Seeking Redemption in Quebec City

---

We awoke after completion of our first leg on our journey to New York City. Our taxi cab driver for our tour around Montreal had said that just two weeks earlier it had still been warm in Canada, and the weather had suddenly turned cold. This was great news for leaf peepers doing a cruise at this time. Sharon had tried to do some pre-trip research and concluded that the weather had already changed and that we might be lucky to catch the tail-end of the color changing season. But as our fortune would have it, this last part of October cruise might be just perfect. The Cruise Director Michael had hinted as much last night during his intro to the Show. So we had high hopes as we woke a bit late. We were getting ready for breakfast when Dennis called. He and Erin had already been up to the Lido. We rushed up and I had fried eggs and sausage and hash browns and toast. Sharon had some French Toast and bacon.

As we left the terminal, we did so with directions to the Hop-On-Hop-Off (HOHO) bus and the Cathedral. We waited at the stop for a bit, and a ticket vendor magically appeared and took credit cards to purchase the $35 Canadian tickets. I had changed a “Hundo” in the terminal, after trying to do so at the front desk of the ship; but, they’re not carrying Canadian currency this season. The assured me that the terminal offers excellent rates. The sign there said the exchange was done without fees, if “sans” means the same thing in French as it does in Spanish. That’s a whole other story about whether to buy “Agua con gas” or “Agua sans gas” if you want to buy the “unfizzy water”. And pardon my use of the slang for a C-Note that I’ve picked up from watching “American Pickers”; my appetite for the History Channel shows drive Sharon crazy. The rate I got was $127 Canadian from my single bill.

We quickly ascended and had several vantages of the river and shoreline, and could see a vast array of color. Many of the trees were still green, with large groupings of yellow, orange and some deep red. We could also see the color change in many of the bushes about town and in the parks that we would pass. Traffic was light this Sunday morning. At the Militarie Acadamie a reconstruction was in progress and its copper roof was being replaced. We could see the copper sheeting with that new-penny copper sheen stretching towards the center beam of the church. The two spiral towers had already had the roof replaced, probably a year earlier, and the shiny copper color was changing to the more dull old copper penny brownish look. It could take two or three decades for the customary greenish patina to become prominent. Erin wondered how long it would be until the roof was completed while Dennis marveled at the cost of all of that copper. I noted the sign that seem to indicate that work had begun in 2008; but, Erin who apparently reads French observed that the fire that caused the damage in the first place was in that year. So there is no telling how long the roof would take; although, from the spires it appears to be a multi-year project.

We reached a high point in the city, saw more changing colors and got a view overlooking the Plains of Abraham. On the way down we passed a massive cemetery with closely placed headstones. We got off at another promontory where the Funicular ascends from below. It was here that we got off the HOHO and no sooner than we did we heard the bells of the cathedral start to chime. This time however we knew these to be the bells of the Anglican cathedral and weren’t seduced into following them to mass, as Sharon had done on the previous trip. Okay, so maybe I was the one who suggested that we follow the bells. We had a good view of the St. Lawrence River and the changing colors on its banks. We were on the boardwalk less than half a mile from the ship, as a crow flies, which we had a clear view of from our perch. We made our way to the vender where we had purchased gelato on our previous visit to the boardwalk, after Sharon’s disappointing visit to the Anglican mass. I think that when that priest began talking about his wife and kids, she knew that she was in the wrong place then. Well, this time we were in the wrong place for gelato, they were done serving that for the season, at least they would serve me the last of the pistachio that they appeared to have in one of the bins. Sharon and Erin split a chocolate croissant and I had a chocolate chip cookie. We then sort of guessed our way to the Catholic cathedral, having a vague idea of which direction it was, and wouldn’t you know, it was named Notre Dame too. This was the one that was officially observing the Jubilee sanctioned by Pope Benedict beginning almost a year ago and ending next month. During the Jubilee you can pass through one of the doors of the church and by doing so be forgiven all of your sins. As Sharon and Erin did this, and it was scooter accessible for Erin, the bells of the cathedral began to chime calling people to mass. Dennis and I didn’t know if they were going to stay for mass. We considered a brief break in a café, but waited a bit in the adjacent park on some wooden benches. I had walked over to a modern looking metal bench but Dennis warned me before I sat down, “That aluminum is probably pretty cold.” And my hand confirmed this when I touched where I planned to sit with my hand.

We resumed our HOHO journey and when it started to rain, decided to go back to the ship. We met for lunch in the Lido. Dennis and Erin had already ordered their pizza when we found them. I went to order my Wall Street Pizza (with mushrooms) which comes with white sauce, prosciutto, arugula, olive oil and Gorgonzola. Sharon check the buffet, but wound up with another Dive-In burger and fries. Dennis didn’t care for his specialty pizza with extra cheese, saying it had no taste. Erin had her specialty pizza with no cheese, just the red sauce and chicken, and thought it tasted good, and that it was a bit spicy.

Sharon and I found a place to sit in the Crow’s Nest for team trivia at 3:30 PM. We wore our shirts, but got no reaction out of anyone. Oh well. And we didn’t find any Canadians to join our team, although we did sit near a pair of Canadians who were unattached, and sort of offered to unofficially help us if we needed some help. Michael came and futzed around with the microphone a bit before it worked the way he wanted. Michael noted that he has just one rule: “Only six members to a team!” He noted that he doesn’t feel it necessary to impose the rule that some cruise directors seem to be fond of, namely “That the cruise director is always right.” He feels that the prizes aren’t all that great that he needs to worry about such arguments, and he even seem to encourage people to argue with him, for all the good that might do. First he wanted to know “What Canadian city hosted the World Expo in 1986?” Sharon knew this answer because she was there: Vancouver. Then Michael gave us a logic test. “You are given one match. You must go into a dark room where you must light a candle, light a stove and light a fireplace. Which should you light first?” Don’t think too hard about this; although, the candle might seem like a good choice (it’s probably the one that you should light second). First you should light the match! We’d heard of but couldn’t remember the name of the island that Nelson Mandela had been incarcerated for 27 years. That would have been Robin Island. We also could come up with the Patroness of Music, and as I’m writing this I’m thinking it was a previous question that didn’t make it into my spreadsheet, but I remember hearing the story about the connection of this Patroness to one of Simon and Garfunkel’s songs. That would be Cecilia. This next question is the only one that the winning team missed. “In the 1950’s there was a group called the Four Lovers. What did they change their name to before realizing success?” Sharon knew this from the Jersey Boys, I think having contempt for the winners for not knowing this. Fortunately, I also knew that it was the Four Seasons. Michael told us that he never lies (of course, a liar would say the same thing). “True or False?” he asked. “In 2007 the Sydney Opera House was declared by UNESCO to be a World Heritage site.” We should have believed Michael; but, we chose False. For 5 points, each country worth one point, we were asked to name the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. We got this as USA, UK, Russia, China and France.

We had gotten a dinner reservation; but, didn’t need this for tonight. Dennis and I both had the crispy soft shelled crab appetizer which was nicely presented with varies sauce smears. I also enjoyed the chicken bouillon soup, and the beef tartar-like appetizer that Sharon ordered for me. Dennis enjoyed the raspberry soup. Sharon and Dennis both had the prime rib and baked potato. I chose the vegetarian Asian noodles with sesame oil. Erin enjoyed the grilled chicken. For dessert I had the cheese platter with Swiss, gouda, camembert and blue cheeses. Sharon had the Whoopie pie. Erin had the cherry crisp without vanilla ice cream and Dennis had the Pineapple sundae.

Paul Pappas entertained us with his piano playing skills, with some very lively renditions. His fingers can fly. Everyone really enjoyed his 17 song melody of TV Show themes.



After the show Sharon tried piano bar but there wasn’t a place to sit except in the hallway so she only stayed for a few songs. She did say that he stopped mid-way thru Mrs. Robinson to apologize for the next line since he had promised everyone the first night that it was to be a politically free cruise but the lyrics were: “Sitting on the sofa on a Sunday afternoon, Listening to the candidate’s debate. Laugh about it, shout about it, any way you choose. Every way you look at it you lose…”.

---