Corey Sandler is a bestselling author of more than 250 books on travel, cruises. sports, business, computers, and high technology. He travels about half the year as a Destination Consultant for Silversea Cruises, giving lectures about ports of call around the world. In his blog, “Around the World with Corey Sandler” includes photos and commentary.
Bar Harbor is one of the prettiest places in one of the prettiest regions of the world and this is (usually) the prettiest time of year to visit.
Fall in New England is an extraordinary experience, and we are hoping for brilliant foliage, clear skies, and a relative reduction in the number of tourists who come to Bar Harbor to see all of the above.
The town of Bar Harbor has lured artists and vacationers since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, and some of the gilded visitors helped fund the acquisition of land that led to the marvelous Acadia National Park.
In the heart of summer, Bar Harbor can be a very busy place. In late September cruise ships going “up” to Boston (I know it is to the south, but to old salts that meant sailing upwind) or down east to Canada (downwind, but I’m sure you figured that out) bring a a few thousand at a time for a day’s visit.
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
Through the many entries in this blog, you can read about the great harbor of Halifax, and about the terrible explosion during World War I that killed and injured thousands. Today Halifax is booming in a good way, with waterfront condominiums and office towers and its cruise port is sometimes home to four or five ships at a time.
Halifax remains one of our favorite places to wander. A block or two in from the harbor shows the trading heart of the port and up on the hill is the old British Citadel. There’s also the lively student-city-within-a-city of Dalhousie University, and nearby to that the lovely old-fashioned Public Gardens, now shifted to fall colors.
And an easy drive across the island province of Nova Scotia brings you to the beauty and wonder of the Bay of Fundy, home to some of the highest tidal variations in the world.
Variety is a good thing.
Today the schooner Bluenose II was in port. The original Bluenose was launched on 1921 as a coastal fishing vessel and quickly became an unofficial symbol of the Canadian Maritimes. It foundered in 1946, but a replica took to the seas in 1963 and today serves as a grand ambassador of the region and indeed, the nation. I carry a portrait of her in my pocket… on the front of the Canadian dime.
Bluenose II in Halifax todayThe Public Gardens, near Dalhousie UniversityDecorations on the facade of the handsome Bank of Nova ScotiaInside the bank
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
Louisbourg is about 20 miles southeast of Sydney, on what was once a particularly lonely piece of coastline in Nova Scotia.
The times we have visited—even in summer—it has often been shrouded in fog and mist, sometimes nearly wintry. Today was reasonably temperate, but very windy; we were lucky to be able to anchor the ship and get ashore.
Here’s our ship at anchor:
Silver Wind seen from Fortress Louisbourg today
The principal attraction here is the Fortress of Louisbourg, a partial reconstruction of the 18th century fortress. The French named the port Havre Louisbourg after King Louis XIV. And the Fortress
of Louisbourg was made the capital of the colony of Ile-Royale.
The location on the southernmost point of the Atlantic coast of Cape Breton Island was chosen because
it was easy to defend against British ships attempting to attack Quebec City. The fort was also
built to protect France’s hold on one of the richest fishing grounds in the
world, the Grand Banks.
South of the fort,
a reef provided a natural barrier, while a large island provided a good
location for a battery. These defenses
forced attacking ships to enter the harbor via a five hundred foot channel.
It was given the
nicknames ‘Gibraltar of the North’ or the ‘Dunkirk of America.’
The original
fortress, constructed
between 1720 and 1740, was one of the
most extensive (and expensive) European fortifications in North America.
The expense was so great that King Louis XV was said to have joked that he should be able
to see the buildings from his Palace in Versailles.
Louisbourg was a large enough city to have a commercial district, a residential district, military arenas, marketplaces, inns, taverns and suburbs, as well as skilled laborers to fill all of these establishments.
For the French, it was the second most important stronghold and commercial city in New France, behind only Quebec City. In 1719, the fort was home to 823 people. The population would eventually reach more than four thousand.
The fort was surrounded by two and a half miles of wall. On the western side of the fort, the walls were thirty feet high, and thirty-six feet across. On the eastern
side of the fort, fifteen guns pointed out to the harbor.
That said, it had a fatal flaw: its design was based on protecting against assaults from the sea. The back door, the defenses facing toward the land were relatively weak. And that, of course, was where the principal attack occurred.
The British would go on to advance into the Saint Lawrence River valley to take Quebec City and displace the French from New France.
The British ended up destroying the fortress and it lay in ruins for two centuries. In the 1960s, the Nova Scotia and Canadian governments helped pay for a massive reconstruction based on the original plans, creating a tourist attraction and providing much-needed jobs for unemployed coal and steel workers in the region.
Today dozens of locals work as interpreters.
Other Visits to the Fortress
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine are an offshore part of the French Canadian province of
Quebec.
The small archipelago, with a total land area of about 79 square miles or 206 square kilometers, includes eight major islands: Amherst, Grande Entrée, Grindstone, Grosse-Île, House Harbour, Pointe-Aux-Loups, Entry Island and Brion. All except
Brion are inhabited.
The total
population of Madelinot, as they call themselves, is about 13,000.
The islands
today are primarily French-speaking, although they include some of Quebec’s
oldest English-speaking settlements in places like Old Harry, Grosse-Ile,
and Entry Island.
Les Îles de la Madeleine today
Most place names have a French and English version. Cap-aux-Meules
or Grindstone. Île d’Entrée or Entry Island.
The first to visit and inhabit the islands were Basque fishermen in the 1600s. By 1765, the islands were inhabited by 22 French-speaking Acadians and their families, who were hunting walrus and working for a British trader. There were
also Portuguese, Basque, and British.
Today, many Madelinots fly the Acadian flag and identify as both Acadian and Québécois.
The islands—though they sit in a very prominent place at the outer reaches of the Saint Lawrence—were never a hotly contested territory between the French and British, or the British and the Americans. They were just too small, and too difficult to sustain and defend.
Local lore
says that some of the population are descendants of survivors of perhaps 500 to
1,000 shipwrecks on and around the islands, most of them occurring in the
18th and 19th centuries.
The Church
of Saint Pierre in La Vernière, built in 1876, is by some accountings the
second largest wooden church in North America. (The largest is not all that far
away, Saint-Marie Church in Nova Scotia.)
Saint Pierre was built mostly out of wood salvaged from shipwrecks—specially blessed before being recycled, which apparently did not prevent it from being struck numerous times by lightning.
One modern small industry is a glass-blowing workshop, La Méduse, which as its name suggests in French, specializes in glass representations of jellyfish.
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
In some of the most unlikely places, Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island is not known for Queen Charlotte, not remembered for the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 that led the way to Canadian Confederation, and not thought of at all for almost anything else…
except for the
work of a relatively minor author named Lucy Maud Montgomery.
To be precise, it is not the author but one particular character from her books who has come to represent this island. Lucy Maud Montgomery became famous with a series of novels that began in 1908 with “Anne of Green Gables.”
You sometimes have to remind people that Anne was a fictional character. She is everywhere.
Anne, Anne everywhere
Charlottetown is the capital of Canada’s least-populated province, Prince Edward Island.
And who was Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz? She was consort of King George III, Queen of Queen of Great Britain and Queen of Ireland from her wedding in 1761 until the union of the two kingdoms in 1801, after which she was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until her death in 1818.
Almost overlooked by some visitors to Anne-world is the role Charlottetown played in the establishment of the Confederation of Canada. That real event is commemorated with statues, plaques, and historic buildings all through town.
More Scenes of P.E.I.
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
The small village of Tadoussac, Quebec is passed by thousands of times each year by freighters and cruise ships heading to or from Quebec City and Montreal, and also by cruise ships that leave the Saint Lawrence for a sidetrip up the Saguenay River.
Not all that many ships actually pull over to visit; the locals are happy to see us.
Tadoussac was first visited by Europeans in 1535 when Jacques Cartier stopped here on his second voyage. He reported that the Innu people were using
the place as a base for seal hunting.
Later that same century, Basques conducted whaling expeditions from here, with the French taking over as the colony grew.
Sitting on the east side of the Saguenay River meant that there was no road or rail crossing to connect Tadoussac to Quebec City and Montreal; the only bridges were hours further up the river to the north. Today a ferry shuttles back and forth across the mouth of the river.
Tadoussac became a tourist destination more 150 years ago, and that continues to this day. The first version of the grand Hotel Tadoussac was built in the mid-19th century, and the slightly younger replacement remains popular.
The Hotel Tadoussac today
There are several federal and provincial natural parks and preserves in the mostly untouched wilderness to the north.
When the cold, fresh water of the Saguenay meets the relatively warm, salty water of the Saint Lawrence the result is a rich marine environment, including an abundance of krill, tiny crustaceans near the very bottom of the aquatic food chain, among the species with
the largest total biomass on the planet.
That makes the area very attractive as a breeding ground for Beluga whales, and we usually see some near the mouth of the Saguenay at the Saint Lawrence. Belugas give off high-pitched whistles or chirps. Early sailors and
hunters gave them the nickname sea canaries.
Mature beluga whales
are near-white, which helps them blend in with what is left of the pack ice in
the Arctic where they spend much of their time.
The beautiful North Coast near Tadoussac
Other whales attracted to the region include larger humpbacks, finbacks, minke, and even the occasional giant blue which can reach 30 meters or 99 feet in length. That’s enough to stop traffic; we can hope.
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
We were here in Quebec Citycame just a few days ago, on our way to the navigable end of the Saint Lawrence River for most ships, the large city of Montreal.
Montreal is a very cosmopolitan city on the river, with its back up against the notable hill known as Mount Royal (as in Montreal.) Today it is about half Francophone, and the other half a rich stew of English and Asian and European languages.
On the other hand. Quebec City is a decidedly French city, the cultural and political heart of French Canada.
Sea smoke, the early morning fog on the Saint Lawrence RiverIn a reflective mood, in Quebec City’s old townChecking the menuOne of the chambers of the Quebec Parliament
The historical core of the city is the lower town along the river.
Up above, reachable by some serious steps or by a hillside funicular (more like a slanted elevator), is the grand upper town. It is the site of the Chateau Frontenac, the Quebec Parliament, and what seems like more fine restaurants than there are residents of the city.
You can read more about Quebec City by clicking on that tag at the bottom of this blog.
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
We have arrived at the end of our cruise from Iceland, reaching the glorious cosmopolitan city of Montreal, one of the most diverse and vibrant places on the planet.
Under a spectacular blue sky, we went for a hike up The Main, Boulevard Saint-Laurent. Here are some of the sights of today:
Street Murals of Montreal
The singer-songwriter Cheryl Wheeler has a lovely song called “When Fall Comes to New England.” It is a piece of musical poetry about the spectacular colors and atmosphere of this part of the world in autumn,
Homage to Montreal’s secular saint, Leonard CohenChinatown and beyond
She sings:
The nights are sharp with starlight
And the days are cool and clean
And in the blue sky overhead
The northern geese fly south instead
And leaves are Irish Setter red
Irish Setter red…
It is next-to-impossible to predict when the leaves will turn from green to red and yellow, or when the first frost will add icing to the fields. But we can hope.
This part of the world is where we live when we are not aboard ship, and we are very partial to this place and this time of year.
This cruise begins in Montreal, and then we are due to stop in Quebec City and Tadoussac on the Saint Lawrence River before beginning to head down the coast.
We will call at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and then nip into Les Iles-de-la-Madeleine, the Magdalen Islands. This isolated archipelago is not quite French, not quite Anglophone, still holding on to some of its Acadian and colonial past.
From there we head over to Nova Scotia for calls at Louisbourg, the site of a massive French fortification that failed to prevent the British advance into Canada. And then to the big city of Halifax on that island.
Entering into New England proper, we are due to visit Bar Harbor, Maine and then make an appearance in Salem, Massachusetts which does not often receive cruise ships.
Our ship is due to sail into Cape Cod Bay and then transit the Cape Cod Canal to make a call at Oak Bluffs on the resort island of Martha’s Vineyard.
And then at the end of the cruise, an early morning all hands on deck sail-in to New York City.
Here’s our plan:
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
We arrived this morning for a two-day visit to beautiful Quebec City, the penultimate port of call on this cruise. On Tuesday we will complete our trip from Iceland with a call at Montreal.
The Chateau
Chateau Frontenac on a previous visit
There are few more attractive and enjoyable port towns than Quebec City. The food aboard ship is marvelous, but the lure of the bistrot and cafés is almost irresistible.
So, too, just the joy of time travel in the lower city, which is the oldest part of Quebec as well as strolls through the more ornate upper town which is dominated by the Chateau Frontenac, one of the iconic hotels of the world.
You can read more and see other photos from our many visits to Quebec City by clicking on the tag at the bottom of this blog entry.
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
The Saguenay River and the small town of La Baie a few hours sailing up the Saguenay River from the Saint Lawrence is one of the great daytime voyages of the world, in the company of the Norwegian, Chilean, and Alaskan fjords.
Along the way–sometimes accompanied by beluga whales and other sea creatures–we pass abeam of Notre Dame du Saguenay, a statue of the Virgin Mary erected in 1881 by a traveling salesman who fell through the ice one winter and credited his survival to divine assistance.
Notre Dame du Saguenay. Photo by Corey Sandler
Cruise ships have come up the river to see the foliage and the statue for all the time since, and in recent decades the little town of La Baie has become a port of call for a small number of cruise ships each year. What sometimes seems like the entire town comes out to greet guests and escort them to the parks and trails and other enticements.
We reached the town of La Baie at lunchtime, and I went with a group of guests for a return visit to one of the most spectacular pageants anywhere: La Fabuleuese Histoire d’un Royaume, the Fabulous Story of a Kingdom.
More than a hundred local residents plus horses, cattle, a goat, a pig, and a gaggle of trained geese appeared on stage. Few shows on Broadwsy or the West End can match this production for its showmanship.
Here are a few scenes:
Photos by Corey Sandler
You can read more about previous visits to La Baie and the Saguenay fjord by clicking on the tags at the bottom of this blog post.
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
The
Gulf of Saint Lawrence is considered the largest estuary in the
world;
An
estuary is a tidal inlet, a partially enclosed body of water that is influenced
by rivers flowing into it as well as the open ocean.
The Saint Lawrence estuary begins at the eastern tip of Île d’Orléans, just downstream from Quebec City, the highest reach of ocean tides on the river.
At
Sept-Iles, the river is considered to meet the Atlantic Ocean.
The town, now greatly dependent on natural resources and tourism, is the meeting point of French and Innu cultures.
The city of Sept-Îles extends along a natural bay whose entrance is protected by a natural rampart of seven islands: Grande Basque, Petite Basque, Corossol, Petite Boule, Grosse Boule, Manowin, and De Quen.
I went out today by inflatable Zodiac boat to visit a mussel farm on Grosse Boule. It was an exhilarating trip, briefly interrupted by sightings of two whales in the river.
Here is some of what we saw on the island today:
Grosse Boule island. Photos by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved
The scenery on the river is attractive, and there are many excursions for tourists. But Sept-Îles is primarily an industrial town; about 25,000 people live in the city, many of them directly or indirectly employed by the iron ore shipping or aluminum smelting industry.
Extraction of iron ore began in 1954 at a mine in Schefferville, more than 250 long and lonely miles to the north. The Schefferville mine closed in 1982, although new
technologies and increased demand may result in a reopening.
Today most of the iron ore comes from Labrador City in
far-western Labrador on the border with Quebec.
There are few roads into the wilderness; the ore is transported to Sept-Îles on the privately owned Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway, loaded on ships and sent to processors around the world. The
iron company is primarily owned by Rio Tinto.
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
Havre St-Pierre is in Quebec, which is the largest province of Canada on the mainland of the world’s second-largest nation.
Havre-St-Pierre is a big place, too. It sprawls across 3,900 square kilometers or 1,504 square
miles, about the same size as the greater metropolitan area of Montreal.
But only about 3,500 people live in the municipality of Havre-St-Pierre, which works out to about 3 per square mile. Montreal, which lays ahead of us, has more than 4 million residents.
Silver Wind at the dock today
Today the port is in heavy use as a shipping port for iron and
titanium ore.
Fishing
concentrates on snow crab, scallops, and lobster in the Gulf, and salmon
and trout in the freshwater rivers and lakes.
In 1857, the first European settlers were mostly French Acadians who came across from Les Isles de Madeleine, the Magdalen Islands.
Since 1948, the Quebec Iron and Titanium Company, owned by the Anglo-Australian company Rio Tinto Group, has mined deposits of ilmenite, a mineral
composed of iron and titanium, at a site about 40 kilometers or 25 miles north.
Their railroad, the Chemin de fer de la Rivière Romaine, brings the ore to the port, where it is
loaded aboard bulk carriers and shipped upriver to Sorel-Tracy near
Montreal.
Titanium is used to make white pigments, and alloyed with iron, aluminium, vanadium, and molybdenum or other elements to produce strong, lightweight metals for aerospace, military, industrial, and medical products. It is also used in jewelry in pure form or as an alloy with gold.
The other form of mining in Havre St-Pierre is aimed at the wallets of tourists. A bit west up the river is the amazing natural phenomena of the Mingan Archipelago, the largest group of erosional monoliths in Canada, limestone monoliths formed over thousands of years by wave action, strong winds, and seasonal freezing and thawing.
I went with guests by boat today to Le Petite Íle au Marteau (Little Hammer Island) to see some of the monoliths and the old lighthouse that faces out into the wide mouth of the Saint Lawrence.
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
We arrived about noon in Newfoundland, after five days st sea from Iceland.
The glories of Atlantic Canada are numerous, and Corner Brook is not far from the spectacular Gros Morne park and other natural attractions.
But here in town, the roads near the port are criss-crossed by huge flatbed trucks carrying logs and dominated by the massive plume of a very large paper mill.
Silver Wind at the dock in Corner Brook today, upwind of the paper mill
The good news is that you can set your watch (or to be more accurate these days, double-check your cell phone clock) by listening for the factory whistle: the original century-old steam whistle sounds at 8 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon.
I went with guests to visit some of the “outports” of Newfoundland.
Bottle Cove, the Newfy-adjusted name for Bateau Cove (Boat Cove) when the French were here
Corner Brook is located on the Bay of Islands at the mouth of the Humber River; it is the principal commercial center for all of western and northern Newfoundland, and also the
administrative headquarters of the Qalipu Mi’kmaq First
Nations government.
Outside of town
on Crow Hill is the Captain James Cook
National Historic Site.
Yes, that Captain Cook.
In 1767, the
famous British explorer and cartographer surveyed the Bay of Islands and was
the first to map the area. At the memorial are some copies of his charts, and an attractive view of the Bay of the Islands—the one here in Newfoundland, not the one in New Zealand.
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
In case you were wondering…Silversea Silver Wind is safe and sound and headed for Newfoundland where we expect to call at Corner Brook tomorrow, 11 September.
When we sailed out of Reykjavik five days ago, our plans were different. The itinerary called for three days at sea and then calls at St. John’s, Newfoundland and a brief return to Europe at St-Pierre and Miquelon, a French-governed set of islands nearby.
That is, until this happened:
Actually, that was only part of the story.
We had Hurricane Dorian making its way up the east coast of the United States and over top of Nova Scotia. And to our east, we had another storm, Hurricane Gabrielle, out to sea but effectively putting us in a sandwich of storms.
Our captain and crew took good care of us, threading the needle between the “disturbances” but the course we took was far from our original plan. Our three-day crossing became a five day trip.
The seas were…as some mariners say…a bit lumpy. But we have made it across the pond.
Land is in sight, and more blog entries to follow.
Copyright 2019 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
We arrived 4 September in Reykjavik, the capital of the island nation of Iceland.
Strokkur geyser near Reykjavik. Photo by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved
To those guests leaving us here, safe travels. And welcome aboard to new friends.
We went this morning to visit the country’s newest man-made attraction, FlyOver Iceland, which opened last week near downtown. It is a spectacular simulation of a helicopter (or hang glider) tour of Iceland.
Although I have been to Iceland many times, there are still many, many truly amazing places that are all-but-inaccessible. Hanging waterfalls, sulfur-dusted volcanoes, hidden valleys, glaciers, and snowfields. Oh, and puffins.
Visitors to the attraction sit in theater-like seats–with a seat belt–that move into the 20-meter (66-foot) spherical screen and then rise, descend, twist, turn, and tilt with the scenery.
This is state-of-the-art entertainment in every sense. We are still soaring…
FlyOver IcelandA scene from FlyOver Iceland
Onward to Canada (with a Detour to France)
The previous cruise began in London, and we leave from Iceland to complete our transatlantic crossing. Ahead of us, after three days at sea, our first landfall will be in St. John’s, Newfoundland which is often cited as the nearest part of North America to Europe. It’s close enough.
From there–and stay with me here–we are due to make a brief visit to France. That is, we are scheduled to stop at the remote island St-Pierre in the St-Pierre and Miquelon islands. These rocky places are all that remains of New France in what is now Canada. France has held on to them through some very thin years; today there is a bit of tourism to see a bit of history and for some guests a way to check off another place on their bucket list.
From New France we head into French Canada, with stops in the Province of Quebec at Havre-St.-Pierre, Sept-Îles, Saguenay, and then resplendent Quebec City and cosmopolitan Montreal.
Here’s our plan:
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
Heimaey is the principal settlement of the Westmann islands, a small, mostly quiet, occasionally very hot place in Iceland.
This is the only inhabited land in the Vestmannaeyjar islands. In January 1973, a volcanic eruption destroyed half the town and threatened to ruin its essential harbor.
At 1:55 in the morning, the middle of Heimaey began to shake, and lava emerged from new fissures that stretched about 1,600 meters or one mile from one shore to the other. Lava
fountains spouted as much as 150 meters, or 500 feet high.
Just east of town, a new cone began to build. Because it was near an old church, the locals called the new volcano Kirkjufell (Church Mountain), but the
official Icelandic place-naming committee chose Eldfell (Fire Mountain) instead.
Strombolian
eruptions deposited thick tephra over the northern half of the island, building
a cone of 200 meters or 660 feet.
The lava flow was in some places 100 meters or 330 feet thick. Not something you’d want to try and hold back with a shovel.
It’s not like this is something unexpected. Iceland is by considered the most active volcanic area in the world, sitting astride the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the North American and Eurasian Plates are moving west and east respectively, and also
over the Iceland hotspot, a funnel to volcanic matter.
It is estimated that a third of all the basaltic lava in recorded history has been produced by Icelandic eruptions.
We made it through the lava-narrowed mouth of the harbor at noontime, with perhaps 10 meters or 33 feet clearance on each side. And then I went with guests on a very strenuous, very exhilarating hike up Eldfell, the new volcano in town. Here is some of what we saw today:
The narrow neck of the harbor after Silver Wind had backed into place at the pierAt the pier in HeimaeyClimbing…Heimaey is home to about five thousand humans and about eight million puffins. This chick had been rescued and was being cared for before release
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
About 36 hours after sailing from Scotland, we arrived at the east coast of Iceland and the port of Seyðisfjörður, which–if you can get past a few extra Icelandic characters–is pronounced just the way it looks. SAY-dis-fuhr-dir.
This is one of Iceland’s most picturesque towns with a collection of 19th century wooden homes, surrounded by beautiful nature. Poet Matthías Johannessen called Seyðisfjörður a
‘pearl enclosed in a shell’.
Like many remote places, it exists because of its protected harbor, established by foreign merchants, mostly from Denmark, and fishermen from Norway. It’s a small town of about 665 people, spread across 82 square miles or 213 square kilometers.
Settlement traces back to the early period of habitation in Iceland. The ruin of a stave church nearby has been carbon-dated to the 10th century, with earlier graves from the 8th century.
On this visit, I went with guests on an adventurous hike up the side of the mountains to visit a valley of waterfalls. It was a treat for the eyes, and an ache to my knees. Here is some of what we saw today:
The Valley of WaterfallsAn abandoned whaling station and village near the mouth of the fjord. All photos by Corey Sandler, 2019. All rights reserved
Seyðisfjörður was home to British and American forces during World War II and some of the elements of the bases can be seen around the fjord, including a disused landing strip. And
this was one of the few places that saw actual combat, or at least an attack,
during World War 2.
You can read more about this place by clicking on the Seyðisfjörður tag at the bottom of this blog.
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
Just to make things even more complicated, it has two names: Lewis and Harris. It’s just one island,
but it helps confuse outsiders, which may be the point.
Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides is the largest island of Scotland and the third-largest island in the British Isles, after Britain and Ireland.
Tobermory: So Near, Yet So Far
We had expected to make a port call on 30 August at Tobermory on the Ile of Mull in the Inner Hebrides, but we ran afoul of some foul weather. We arrived at Tobermory in the early morning to find wind gusts as high as 50 knots.
Our captain attempted to find safe shelter in a cove and wait to see if the winds would subside, but even in the cove we were dragging our anchor and not safely stopped. And so we sailed away from Tobermory and headed for Stornoway where we arrived at dinnertime and overnighted at the pier.
Stornoway: The Port After the Storm
The town of Stornoway was founded by Vikings in the early 9th century, with the Old Norse name Stjórnavágr. The town grew up around a sheltered natural harbor well placed at a central point on the island.
Trade developed across the island, and onward to the mainland of Scotland and to Norse settlements elsewhere.
The two-name single island is a lovely place. I went with guests on a drive through the northern part, Lewis. Here are some scenes from today of the rolling moors, the prehistoric Standing Stones of Callanish, and an ancient broch:
All photos by Corey Sandler, 2019. All rights reserved.
Local gourmands will point you to a few specialties of the region, including Stornoway Black Pudding.
It’s not a pudding, at least in the dessert sense. It is traditionally made from beef suet, Scottish oatmeal, and pork blood. It has a firm
texture and when cooked is said to be moist, not greasy and savoury, not spicy.
You might like
it.
I’ll stick to butterscotch pudding.
For centuries, islanders in the Outer Hebrides have hand-weaved a distinctive woolen cloth: Harris Tweed. By tradition, Harris
Tweed is hand woven on a manually-powered treadle loom at each weaver’s home.
The weaver arranges hundreds of heddles to a specified pattern before the beam of warp yarn is tied into the loom by hand. The weaver then
sets up the weft threads, pulling bobbins of yarn through a series of guides to
be woven into the warp threads by a flashing “rapier.”
I have no idea what that means. But I do have a nice Harris Tweed sport coat back home.
Today we visited a traditional weaver:
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
The story of Londonderry helps explain the complex background to the long history of conflict between Protestants and Catholics, English and Irish. Its commercial roots are based on investments by guilds and merchants in London, and they added the prefix of their home town to the original name of Derry.
You can read more about Londonderry / Derry and see more photos by clicking on the tag at the bottom of this blog.
But in summary: my view includes a belief that nothing in history is written in black and white; it is all shades of gray.
Today in Northern Ireland we had an appropriately gray day, and so I began my tour thinking in monochrome. Here are some photos I took in the predominantly Catholic district of Bogside, showing a few of the murals that memorialize The Troubles as seen from that side:
Bogside
Three monochrome images of murals in BogsideBogside from across the river
Splashes of Color at the Londonderry Guildhall
And then I returned to one of my favorite places in this part of the world, the Londonderry Guildhall, for some splashes of color. They were preparing for a recital on the massive organ in the main hall, and the pipes were glowing in anticipation.
The pipe organSome of the wondrous stained glass windows that tell one side of the story of Londonderry/Derry, that of the guilds of London who came here to develop…and change…the region.
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
Belfast, with a population of about 600,000 in the metropolitan area, was a center of the Irish linen, tobacco processing, ropemaking, and shipbuilding industries, a major player in the
Industrial Revolution.
After a painful decline in the second half of the 20th
century, it has seen a bit of recovery in aerospace and military industry.
Today, Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, which—like it or not for some residents—is part of the United Kingdom.
The main yard, Harland and Wolff, built a ship you may have heard of: the RMS Titanic. The Wolff shipyard is now the location of the world’s largest dry dock, where the giant cranes Samson and Goliath stand out against Belfast’s skyline. Most of its work now involves support for offshore wind
and oil platforms.
But in the early 20th century, this was the biggest and
most productive shipyard in the world, and Belfast was at the heart of the
Industrial Revolution. Harland and Wolff became one of the largest shipbuilders
in the world, employing as many as 35,000 workers.
Almost forgotten—except amongst locals—is the fact Belfast was heavily bombed by Germany during World War II. In one raid, on the night of Easter Tuesday, April 15, 1941, two hundred Luftwafe bombers attacked and about one thousand people were killed and tens of thousands left homeless.
Apart from London, this was the greatest loss of life in a night raid during the Blitz. It had been thought that Belfast was out of reach of German planes, but once France fell, the Luftwaffe was able to fly from there.
The primary targets were the textile works which manufactured uniforms and other equipment, munitions factories, and the shipyards.
Today the shipyard no longer builds titanic ships and the linen factories are almost all gone. The flashiest modern attraction is Titanic Belfast, which opened in 2012 to coincide with the centenary of the incomplete maiden voyage of the luxury liner Titanic.
The angular design was intended to evoke the image of
ship. It stands 126 feet (38 meters) high, the same height
as Titanic’s hull.
Locals have already applied their own nickname: The
Iceberg.
The museum tells the stories of the ill-fated RMS Titanic and her sister ships RMS Olympic and HMS Britannic.
And all around the handsome city of Belfast you can see some of the wealth that the shipyard and factories brought to the city.
The Crown Liquor Saloon is the only drinking establishment in the U.K. owned by the National Trust. It was decorated by Italian artisans brought to Belfast to build churches, and with some of the paneling and artwork of the great ships made here.The Grans Opera HouseThe Titanic Museum at the shipyard in BelfastSS Nomadic, the surviving First Class tender for the Titanic
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey
Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN
AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed
Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Now available, the
revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler,
for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle
App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Here’s where to order
an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
