Since it was 682 nautical miles from Quebec City to Charlottetown, we spent the second day of the trip – a Monday – just cruising which I really enjoyed – and the weather was much better:
Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island – one of thirteen Canadian provinces or territories – the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated.
The city has a population of just 40,500 and was incorporated in 1855. Since it was pretty compact, we decided to just walk on our own and there was a nice boardwalk along the pier and harbor.
When we docked and left the ship, I expected to see a bevy of Canadian realtors waiting for appointments with those on the cruise who were hedging their bets based on the result of the forthcoming November US General Election. But I guess that’s another story…..
Dual citizenship??
While it was filled with historic houses and buildings, the highlight was two wonderful churches. St. Dunstan’s Cathedral Basilica – built from 1897 to 1907 – it reminded us of the ornate trappings of similar structures in Europe.
“St. Peter’s has superb choral music, beautiful liturgy, strong orthodox Christian teaching and preaching, a friendly congregation, and a tradition of service to the community.”
Remember, however, this is a blog primarily about bars and breweries…..
Now, we hadn’t been to a brewery since Montreal, so after viewing the cathedrals, we set out in search of suds. Gahan Brewing came to the rescue. And consistent with the heritage of other structures throughout town, The Gahan House embodied history:
“Gahan is a name unknown in Prince Edward Island today, but in the middle of the 19th century, John Gahan was a prominent merchant, an importer of teas, wines, and family groceries. His place of business was on the corner of Queen and Sydney Streets in Charlottetown; now known as The Gahan House.”
The brew pub was a very attractive mix of brick and dark wood and they had an excellent selection of beers. Gahan Brewing also has a good story and it was nice to see an independent brewery thriving:
“The Gahan Brewery (formerly Murphy’s Brewing Co.) was established in March 1997 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. The beer quickly became a local favorite and the brewery relocated to its current location on the corner of Queen & Sydney Streets in Downtown Charlottetown, thus doubling its production capacity and giving it a permanent home in Old Charlottetown.”
“With a total of six locations across Atlantic Canada, The Gahan House has become an East Coast tradition dedicated to creating memorable experiences.”
And their Island Red Ale was one of the best I’ve drunk. I’m also sorry that I didn’t get to try the Big Don Coffee Belgian Blonde Ale before Gahan stopped brewing it. One reviewer on Untapped characterized it as follows:…”
“So deliciously weird, wouldn’t want to drink more than one, but that one is a great treat.”
This prompted Janet to remark, “That account might be similar to your personality, Don…..”
The pub also had a great menu and there was a thriving take-out business during the noon hour, but we had lunch back at the ship.
And since we still had twelve (of the fifteen “free” daily drinks) waiting for us at the ship that day, we didn’t partake at the Olde Dublin Pub – right across the street. It looked like a watering hole, however, that deserved additional research!
“….we’re Charlottetown’s original Irish pub! Here, since 1983, Islanders and visitors alike have been tipping back Guinness, enjoying Irish and East Coast dishes with an ODP twist, and raising a cheer for some of the best traditional and contemporary music to grace the province”
I guess that that will have to wait for our return trip!
Cheers and stay tuned for Sydney – our next port.
Cheers!
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Welcome back to Thebeerchaser. If you are seeing this post through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title above to see all of the photos at the end of the post and so the narrative isn’t clipped or shortened.
We had a night and a morning in Montreal before we embarked on the Volendam (on Saturday May 4th – my birthday) so on Friday, we took a ninety-minute bus tour of the city and then walked around to see historic buildings and, of course, bars and breweries.
I might add that we stayed at the La Centre Sheraton – right downtown – which had a wonderful looking bar itself. The concierge recommended a couple of good places for beer.
Th Sheraton bar
Our first watering hole where we had some excellent beer was 3 Brasseurs. (That’s “brewers” in English). Evidently, it is a chain with establishments thoughout France and four locations in Canada – Montreal, Quebec, Toronto.
“Welcome to our brand with 30 years of experience in beer making, design and service of authentic and generous local dishes, for the greatest satisfaction of our customers.”
The bar had a great atmosphere inside with a long, attractive bar, but given the beautiful day, we sat outside on the expansive patio – right on the street which made it more interesting.
And we sat next to a young and very friendly couple – the first of many great people we met on our trip – who were visiting from the Western part of Canada. We only had beer and they even offered to share their food with us since the servings were so generous.
We declined and ate that night in an Italian restaurant – a mistake – we should have ordered a burger and fries at 3 Brasseurs.
I left the others for five minutes while they were waiting for our beers, to check out the other recommendation from the concierge – Brutopia – kind of an interesting name and I was sorry we didn’t have time to check it out. It looked very interesting:
“Brutopia Brewpub is the premiere brewpub in downtown Montreal. Since we opened our doors early in 1997, our attentive, friendly staff has been serving full flavoured beers, freshly brewed on our premises.” (# – External photo attribution at end of post #1)
It looked like the brewpub had great food, but we still had places to see and instead ate that night in an Italian restaurant – a mistake – but I guess I already said that above.
The ship left the next day at about 5:00 PM and we had some beautiful views of Montreal – by the way, the city is actually on an island….And shortly after we left the pier, I saw another brewery I would have liked to hit – I guess when we return.
Molson and Coors merged in 2005 and at that time, Molson Coors was rated the third largest producer of beer in the United States, and the second largest brewer in the United Kingdom.
It has continued to expand and in 2016, “per the agreement with the regulators, SABMiller sold to Molson Coors full ownership of the Miller Brewing Company brand portfolio.” Wikipedia
Shipboard Life and Port Adventures
We quickly acclimated to life on the cruise. The only issue which disappointed me was that with the exception of the second day, we sailed from port to port in either the late afternoon or after sunset into the morning hours and I didn’t get to see that much of the beautiful countryside and towns along the St. Lawrence.
Every day, we could either sign up for tours (excursions) ranging from walking tours, to tours of museums, historic homes to long bus tours e.g. an eight-hour ride (including lunch) which we took on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia to see the beautiful coast and mountains.
Historic and beautiful Quebec City (#3)
We sailed Saturday evening from Montreal to historic Quebec City. Before debarking the ship for the tour, we had our typical breakfast at the Volendam’s Lido Market Place – a buffet that had an amazing assortment from pastries to traditional faire to lox.
The first morning, I had lox and onions with my scrambled eggs, even though some would scoff at this combination.
We then took a two-hour guided walking tour of the city of 549,459 settled originally in 1633. To get from the pier to the upper level and most of the attractions, we took the Old Quebec Funicular (1879).
At the top was a great view and an abundance of history.
The tour was very interesting, albeit wet, as a steady rain came down. It didn’t dampen the experience of seeing the:
Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac (“An iconic historic hotel in Quebec City known for its castle-like architecture and stunning views of the St. Lawrence River.”) (1893) (#4)
or
Notre-Dame de-Quebec Basilica Cathedral (“An historic and iconic basilica-cathedral, known for its stunning architecture and religious significance.”). (1633 – original) (#5)
Since our excursion of Quebec City was over by lunch, we spent the rest of the day exploring the ship.
The activities were an eclectic bunch of pursuits – keeping in mind that given the median passenger age, there could probably be an animated discussion of the Nixon vs Kennedy debate.
There were team sports or competitions from bingo to trivia to soccer goal scoring to cornhole to poker to pickleball to bridge, but these were not for us as was the case with “Origami Folding – Paper-bomb”or “The Art of Flower Arranging”to “Coloring for Adults” (not hair…) or “Adventures with Water Colors – Jellyfish….” (#6 – #7))
Adult coloring?
However, there were no offerings such as “The Colorful History of Pabst Blue Ribbon,” or “Hop Gardening,” although I have to admit given the median age of the passengers, I was surprised to see one actually entitled “Pampering the Ladies…”
One that piqued my interest was “Make Your Own Mug” until I found it that it pertained to coffee rather than beer and I blanched about spending 90-minutes in a session – “Make Your Own Flower Vase.”
And these were just on the first two days so I thought with five more days left on the cruise, they might consider “Make Your Own Titanic” or “Make Your Own Submarine,” but Janet told me not to go anywhere near the Cruise Director with these suggestions.
We decided that we would enjoy walking the deck and then reading and viewing beautiful Quebec City from a higher deck – this while consuming one or two of our fifteen “free” drinks per day (unbelievably – part of the cruise package).
It made me think seriously about the assertion of Aloysius Archer, the protagonist in the Baldacci novel I was reading:
“If you’re going to drink all day, you have to start in the morning.”
While walking the deck, my mind was still at work wondering:
“Do they really need the warning message on the bulkhead shown in the following photo?”
Is that warning really necessary?
And while my initial “Make Your Own” suggestions were not viable, given the robust supply of cooking material on board, why not “Make Your Own Life Ring?” (#8)
Plenty available in the ship galley
On a more serious note, I thought Holland America missed a good opportunity by not mimicking Portland’s Breakside Brewery which recently advertised:
“Make Your Own IPA Ice Cream, 11 a.m.-noon Saturday, June 15: Join Malek and Breakside head brewer Ben Edmunds – churn your very own beer-infused ice cream.”
The selections in the dining room for the evening meal were splendid as was the presentation and quality. We typically had two meals each day (along with an occasional cookie or ice cream cone in the evening.)
Given the expansive and plentiful availability of both food and alcohol, it made me wonder if any medical research had been conducted on the correlation between heart attacks and post cruise living.
I decided to banish that morbid thought the next morning when I had my breakfast which included lox and a bagel. (#9)
Stay tuned for our next port, Charlottetown – 721 nautical miles from Quebec City – so we had one full day of just sailing, before we docked at this next city – another one with a rich and interesting history.
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