks are busy and you have to get a slot. So we ended up docking in Montreal for the night and will head for the locks in the morning. It was possible to go ashore in Montreal at 9:30 pm. Maybe back in the day we might have as Montreal is a favorite old haunt – we used to drive up every Columbus Day weekend when we lived in Melrose. But we stayed on board. A few pics of a beautiful sunset and some shots of Montreal and its Ferris wheel, La Grande Roue de Montreal. The first picture is the King Fish that was the specialty in the World Cafe for dinner. It was delicious.

Final big news of the day. We booked another cruise for next year! More on that tomorrow. There may be a day’s delay on the next posting as we have to pack, disembark, pick up a rental car, and drive from Toronto to Niagara Falls. So don’t be surprised if there is a delay before the next post.

Québec City

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Tuesday

It’s good to be back in Québec City again. We always liked it. And we lucked out. Cold, yes. Snow, no. It was dry for all the time we were off the ship. The most recognizable site in Québec is of the Chateau Frontenac Hotel. Elaine and I stayed there one year on a road trip vacation to Montreal, Québec, and the Gaspé Peninsula. Here’s a view of it from this morning.

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Our tour wasn’t until 9:15, so I took a few snaps of artwork around the ship as well

Having already done Québec several times, we wanted a tour that did something different. So we were off on a bus to the Musée Huron-Wendat, the local First Nation people. They have a very nice presentation on the history of the Huron-Wendat.

Then you get to visit an authentic tribal Long House and see what life was like in them. Fires burned 24 hours a day in the long houses and they were burning when we entered. The fires were the only light, a fact which explains the reddish color in the photos. They used long poles to open vents in the top a few times at night to let out the smoke which made breathing in the house difficult and greatly shortened life spans. They could not vent them more often because the smoke would alert enemies to their location. The long houses were completely surrounded by fences for protection. And they rarely stayed for long periods in one long house, moving about frequently.

Very nearby is the Kabir Kouba Waterfall. It’s nothing as dramatic and magnificent as Montmorency Falls which are higher than Niagara and within easy driving distance, but it’s a nice site just the same. We’ve been to Montmorency Falls before. Here is Kabir Kouba:

Then it was back to the ship which is docked very close to old Québec, so instead of reboarding, we set out on foot to Place Royale in the heart of old Quebec. We had a nice walkabout around old town.

We had lunch in the Pub La Borgia, a nifty bar right at the foot of the funicular. I had wicked good Soupe à l’Oignon and some tasty Ailes de Volaille (chicken wings) Elaine had a delicious Croque Monsieur with a salad. And we both had local bières (beer).

We didn’t go up the funicular to the Chateau Frontenac. Been there, done that. We did stop and buy a “Canada Is Not For Sale” tee shirt. After our walkabout we headed back to the ship for rest. relaxation, reading, naps, cocktails, dinner, and after dinner drinks. And bed. We sailed at midnight as we slept. Back tomorrow.