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.
Janet and I recently completed a seven-day Holland America cruise on the Volendam – from Montreal to Boston. We were accompanied by our long-time friends Jeff and Susan Nopper. (External photo attribution at end of the post #1 – 2.)
Our travel history included two prior HA cruises – the first from Anchorage, Alaska to Vancouver, BC in 2014. It included a side trip to Denali National Park before the cruise started and the journey by ship was wonderful way to see Glacier Bay; whales and wildlife; and the Alaska coastline that would be a challenge on another mode of transport.
In 2018, we took a second cruise – this one with the Noppers to the Panama Canal from Fort Lauderdale, Florida – not a full transit – through the canal from east to west – but just through the locks. After a cruise around Lake Gatun we went back through the canal to the Atlantic Ocean and explored the Caribbean.
A massive cargo ship going through the canal
I’ll give more info in a future post, but on the first two cruises, both of our ships accommodated 2,700 passengers and 1,000 crew members. The vessel for the recent trip up the St. Lawrence Seaway and around Nova Scotia was about half that size – 1,432 passengers and 647 crew.
Although we enjoyed the first two cruises, we definitely preferred the smaller ship which still had great amenities – pool, great gym and workout facility, pickleball court, casino, theater and, of course, multiple bars and restaurants.
And I’ll have to state that my wife, Janet, is not the biggest fan of cruises – partly because of a tendency for motion sickness. She gave me this cruise for my birthday although it was much better than she expected and she did not get seasick.
The Noppers on the Panama cruiseDon and Janet in PanamaJanet and Susan on the St. LawrenceDon and Jeff waiting for Montreal flight
Janet was prepared with patches and medication but did not have to use them – the biggest swells were about three feet around Halifax.
This was a good thing because our cruise package provided fifteen “free” drinks each day. Her pharmacist told her to avoid mixing pills or patches with alcohol….
I might add that if you plan a trip, take Susan Nopper with you. Janet is an excellent planner, but Susan is the epitome of a well-prepared and informed journeyer. She always knew when, where, how what, and why……
I bemoaned the fact that I did not have my college bota bag with me given the drink quota, but there was no way we could consume that much booze. Coffee drinks also counted and one day I had to work off a caffeine high by walking the deck several miles after having four espressos.
And I have to admit that I supplemented my typical martini or microbrew with some new cocktails including a “Smokey Boulevardier.”
It was indeed smokey and one of the ship’s officers jokingly came over to the bartender and asked if he needed to alert the ship about an on-board fire as smoke was wafting over the bar as he prepared my cocktail.
But I have to admit, my favorite drink on the ship was their beautiful Bloody Mary. I also coaxed Jeff Nopper into having his first martini – gin, up with olives.
The food was also superb with multiple eateries – formal and informal available at all times of the day. For example, take a look at the late night menu available at the Lido Cafe below.
It reminded me of my Navy destroyer when we had “Midrats from 8:00 PM to midnight:
“Midrats has been a Naval tradition dating back to 1902, when the Navy decide to make changes to Sailors’ diet by introducing a new meal to the fleet. President Theodore Roosevelt signed the 1902 Navy Ration Act that included a section for additional rations specifically for Sailors who worked the night shift.
Nowadays, Sailors can choose from breakfast items such as eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage, and French toast; or dinner items like pork chops, ribs, mashed potatoes, green beans, steak, and grilled chicken.”
The difference between the Navy and the HA cruise, was after the midnight snack, I didn’t have a watch on the bridge of the ship from midnight to 3:00 AM.
Not to get totally preoccupied with food, but the selection was amazing and and the quality very good from appetizers to desserts as you can see from the selection of cupcakes one evening and decorated cakes the next.
Fortunately, we were disciplined in our walks around the 1/3 of a mile deck just a step away from our stateroom. Surprisingly, we didn’t gain any weight.
Montreal – The City of Mary
We had a night and a morning in Montreal before the ship departed and it is a wonderful city in which one could spend days if not weeks touring this metropolis of 1.8 million people.
Since our time was limited, we took a 90-minute bus tour to see Mount Royal, the underground and the historic buildings:
“Some of the city’s earliest still-standing buildings date back to the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Although most are clustered around the Old Montreal area, such as the Sulpician Seminary adjacent to Notre Dame Basilica that dates back to 1687.” Wikipedia
Of course, even though we were limited to one evening in the city, we set out to find a watering hole or two to quench our thirsts – possibly to build up to the routine on the ship. I will fill you in on the next post, but have to leave you with this one unforgettable memory of Montreal.
We were walking in the late afternoon in the downtown area and came across a middle-aged guy with a baby carriage in which a live rabbit was contentedly riding. He offered to let the rabbit get out and run around.
Of course, I wanted to make a comment that this was not the kind of hops I was seeking for my the Beerchaser blog, but the others told me to hold my tongue and he rolled his cargo away when the light changed.
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