Blogs from Canada, North America - page 2

Vancouver is a great city and very similar to San Francisco. There were lovely green spaces in every city we visited but Vancouver really has some terrific parks and gardens and some amazing mushrooms after the rain started. The VanDusen Botanical Garden was worth several hours of exploring, and the nearby Bloedel Conservatory within Queen Elizabeth Park had some great birds in a small space. If you have fewer than three days, though, you'll have to miss all that and focus on Gas Town, with its famous Steam Clock, and Chinatown, with delicious Chinese food and the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, and the Vancouver Art Gallery, with its rotating exhibits and Emily Carr paintings. You need to make time for Granville Island Public Market, at least... read more

Our two week trip began in Quebec City and ended in Vancouver, and we traveled by train through Canada with additional stops in Montreal and Toronto. For our longest journey we caught the trans-continental Canadian, which links Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Jasper & Vancouver twice a week year-round over four nights using original stainless-steel coaches built for the Canadian Pacific Railway's Canadian in 1954-55. I showed up for our train ride to Vancouver expecting four days of relaxation and hoping for lots of beautiful autumn foliage. Yet I was kept occupied by the beautiful vistas continually passing by and by my attempts to capture photos of a portion of it, as well as by multiple Canadian murder mysteries. We started off along the Great Canadian Shield, where the best fall foliage was to be found, across the ... read more

Friday 6thOctober 2023 Cap aux Meulles, Iles de la Madeleine It didn’t happen!! Chris was up at 6.00am (I was up at 7.00am!!) breakfast and ready for the off at 9.00am. We were 3rd in the queue!! Then the Captain came on the tannoy and said that because it was a tender Port, the swell and wind were too strong, but it was due to drop down in the morning, so he was going to wait for ½ hr. This was a bit annoying as we had a car booked, ready to explore the island, and it was a lovely sunny day!! He came back on at 9.30am and said the wind and swell were still too strong, so he said he would wait for another 1hour. At ½ 10 he came back on and said ... read more

Montreal is another amazing city with excellent museums, parks and restaurants. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts was wonderful and the Botanical Garden and Biodome are worth a visit even through they are a bit further afield (although still just a few train stops away). Definitely take a stroll through Jean Talon Market and visit the surrounding shops for edible souvenirs. There is decent Malaysian food at Satay Brothers. Nightlife includes speakeasy locations such as Le 4ᶱ Mur and the Cloakroom Bar, and the Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill should be on your list as well depending on the performance schedule while you're in town. I would definitely recommend staying in Vieux-Montreal, and there are some excellent (if pricey) restaurants and shops in this elegant neighborhood. Auberge Alternative de Vieux-Montreal is a decent place to stay ... read more

Sunday 1st October + Monday 2ndOctober 2023 Quebec, Canada Best day ever – so far!! We didn’t leave the ship until 11.00am after docking by the cement factory!! (Good first impression of Quebec!!) and then we had to get a shuttle bus for which there was a very long queue!! Got a taxi tour with ‘Alex’ for 80CA$ per hour and firsts went to Montmorency Falls. Impressive enough waterfall but nothing like Niagara Falls– difficult to believe they are 100ft higher!! What WAS impressive though was the walkway that went over the falls – you had a get a cable car up there I think and the queue was just too long so we contented ourselves with the walk to the bottom of the falls! We then had about a 30 minute drive along a highway, ... read more