Life on board a cruise ship

I have to describe a little of life on board ship, as there were five days on the Atlantic before we returned to Southampton. We would often walk around the promenade deck. Some people would walk determinedly, looking straight ahead and ignoring everyone else to the extent they would sometimes nearly walk into you. At the stern end of the promenade deck, where it is sheltered, were some chairs, which were often occupied by readers or sewers (I mean people who sew, not drains!) or some other sort of craft maker. Of course there was always enough going on inside to occupy everyone, Spanish lessons, music concerts, of all sort and all kinds. I used to enjoy the classical ones in the crows nest. In fact life on board, at least for me, was a series of never-ending treats and delights. There were films, live music and dancing shows and talks and lectures. The gym was well equipped and there were instructors on hand and classes available. There was an art gallery, with a changing array of pictures, all of a high standard of craftsmanship. There were art classes and the results were shown off. There was a talent show, mostly impressive, one was somewhat embarrassing, but that too had its amusing side. I imagine that particular act was the life and soul of one of the dinner tables, who had been persuaded to take part in the show and did not go down well with a wider audience.

Apart from the transport and port lectures, which were excellent, I thoroughly enjoyed a couple of "radio plays" performed by members of the entertainments team. The deputy entertainments manager, Dominic" started something with his music quizzes, which were so popular, people spilled out of the venue into surrounding areas. He introduced the ship to a 1960s song "Dominic the Donkey" thereby unleashing passengers hands in "ear wagging" at him every time they met him on board, accompanied with a raucous "eeeh aaaw, eeeh aaaw". Apart from walking on the promenade decks and the upper decks, we would often linger and watch the sea, perhaps we might spot a shoal of dolphins. There were often little petrels (sea birds) caught on deck, shivering in corners, but members of staff would gently pick them up and release them back to their ocean habitat, with no ill effects.

Prince Edward Island North Shore

Our coach trip took us to the North Shore of Prince Edward Island, where the red cliffs and dunes contrast with the blue sea and sky. We had a time to wander along the shore, and take in the sea views. The coastal view and the walks around Green Gables, made me think Prince Edward Island must be one of the loveliest places on this earth.

The drive back to Cavendish took in sea views, the rolling countryside, weatherboarded homes and occasional stark reminders of the modern world with drive in fast food outlets and shops. Back on the ship, our female captain prepared us for the voyage back to the UK.

Our captain remarked on the charm of Prince Edward Island and I thought, what a contrast it was to the bustle of New York. That is not to say that Prince Edward Island is an unproductive backwater. It has a thriving economy, growing oven chips (not quite literally) and soya and producing its own specialities, such as Cow ice cream.

The next port we would see would be Southamton and we looked out as we left Charlottetown and we were able to pick out the distinctive spires of St Dunstan's. I looked at the island from the deck for a long time, until Arcadia had left it far far behind and I could only imagine it was still there. I wonder if I will ever go back.

We took walks around Green Gables

 Walks around Green Gables are delightful. Visitors can wander down "Lovers Lane" and explore the haunted wood. It isn't just the wooded lanes, or the wild plants and flowers, or the little babbling brooks crossed by wooden bridges, it is the whole atmosphere of the place. Green gables and its surrounding fields and woods, in common with millions of other readers all over the world, has been in my mind and imagination for years.

I can only describe my walks around the house, across fields and woods, to be thoroughly delightful. It was not exactly "deja vue" but something very near to it. One thing which struck us forcibly was the way in which the landscape in the area could be part of England. I felt I could take a favourite country walk in Essex, where I live, and move into the landscape around Green Gables, Prince Edward Island, easily.

No wonder I was confused over the location of L M Montgomery's books, when I read them as a child. Our time there was all too short. Because we wandered around "Parks Canada" Green Gables Heritage Place, there was no time to browse round the shop, so it was just as well we had already visited the one in Charlottetown. The lanes and woods around this Canadian "Heritage Place" offer a few kilometers of attractive walking. Apart from the sheer enjoyment of being in a world renowned "literary landscape", this Heritage Place is a prime example of how to offer visitors an experience which will exceed their expectations and bring them back again and again. It is hard to believe it is the other side of the world!

We explore Green Gables

Our coach pulled up outside a large visitor centre and our guide gave us stickers to allow us to visit Green Gables and the walks and farm buildings surrounding it. We went into the house first, which has been decorated, equipped and furnished as if Anne, Marilla and Matthew had just left it.

There were cakes just out of the cooker and the parlour looked as if they were expecting visitors for tea.

Green Gables was clearly a family home and it is easy to see how L M Montgomery enjoyed visiting it as a child. Her own home with her grandmother was relatively small and she must have spent many happy childhood hours at Green Gables. In the house are some main stairs to the bedrooms, where Anne's bedroom is as imagined by the author, with green curtains. Hanging up to the left of the curtains is a "brown gloria" dress, with puffed sleeves. It has been carefully arranged to look as if the fiction were fact, as indeed it is for many of us who have read and enjoyed the series of books based there.

After exploring upstairs we were directed down the back stairs and outside into the yard with the farm buildings, where there were refreshments including the delicious "Cow" ice cream. We all sampled blueberry flavour cones, which were enormous and enjoyed whilst we watched other visitors take it in turns to have themselves photographed wearing a straw hat and red pigtails next to a carriage. For me the greatest enjoyment of our visit to Green Gables would be the delightful walks surrounding it.

A gentle pace of life on Prince Edward Island

 Soon discovered Prince Edward Island is like a less developed England with a slower pace of life. If you are seen to be about to cross a road, cars will stop for you. Residents meet up and chat on street corners. The red earth of the island grows the most delicious potatoes. I know this because they are sold in England under the brand name "McCain". Apart from this there is a speciality ice-cream "Cow", which we would sample later. Prince Edward Island could be completely self-sufficient as the other big crop is soya.

 were to see some of the landscape of the island on our coach tour. Our guide's name was Peter. He took us through Charlottetown and the countryside, across the island to Cavendish, home of L.M Montgomery, past the burial ground where she is laid to rest, to Green Gables and the north shore of the island. Our guide for the coach trip was Peter.

There were some foxes scavenging on the roadside and there were two coaches which stopped to look. Prince Edward Island foxes have long "lopey" legs with black paws, and everyone in the coach was charmed by them.

Although our guide, Peter explained the foxes were scavenging, there was no evidence of any rubbish being chucked out on the verges along any of the roads we went along. In fact the island was clean, completely clear of anything threatening, such as graffiti, and welcoming and pleasant. It is also more easily accessible from the mainland now, from a long road bridge. The first stop for our coach was Green Gables.

Charlottetown is the clleanest, friendliest port

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island must be the cleanest, friendliest and most welcoming port I have ever visited. This island off the coast of Nova Scotia is in the Gulf of St Lawrence. I had read many of L.M. Montgomery's novels set on the Island and I am a reader who enjoys descriptions as much as anything, I had been to Prince Edward Island many times in my imagination. L.M.Montgomery's novels invoke such a sense of place, that when I first read "Anne of Green Gables" as a child, I thought Prince Edward Island was a fictional island based on the British Isles. I was surprised when I realised it was a an actual island the other side of the world. As with so many other ports on our trip, I never imagined I would go there, yet there I was!

Although the craft stalls were tempting in the port building, we were keen to explore the town. The area near the port is open park land with a board walk and maps and there was a horse and carriage waiting to take trips around the town. One interesting feature we noticed on the board walk were interpretation boards which were in English, French and also, what appeared to be Celtic and Canadian Indian. We discovered the "Anne of Green Gables" shop and the theatre, which has regular "Anne of Green Gables" shows. Among many other visitors we went to a little cafe and ordered cappuccinos, the young people serving were rushed off their feet. After refreshments, we found the former railway station and a building which had probably been a railway hotel. This reminded me of a former hotel on the coast of Essex in Brightlingsea, near where I live. Like the one on Prince Edward Island, the Brightlingsea hotel has been converted into flats. I took a picture of the building to compare it.

We went back to the port for a coach tour of the island. This tour would take us to the house that L.M.Montgomery visited regularly and described as Green Gables in her series of novels about the orphan child.

Magical nighttime view of Quebec

Magical nighttime views of Quebec from the deck will remain in my memory for many years. The city had lit up some buildings with pink lights to raise awareness and money for breast cancer. Two of my friends had taken a walk through the city and up to the park and found black squirrels. Although there were still many reminders of the fur trade which was once so important to the local economy, as visitors, I had the impression we were now an important part of the city's economy. There were six cruise ships berthed in Quebec whilst we were there.

The approach to the city along the St Lawrence river had been spectacular. The city itself, was quirky and quaint. We did use the little funicular railway to come down from outside Chateeau Frontenac having first climbed the hill and steps to the Chateau. By now Quebec will be experiencing wintry conditions. The weather was wet when we were there, but by no means dampened our spirits. Quebec is special for many reasons. In some ways it has an interesting ambiance which might have existed in pre-revolutionary Paris, but without the unfairness of the regime of the Three Estates. Instead of palaces belonging to the elite, it has palatial buildings erected by the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Catholic church. It's great Chateau Frontenac is a hotel. Quebec is proudly French in terms of "liberte, egalite and fraternite", yet has a pervading French Catholic faith alongside a touching loyalty to the English crown. I loved the place, the brilliant entertainment we had at the Sugar Shack, the fine mural and architecture we saw on our walking tour, the fine art and architecture lavished on St Anne's Catholic church, the power of the Montmorency falls and the rich colour of the native maple trees in the autumn. Although I regretted leaving Quebec, I was very excited about our visit to Prince Edward Island, a place I had been to in my imagination for many, many years.

Beautiful St Anne's, Quebec

Beautiful St Anne's cathedral church reminded me of the miracle church of Ta Pinu on the island of Gozo. Our guide even told us the hill behind it had the stations of the cross on it, also, I thought, like on Gozo. The maples on the hill behind St Anne's were in a deep autumnal shade which contrasted with the light colour of the stone church.

The church of St Anne had burned down twice, but miraculously the figure of St Anne on the top had survived. Inside were crutches and things which had been left by those who had experienced miracle cures. Fewer of these than formerly, our guide told us, as there had been a thorough investigation of each cure, and only those which had been proven to have no other possible explanation except a faith cure, had been kept. The art and craft works inside the church were exquisite. There was also a copy of Michael Angelo's pieta there. I remembered having read about it being commissioned and installed, never imagining I would see it.

After visiting the church, we walked back to the coach past the deep coloured maples. Our next stop was at a family firm of copper artist's and craftsmen, where we had a demonstration and were shown a series of religious reliefs and other fine works made by members of the family. One point our guide made about the homes we saw was to remark on the different colours of the roofs. These she explained depicted the colours of the French province they had emigrated from.

Falls in the fall

One of my friends and I took a coach trip in the afternoon to the spectacular Montmorency falls, where we would enjoy the falls in the fall. One surprise for me I haven't mentioned is that coaches in Canada do not supply seat belts for their passengers and on all the coach trips I took, I looked for seat belts in vain. Our guide for the falls, the cathedral of St Anne and a copper workshop was entertaining. Every so often there would be a little dig at the U.S. "They don't allow round bales of straw or hay in the U.S. as they like to make sure their animals get a square meal," for instance.

It was a little walk to the falls and well wooded nearby, so we were able to enjoy the autumnal colours surrounding the waterfall. There is a bridge and walkway above the falls, which we crossed and found an attractive woodland walk on the other side. We would have like a little more time to look in the historic house, which had associations with Queen Victoria's father, although the walk and the various views we had were well worth the trip. I couldn't help wondering, from what our guide said, how many distant cousins of our Queen were living in Canada. But then, I must have a fair few distance cousins living there too. Perhaps I should find time for a little family history in the near future.

Quebec guide with the pink umbrella

Our walking tour of Quebec was led by a guide who used a pink umbrella with a bunch of artificial flowers on the top, which she opened when she stopped to talk. This style or as some might say "affectation" was slightly distracting. She also wore a matching pair of pink trainer boots, which would be the envy of any New Yorker. As with many of the eastern ports we had visited, Quebec has had its skirmishes with the enemy... the British. Today there is a faction which seeks independence from the rest of Canada, although whenever there is a referendum, the vote is usually just in favour of staying Canadian. Interesting highlights of our tour, were the in the peaceful courtyard of a monastery, and the excessively steep corner and street, which ices over in winter and is the venue for a skating race. The competitors in that must be near to suicidal I thought. There was also the white "rubix cube" which was a gift from Paris. More than one of our guides bemoaned the fact that Paris gifted New York the Statue of Liberty and Quebec got a "rubix cube". Quebec is Quirky and over the top in some ways. I was particularly impressed by a mural, beautifully painted, which depicted the city's history and there was the largest and most flamboyant display of pumpkins in a town square I have ever seen.

Music at the Sugar Shack

We took a coach trip to an evening in the Sugar Shack. It is a great pleasure for me to go on a coach trip with someone else as a guide. A sort of "busman's holiday" for me. Our guide was very engaging. His name was David and he told us a little bit about Quebec. We were struck by the railway station as we went through the city, a truly palatial building for the Canadian Pacific Railway. David told us there would be many other visitors to the sugar shack and that we would be treated to as much as we could eat of traditional Canadian lumber-jack fare after a talk and visit to the shop. He had been there so often, he said, that he would not be eating with us, but would join the ethnic band and play the spoons. There would be a chance, he said, to play the spoons for anyone who wished to. All the buildings at the Sugar Shack were wooden. Our talk explained how only the Canadian Maple, which is perfectly adapted to the Canadian climate, particularly the cold winters, could produce the delicious maple syrup, which Canada is famous for. I managed to buy some bottles of the syrup to take home before we went for our traditional meal in another wooden building laid out with tables. There were hot chicken pieces, cole slaw, fried potatoes, slices of ham, a sort of savoury egg pudding and, the most delicious baked beans I have ever tasted, but sadly we discovered them too late to do them full justice. Afterwards we had apple pie (always irresistible) and pancakes with maple syrup. All eaten to the music provided by a band, which played in a mixture of traditional French, Scottish and Irish styles. There was a French song we joined in with and quite a few of our table joined our guide David, playing the spoons. There was just time to look at some local wildlife which had been subjected to the art of the taxidermist. David hastened to assure us the animals were not trapped or hunted and had died naturally. These were in a separate building. Before we went back in our coach, we were treated to maple syrup caramel, made by pouring the heated syrup on to snow! Wow, delicious. We were chattering amongst ourselves excitedly on the way back about the splendid evening. I mentioned how brilliant the evening had been, and the passenger in front of me turned round to say "you've got to be joking!". I was so surprised, could not find the words to reply.

Wet walk through Quebec and the shock of a different culture

We joined the throngs of tourists and put our umbrellas up for a very wet walk in Quebec. We browsed shop windows and wandered in an out of shops. We walked up the rocky hill rather than took the furnicular railway, as the queues for the railway spilled out of the station and down the hill. Attracted by the window displays, we walked into one shop where I was greeted with a "bonjour madame" by an assistant who was keen to show me her range of hats and furs, which I found with a certain amount of disgust, were the skins of animals. This aspect of shopping in Quebec I found the most distasteful and having seen rows of fur trappers' hats in one shop, in spite of the interesting range of other garments on display, I found I wanted to get out as soon as possible. Had we we had been interested in real fur, we could not have imported it back to the UK. Furs apart, we found the oldest restaurant in Quebec, which had been recommended to me by a Canadian I had taken on a tour in the UK. Other restaurants included the "Crazy Pig" and "Deranged Rabbit" When I find the notebook which has the French versions of these names I will add them on. Back on the ship, we had not ordered any special menus for our evening meal as we were looking forward to our evening outing to the Sugar Shack.

French gothic dominates the view of Quebec

My first view of Quebec was from a distance. The city is dominated by Chateau Frontenac, which is in the French Gothic style and looks a bit like Harry Potter's Hogwarts, sited as it is on top of a hill. The similarity was especially striking for me, as I had visited the Harry Potter sets only a few weeks previously and seen the model of Hogwarts used for the film. Chateau Frontenac was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company and designed by architect Bruce Price. It has to rival or surpass St Pancras as a piece of railway hotel architecture. As we approached Quebec I was very excited at the promise of discovering somewhere completely new. I wasn't to be disappointed. We were also looking forward to a trip to the Sugar Shack in the evening. Although it was raining, we disembarked from Arcadia as soon as we could and joined the throngs of the five other cruise ships berthed in the harbour, to have a look as the city.

Fall splendours after a rough night

The roughest night we experienced on Arcadia was between Halifax and Quebec. We were in the quiz in the Crows Nest with our friends, when I felt faint and had to go down to the cabin which, being well down in the centre of the ship, was much more stable. I soon recovered without any drastic ill effects. The approach to Quebec along the St Lawrence River was spectacular, the long wide river was lined with fall colours on either side. I had no idea what Quebec would be like, it was a complete unknown quantity for me, but the colours on either side of the St Lawrence River on the approach to the city promised something wonderful.

We were looking forward to an evening in the "Sugar Shack", a walking tour of the city and a coach trip to the Montgomery Falls. We were not going to be disappointed.

We find ex-London transport buses in Halifax

One feature of all the Canadian ports we visited was the former London Transport route master buses which take visitors to see the local sites. The fee for the trip includes a donation to a breast cancer charity. I liked the idea that one of the buses I used to take to Mum's or perhaps even to work, was now doing the tourist sites in Canada and helping one of the major charities into the bargain. Since one of the most important sites in Halifax is the fort on the hill, which is manned by soldiers in kilts, these buses were busy whilst Arcadia was in port, taking visitors up and down this steep hill. Another feature of these Canadian ports which struck me was the mess of overhead wires crossing the streets and serving the wooden homes with communications and electricity. I wish now I had taken a picture of these. Exploring Halifax was a little painful for me, but I did hear the mid-day gun go off, when we were browsing in one of the town's antique shops.

We had refreshments in a Tim Hortons we discovered in one of the shopping streets and went back to the ship along the board walk. Local musicians played here and we really enjoyed the traditional Scottish influence on the tunes they played. We got back to the ship in time for me to deliver my postcards to Arcadia's posting service. The ship has an agent in each port, who amongst other things, ensures the passengers' postcards are posted. I felt this service was good value as the small fee saves time buying stamps and looking for post boxes. One of my friends had a tube of "ice gel" in the fridge in the cabin and had brought an ankle support with her, so I was able to relieve the pain and hobble around in comfort. It was just as well, as the journey from Halifax to Quebec would prove to be the roughest we had experienced in the whole trip.

In Halifax we meet Americans with shared heritage

These massive numbers on the board walk in Halifax Nova Scotia, commemorate the 1812 war. It's a significant date for Americans, just under a hundred years before the massive explosion which ripped Halifax apart. It was the war against the British. It was near here we chatted to many Americans on holiday. One was from another cruise ship and we met her near the Titanic exhibition and one of my friends admired her Titanic bag so much, she went into the shop and bought one. Another couple we spoke to were admiring the starlings and we got into conversation about wild life in Florida where they lived. In the course of conversation, we found they were both New Yorkers originally. We were all about to say goodbye and go on our way, when I asked if either of them might be descended from the Winthrops. "Well, funny you should say that," they said, because there were two connections, although not direct ones. One ancestor, by the name of Graves had joined the Winthrop group on the Arbella in 1630. He had been a boat builder in a place called Stepney. We were amazed, as my friends have traced their ancestry back to Stepney and the occupation of their ancestors was boat builders. The links didn't stop there, however. There was another ancestor, a woman, who had become the fourth wife of John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts. As we were exploring the "New World", we were still discussing what a "small" world it was, when we climbed the hill towards the fort. Perhaps it was because we were so deep in conversation, or perhaps it was because I was looking around me rather than where I was going, but I twisted my ankle and landed heavily on the pavement. Rather shaken and sore, I elected to stay in a public park nearby and write the postcards I had bought, whilst my friends went on to explore further.

There was a large war memorial in the centre of the park and a fine church at one end. It was obviously on the tourist trail, as more than one tour guide came through it with a group and stopped in front of the memorial. I wrote all my postcards in the sunshine there.

Sociable visit to Halifax

We enjoyed visiting Halifax especially because of the number of people we met and chatted to. Most of these we met on the board walk, which took us along the water's edge. We browsed at souvenir and craft stalls. It was at one of these stalls I bought some postcards to send to friends and relatives. I had already sent one postcard. My oldest son had suggested we went on the High Line in New York, so I had bought a postcard at a stall there and only just sent it to him, his wife and my two grandsons, through Arcadia's excellent postcard sending service, from Saint John. At the visitor centre there were some handy toilets (bathrooms or washrooms if you like) and the inevitable queues for the ladies, but at least a queue is one place which is good for a chat! There are also some historic ships along the quayside at Halifax, one from World War ll. It was along the boardwalk we saw a statue to Cunard,

the owner of the White Star Line of transatlantic ships and of course of the Titanic.

It was the Titanic exhibition and the starlings ferreting about among the trees and bushes along the boardwalk, that would lead to some of our most interesting conversations. Most of the people we met and chatted to were holiday makers and visitors like ourselves. Those Americans who were holiday making in Canada, New York, Boston and Portland we met and spoke to all had the same reason for holidaying/visiting/exploring North America and Canada. They used to enjoy going to Europe, they would tell us, but since "9/11", they had preferred to travel in their own country and Canada. That is why we met so many Americans and Canadians on holiday and what led to one of the most interesting and extraordinary co-incidences and meetings we had.

A phoenix of a coastal port

The sky reflected in a glass block from the boardwalk
at Halifax, Nova Scotia

An interesting feature of some of the North American east coast ports we called at, I learned from the excellent series of port lectures we enjoyed on Arcadia as we crossed the Atlantic. It was the incidence of devastating fires, which had swept through the ports and left the inhabitants bereaved and homeless. Our next port of call, Halifax, had suffered the worst of these. In fact there were two events in which this Nova Scotia port played a major part. Our Atlantic crossing had been calm and relaxing and there was little about it to remind us that just over 100 years earlier, there had been the major passenger shipping disaster, the sinking of the Titanic, with the loss of so many lives. Halifax was the nearest port to the disaster and it was there the few survivors and the rescued remains of those who perished were brought. Five years later, the town was to suffer what could only be described as a holocaust. The year was 1917, three years into World War l. Canadian troops were fighting alongside British and French soldiers in northern France and Belgium. There was a huge demand for ammunition for the war. The French cargo ship SS Mont Blanc was loaded with explosives and munitions destined for Europe on 6th December when it collided with the Norwegian ship, the SS Imo. The resulting explosion had all the force of an Atom bomb. It devastated two square kilometres of Halifax, killed more than two thousand of the town's inhabitants and injured more than 9,000. It created a tsunami which demolished wooden homes and uprooted plants and trees. It seemed unlikely we would find many buildings near the port of Halifax which pre-dated 1917, but clearly, it would prove an interesting town to explore.

Slower pace of life in Canada

Horse transport in St John, New Brunswick.

I noticed the pace of life slowed as we went north towards Canada. The fast talking, fast paced New Yorkers give that city its character. Although Boston was clearly prosperous, it did not have the chaotic edge of New York and the spoken English was slower and more deliberate there. As we progressed towards the Canadian border, daily life in the ports we visited seemed slower and more relaxed. In Saint John, we were to see the horse buses everywhere and these were also in Prince Edward Island, our last port of call. If anything typifies the places I visited in Canada, it is these horse drawn carriages and buses. From Saint John we were to visit Halifax, Nova Scotia, Quebec, which was unlike anything I had visited before, and finally, somewhere I never imagined in my wildest dreams I would go to, Prince Edward Island.

Sorry that we couldn't stay for Arlo's concert in St John

Above, the theatre, where, if we had stayed in St John,
we could have gone to the Arlo Guthrie concert and below, the Eagles Nest,
where we did some shopping.

Saint John is a pleasant town to explore. I was impressed with the architecture of the local churches and fine red-brick town houses, which although they all took their inspiration from English styles, nevertheless seemed to have a distinctive Canadian style of their own. Every so often we would be passed by a horse drawn bus, with sightseers. We saw so many of these horse-drawn vehicles, our walk must have taken in most of the main sights. Strolling through a pleasant public park, we were impressed with a forthcoming show at the theatre. Had we been able to spend some time in Saint John we would definitely have bought tickets for Arlo Guthrie's tribute to Woody Guthrie. Our trail took us back to the shops and I helped one of my friends choose a beautiful and very reasonably priced autumnal-coloured scarf for herself. Feeling in the need of refreshments again, we went into a modern shopping precinct to find a Tim Horton's, a coffee/tea and snack chain, which can be found all over Canada. It was sited near a shop called

the "Eagles Nest", which had many clothes in a sort of a Canadian Indian-style, which I found so attractive, I was tempted to spend a fortune in there. I was able to buy a Canadian top as a souvenir and Birthday present for my youngest son there. Pleased with the exploring and shopping we had achieved, we were all reluctant to leave Saint John New Brunswick, although keen to see Halifax on the following day.

More Canadian dollars needed in St John craft market

As soon as I saw the displays on the stalls of the undercover craft market in Saint John, I realised I would need more Canadian dollars than I had brought. Especially since I still needed to buy Birthday presents for my youngest son and my sister in law. One of my friends had American dollars with her and kindly lent them to me to exchange in a local bank.

The covered market at St John, New Brunswick

Everyone who knows me well will be aware I like hats and wear them at every opportunity. The covered craft market in Saint John had one of the most enticing hat stalls I have ever seen and one hat in particular caught my eye. It seemed extravagant to spend my Canadian dollars on myself, but the advantage of having good friends with me, meant I didn't have to rely on my own judgement about the hat. When I bought the hat, the stallholder, who had made it, blew up a yellow balloon and put it inside before she handed it to me. That balloon stayed in the hat in my cabin for the rest of the trip! I also bought a tapestry bag in the market for my sister in law. The quality of the goods on offer in the market was so high, it was a pleasure to browse and choose and difficult not to spend more. There was a splendid coffee stall for refreshments which we thoroughly enjoyed. My friends daringly tried some kind of seasonal pumpkin and maple syrup concoction with theirs. They liked it so much, they would have gone back for more, if we hadn't wanted to explore more of Saint John.

First steps in Canada

I was very excited when we disembarked from Arcadia to take my first steps in Canada. I had never dreamt I would actually go there. Like most English people, I have cousins in Canada. My Grandmother kept in touch with her cousin Lucy, but Mum did not keep up the correspondence. Saint John was to be my first Canadian experience and it was a great place to explore, with its weatherboarded houses and interesting shops. It was in a second hand book and record shop in the town I noticed the Canadian accent was slow, clear and deliberate. It was also the place where I saw, with a certain amount of surprise, some antique guns for sale, which were locked away behind a glass counter. We were very taken with some larger than life carved wooden figures in Saint John, both seated and standing.

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Although they were in Canadian Indian style, the figures were in conventional clothes. We had great fun taking each others pictures with them. I still had Birthday presents to buy and Saint John seemed the ideal place to look for them.

These charming wooden figures were outside the Visitor Information Centre in St John, New Brunswick.