LAST DAY - MONTRÉAL TO DULLES

Alas, yesterday in our afternoon in our Montréal hotel was dedicated to managing our health. Anne’s cold/flu has persisted and left her aching and fatigued, while I am just aching and fatigued! Thankfully, we were able to watch two US Open men’s semifinal matches (in French), though both of our guys, the two 20-year old phenoms lost.

At least the Orioles won again!

Some final tidbits from our trip:

1 - all of the land tours on our cruise were on school buses - the travel economy not able to support the comfortable couches that we were used to; so backpack on the lap and knees up toward the chin

2 - we missed a chance to see the Northern Lights because we were too tired to get out of bed 

3 - there was a young ethnomusicologist on board who gave several very interesting presentations; he displayed an amazing understanding of musical traditions, including sea shanties! We learned from folks who had dinner with him that his wife told him that he needed another interest to counter his obsession with musicology, so he collects tubes of toothpaste and has somewhere around 5,000 already - some apparently quite rare… really?

4 - there were 130 passengers on our trip and 85 crew from mechanics to waiters to bar tenders (2) to housekeepers to officers and so on - there was one ship’s doctor (and two disclosed cases of COVID) and one masseuse.

May our flight home be on schedule and our drive home without incident.

Here are photos Anne took with her iPhone:

 CRUISE DAY 9 - Exploring Eastern Newfoundland

Anne set off on a zodiac cruise of our protected harbor at 9:30. I rested. We packed. I had an 80 minute massage at 4 pm. It was not the relaxing Swedish massage that I had longed for, but it was probably better for my aching back. 

 CRUISE DAY 8 - L'Anse aux Meadows

This morning I dragged my aching body out of bed at 7 am, for an 8:30 Zodiac ride to Norstead - “Norstead: A Viking Village and Port of Trade is a reconstruction of a Viking Age settlement. Located near L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Norstead won the provincial Attractions Canada award for "Best New Attraction" in 2000, and was the centerpiece of a series of events held that year to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of the Vikings' arrival. The site also houses a 54-foot replica Viking knarr which sailed from Greenland to L’Anse aux Meadows in 1998 with a crew of nine men.” Wikipedia 

We had choices for lunch; 1) a Viking feast; 2) a seafood feast; or 3) return to the ship. I was one of 6 souls who returned to the ship - Anne chose the seafood lunch and reported that the fried cod cheeks were a standout. 

The weather is unusually warm today. 

Anne stayed ashore for a seafood feast and tour of the home of Sir Wilfred Grenfell: “Wilfred Grenfell and his wife in 1916 Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell KCMG (28 February 1865 – 9 October 1940) was a British medical missionary to Newfoundland, who wrote books on his work and other topics.” I returned to the ship and took a long nap!

 CRUISE DAY 7 - Red Bay

Monday I felt like a stray abused dog as I took up arms to battle a nasty cold/flu (not Covid thankfully). Braving nasty weather, in the morning Anne visited the Red Bay Basque Whaling Station and learned a lot about the best preserved 16th century Basque whaling site in the world, according to UNESCO. She hung out with her ailing partner in the afternoon.

 CRUISE DAY 6 - Gros Morne National Park

Sunday we visited Gros Morne National Park and learned how old the earth is - in a place called the Tablelands, the mantle of the earth was pushed up into some large hills when two continents collided half a billion years ago. Cool rocks. We also visited two wind-swept lighthouses and a cove with some very old cliffs. The weather was perfect. 

This was my favorite day so far. The vistas were amazing and the strong wind was cool and refreshing.

CRUISE DAY 5 - EXPLORING THE GULF OF SAINT LAWRENCE 

We were supposed to choose between kayaking and zodiac tours, but weather and a maritime rescue prevented us from either. As we were entering this protected harbor, the captain saw a man alone in a small fishing boat waving his arms in distress. The cruise director (Mike) and one of the naturalists (Alyson) were dispatched by zodiac to provide assistance. Turns out the poor fellow had forgotten his gas can and had run out of fuel. He was anchored in the middle of the harbor for several hours until we showed up. Mike and Alyson towed him back to his dock, and we headed for our next destination. It was too windy and choppy for kayaking and zodiac tours.

Rescue tow in process.

 CRUISE DAY 4 - Îles de la Madeleine, Québec

We went ashore and toured a cheese factory, a herring smokehouse, and a fishing village.