Quebec City is located on the Saint Lawrence Seaway and is Canada’s mostly French speaking province of Quebec. Dating back to 1608, it has a fortified core, Vieux-Quebec and Place Royale, with stone buildings and narrow streets. This area is also the site of the most photographed hotel in the world, Château Frontenac and the imposing Citadelle of Quebec. The area, Petit Champlain is lined with cobblestone streets with many bistros and boutiques. Ships docking here are within steps to the Château and the old town (Petit Champlain). If steps aren’t your thing there is a funicular that whisks you to the top within minutes ($4.00 CDN, cash only - get yourselves some Canadian currency as $4.00 US is accepted at par).
Our day took us on a 2 and a half kilometre stroll up the cobblestone streets past the Château Frontenac, the Abraham Plain (the site of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham) and to the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. We had a beautiful sunny 15 degree Celsius day and did have to negotiate ourselves around the running of the Québec City Marathon to get to our destination - a beautiful day and course for this race, well with the exception of running on the cobblestones in this area of the race. The main feature of this museum consisted of incredible sculptures carved by the Inuit people. Many carved out of whale bones and the tusks of the Narwhal. There was one carved out of the head of a Walrus, just an incredible piece, I have identified this one in our pictures. The detail reads, “From every viewpoint, this complex walrus skull sculpture tells a story: a polar bear stalks its prey down one ivory tusk while a dog team races along the other: igloos, bears, camp scenes, faces and marine mammals wind around the skull; and a new narrative emerges from each new perspective”. I had two favourites in this large section of the museum, this one and the one carved from the Narwhal ivory tusk. The museum had several rooms over three buildings so plan to spend at least a few hours here, well worth a visit if you are into this type of thing. We have two full days here so we will leave the retail therapy until tomorrow. We strolled back to the ship for our late lunch and to just relax and enjoy the ship and our stateroom. We don’t want to rush into things you know, with these long cruises it’s all about pacing yourselves.
Great dinner and show tonight, so once again happy with the food quality and service. The main stage show was fantastic, it featured the on board dancers, they work so hard and it shows, bravo.
A great day, a few pics, hope you enjoy… Note, we don’t get port information handouts on this cruise, well so far anyways, and no quotes of the day, hopefully this will change come the Grand Voyage. We shall see…
Above is the front of the Walrus sculpture, below is the back. Such incredible detail.
Below is the carved Narwhal tusk. Fantastic.
Some of the detail on the tusk.
The very top of this amazing tusk.
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