I was offered a chance to take a Canada/New England cruise with Hurtigruten on the MS Fram. Since Glenn had to work, my college roommate Bethany stepped up to the plate to join me on the journey.
The highlight was definitely our time in port. We arrived a day early to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Our tour guide, Jay White, picked us up at the airport and we headed off toward the Bay of Fundy. We visited Grand Pre and a winery along the way. The big deal about the Bay of Fundy is the tides. The tide has reached a 55 feet differential in some places. Whole harbors go dry at low tide.
That night we had dinner at a restaurant close by - Salty's where we had an incredible lobster chowder. Bethany pulled out a whole lobster tail from her bowl at one point.
Sunday, we got up and headed to the Citadel. It was closed for the season, but the ground were open for a walk around.
Then we headed down to the beautiful waterfront for a walk, terrific crepes at the Farmer's Market, a beer sampling and a stop at the Maritime Museum on our way to back to the hotel. Oh! And Bethany left a trail of sprinkles all over the market from her dessert. But it was okay because, in her words, "Sprinkles make people happy."
We also stopped by a dive bar that ended up having some really good poutine with real cheese curds. I guess that's important. The bartender was pretty excited about it.
Then, it was time to board the ship. We were pleasantly surprised by the updated décor and the fact our cabin had a window. Overall, the ship was great. We really enjoyed getting to know the expedition team. We liked the lectures. We didn't like that there were no snacks in between meals. We had two rough sea days that put a damper on things.
Our first sea day was very exciting as we saw several whales, dolphins and muir birds.
Our first stop was St John's, Newfoundland. I call this a magical day because the weather was perfect and we kept happening into fun things. We took up a cab up to Signal hill and then hiked to Quidi Vidi.
Not a bad hike - just lots of stairs. We wanted to visit the Quidi Vidi brewery, but it was closed so we called a taxi and headed back to the George Street - the home of all the pubs.
We started at Yellow Belly brewery where it just so happened one of the brewers and tour guides as finishing his shift. He offered to take us to the basement to see how the brewery had evolved over the years. The beams were original and even has soot and char on them from surviving a 1918 fire.
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| He is standing where the street used to be |
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| Char from the original fire |
We headed across the street to Trapper John's. It shares a wall with Yellow Belly so we wanted to check it. It was empty. Turns out we stumbled upon one of three bars when you can get "Screeched" in. It's a little ceremony where eat, drink, say and kiss something Newfound-y. Our new friend Sara was us and it was a hoot.
Now that we were Newfoundlanders, I wanted to find some Quidi Vidi beer. We went to another bar. They didn't have it, but a fellow recommended we try Rocket Bakery. This was very funny because the employees at a jewelry stone in Halifax recommended Rocket Bakery, but I told Bethany I wasn't really interested in going. Oh! And the guy who recommended it was one of the owners. So we ended up at Rocket Bakery as Bethany had wanted and I got my beer.
Then we called it a day and headed back to the ship.
Our next port of call was St. Pierre. This is a tiny French outpost. It was weird to suddenly be in France. We walked around town. We climbed up this big hill to see a Jesus statue and then went to the museum. The most fun part of the day was riding the polar circle boats back to the ship.
We were supposed to stop at Louisburg, but rough seas meant that port was cancelled. I was really bummed because we heard the town was going to open up everything for us. Two rough sea days meant I was super happy to be on dry land again. Here's what we did on the sea days:
Our last stop was Portland, Maine. It was a blast. We basically formed our own food tour with stops at:
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| Holy Moly Donuts - I liked the Sweet Potato Ginger best. Bethany's vote was for the Maple Bacon. |
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| Eventide Oyster Co. - Great oysters, brown butter lobster roll and lobster stew. |
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| Whoopie Pie at Two Fat Cats Bakery |
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| Liquid Riot brewery |
Our last day was a Sea Day. We were surprised to find out we would be sailing through the Cape Cod Canal. It was so fun. We had Manuel - the bird expert - on one side and Chelsea - the photographer - on the other. Plus Pal and Bjorn behind us would chime in with history facts.
Our last day, we got up early to see us arrive in New York City.
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| Our Newfoundland sister Sara |
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| Chelsea, Photographer and Bjorn, Historian |
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