Quebec and the St. Lawrence Seaway

Quebec City, Canada 

It took two days to reach Quebec City from the island of the Viking site. While sailing away from L'anse Aux Meadows, I expected more rough ocean. It never came. After a while, I checked our cabin TV channel which displays a map of our current position and course  I was flabbergasted to see our Atlantic Ocean travel was over. But how? Maine was still a hundred or more miles to the south.  

Nevertheless, we were sailing west through the calm waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Canada, you see, extends way, way east into another time zone.  

Our next port of call was the small town of Saguenay, Quebec province. The was only one shore excursion - a theater production of the town's history. Why in the world would 3 cruise ships come u[ a branch of the river to this dinky spot? I should have had more faith in cruise companies itinerary planners. Oh, my goodness. It was wild. 125 people, a good portion of the population, perform on a huge stage. There are real horses charging, a gaggle of geese, cannons firing, soldiers rappelling from the ceiling into the audience, a huge forest fire with enormous and hot flames. It was chaos, loud, and spectacular. I recommend a trip to see it. The next day we were in Quebec City.

Quebec is a beautiful city with more people than we have seen in two weeks. One street had a performer singing and several people singing and dancing along with him. All in French of course.  CDs were available.

The left picture shows the cable car which connects upper and lower Quebec.

 The Huron Indians lived in the area and have a settlement near Quebec City. On the right is a meat smoker. They loved Bar-B-Q too. Note to men considering an expensive home smoker. This alternate solution is just a forest away.

On the left is a "stone man". He was a solution to a desperate situation that travelers could get themselves into: lost and starving. The Hurons would set them up on high treeless hills. The arm would point to the nearby village. The two piles of rocks on either side of the stone man contained food.