Planes, trains & automobiles & a ship to Iceland, EastGreenland and NE Canada

bPeteb · Jan 4, 2016

RooFlyer said:
I also loved St John's and the Titanic exhibition at the GeoCentre. The building on Signal Hill is Cabot Tower, built on 1898 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of John Cabot's discovery of Newfoundland

I knew I should have been reading my notes while I posted these photos!

love_the_life · Jan 4, 2016

bigpetebrown, I understand that apartments on The World don't come up for sale very often and that there is a minimum income that owners must have to be able to purchase. Did you find out if any were for sale when you were on? (Not that I am in the market for one).

bPeteb · Jan 4, 2016

love_the_life said:
bigpetebrown, I understand that apartments on The World don't come up for sale very often and that there is a minimum income that owners must have to be able to purchase. Did you find out if any were for sale when you were on? (Not that I am in the market for one).

Hi l_t_l

There's always apartments for sale although there's waitlists for specific apartment types and existing residents get first dibs to trade up, down, or buy a second, third apartment. We met a couple from NZ who were on board testing out life in the 'village' and who had decided to buy. I got an email from them last week telling us that they had managed to purchase a 1 bedroom studio (no kitchen, just kitchenette with a sink and microwave). Another NZer we met in 2014 has downsized from a two bedroom (full fire rated kitchen) to a 1 bedroom studio as well. As the square footage increases, so does your yearly maintenance fee.

One way to experience The World without buying one is to become a member of Exclusive Resorts. They own four apartments.

pete

bPeteb · Jan 5, 2016

09/09/2015
St. Anthony, Newfoundland (pronounced Newfnd-LAND, as in understand), Canada

Al’s summary -

Land of the Dwarf Viking and hillbilly blacksmith. Wishing we were in the back seat of the school bus, we headed off bouncing along the road. We were looking for moose (apparently it was moose season) as we were shown photos of our guide’s Viking wedding, complete with pig on a spit and pics of the family dressed as Vikings. It wasn't your usual 'tour’ experience.

In slightly more detail…

Booked our one and only ship’s Destination Experience. I’d tried to book a rental car but there was none available. The only option to get to L’Anse aux Meadows Parks Canada - L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site was the ship’s tour.

As per Al’s summary, St Anthony’s is obviously the land of the dwarf Viking, or maybe just dwarf (as in LOTR dwarf), as that’s what/who greeted us on the jetty. We piled on to the school bus (you don’t get much for your $110 US in St. Anthony) and went to L’ans aux Meadows. That school bus was rough, and hilarious in a very perverse and sadistic way. Those pampered bums in the rows past the axle got a right pummelling.

Al summarised the ride well – wedding pictures and moose spotting (no-one spotted any).

L’Anse aux Meadows is the site of the first known presence of Europeans in the Americas. Lots of info on the above link. Very interesting and quite well done. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Five minutes down the road to Norstead, a Viking village recreationhttp://www.lanseauxmeadowsnewfoundland.com/norstead.html

This place was even better done and where Al’s hillbilly blacksmith was doin’ his thang.

The sail away time was 20:00 with last tender at 19:30. We’d thought we’d have fish and chips for dinner (it’s a fishing/shrimping community) but didn’t spot anything near the jetty so didn’t bother.

We found out that night that there was a very nice fish restaurant out near the lighthouse, a 15 minute walk up the road. If only we’d known

…

And so endeth our very brief introduction to Newfoundland.

St. Anthony, Newfoundland

The LOTR Dwarf Viking

L’Anse aux Meadows

L’Anse aux Meadows

L’Anse aux Meadows

bPeteb · Jan 5, 2016

Luxury Newfoundland transport

L’Anse aux Meadows

L’Anse aux Meadows

bPeteb · Jan 5, 2016

Norstead

Norstead

Norstead

Norstead

Iceberg water, apparently

love_the_life · Jan 5, 2016

bigpetebrown said:
......
One way to experience The World without buying one is to become a member of Exclusive Resorts. They own four apartments.

pete

Thanks for the pointer but I don't have a spare $US90,000 this week (being after Christmas and all) for the basic membership so I think I'll pass on this

bPeteb · Jan 6, 2016

love_the_life said:
Thanks for the pointer but I don't have a spare $US90,000 this week (being after Christmas and all) for the basic membership so I think I'll pass on this

was slightly tongue in cheek (ok, a lot!)

90k is a bargain when yearly outgoings for ownership start at about USD350k

bPeteb · Jan 6, 2016

12/09/2015

Up early Saturday morning as we sailed down the Saint Lawrence Seaway towards Quebec City. Lots of nice houses all along the banks of the Ile d'Orleans. Caught a glimpse of the Montmorency Falls.

Quebec City is a large working port with a small, quite beautiful city beside it. When you are deep inside Old Town, or wandering Upper Town you wouldn't know there was a great big dirty port a kilometre or two away. The town is dominated by the Chateau Frontenac that sits on the edge of the escarpment above the old town.

The weather was quite mild, topping out at about 20C I think.

Visited Old Town then up the hill to the Upper Town. We went down into the ruins of the Chateau St Louis that is pretty much under the edge of the Chateau Frontenac.

Really nice lunch sat out in the sun in the Upper Town. It was warm enough that Al had to buy a t-shirt, and keep it on. Walked back to the ship via the farmers market where we had our first really good coffee in weeks.

We stopped by the Festibiere and had a couple of festive beers. The 'water feature' that runs through the area outside the cruise ship terminal is heated. They had tables and chairs set up occupied by crowds of young people. Rugged up and came back out to the beers.

Suzanne the Enrichment Manager, the gym manager and the Concierge Manager joined us. We had a really great chat. These people really love their jobs and The World. The ship is full of strong personalities so it must be very difficult at times keeping them pleased.

Montmorency Falls in the distance

Quebec City's industrial port

Port of Quebec City with Festibiere in the foreground

Quebec City Old Town, seriously old

Looking down into Quebec City lower town

bPeteb · Jan 6, 2016

I know that I should know who this is...

A maple leaf,. We must be in Canada

Looking down into Quebec City Old Town

Chateau Frontenac

Love a man in a kilt. There was a Celtic Festival being held on the Plains of Abraham

bPeteb · Jan 6, 2016

Quebec City down near the farmers market

Giant pigeon, next to the giant Campbell's can

No pooing please

View from the Festibiere

bPeteb · Jan 6, 2016

13/09/2015

ViaRail train to Montreal at 5:45pm. We could leave the ship when we wanted.

Museum day. The Musee de la Civilisation was closest so we started there https://www.mcq.org/en.

Fantastic Egypt exhibition called Egyptian Magic https://www.mcq.org/en/exposition?id=129993. We took a very long time reading everything. Brilliant. Next was a room full of the most beautiful carriages, pretty much all made in Quebec I think. Then an exhibition called Shantytown Cities. This was some incredible detailed sculptural pieces. To be honest it was a bit disturbing, something it was supposed to be I'm guessing. The last exhibition was the best - Rebel Bodies https://www.mcq.org/en/exposition?id=30653, an exploration of contemporary dance.

At 4.20pm we walked down the gangway for the last time. Quite sad

I didn't look back as the cab drove out of the port gates.

Travelled business class to Montreal. Checked luggage, meal, drinks, free wifi included. Huge seats but a strangely small amount of legroom unless you had shorter legs than either of us. First drinks before we were five minutes out of the station. The wifi was super-fast, the meal (with wine) good and the seat comfortable (apart from the legroom issue).

Montreal hotel - downtown Montreal hotel – Hotel Quartier des Spectacles Montreal | Welcome Downtown Montreal Hotel : Montreal Hotel Quartier des Spectacles.

There's a sex shop right beside the entry to the hotel. Big deal. No lift was a slightly bigger deal for us with three very heavy cases. But we knew so it wasn't a surprise. Reception was one level up and our room was another two levels above that. We managed, but older people would struggle I'd imagine.

The room was big but had only a tiny window. There was no airflow and it was very warm so we had to put on the aircon.

Shantytown Cities - Musee de la Civilisation

ViaRail Business Class to Montreal

First drink less than five minutes after we pulled away from the station

The meal was quiet good

Hotel Quartier des Spectacles, Montreal

bPeteb · Jan 6, 2016

14/09/2015
Hotel served a good continental breakfast for $7 each. Al gave the croissants two thumbs up.

It was drizzly so we decided on the Musee d'art contemporain de Montreal Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, but it was closed.

We walked down to the waterfront. The epic abandoned Silo No 5 is a silent reminder of Montreal's not too distant agricultural past. Behind it was Habitat 67, an amazing apartment complex that is only one of two remnants of Expo 67 Habitat 67 - Montreal – Canada. Hard to believe that it will be 50 years old in two years.

We kept walking, and walking, and walking. Every gallery or museum was closed, closed, closed. Jumped on the super efficient metro and headed for Biodome out on Ile Saint-Helene, the other Expo 67 remnant Biodôme | Space for life. A giant naked geodesic dome. But of course it was closed as well. Funnier than that though is that it wasn't even Biodome. Biodome is at the Olympic site. This place was Biosphere Environment and Climate Change Canada - About Environment and Climate Change Canada - Home, and I only worked that out when I went to their website after we got home!! Biodome is closed Mondays as well. Surprise!

Poutine time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poutine.
Al loved it but I'm not convinced. It's basically chips and gravy with cheese curd, and it comes in gigantic serves. Well at least it did in the sports bar we went to.

We needed to walk that mountain of carbs (and beer) off and the only way was to walk to the top of Mont Royal. Way, way, way too many bloody steps. It was not fun. At least the sun had come out by the time we got to the top where the view was pretty bloody impressive.

We had dinner at Tavern F and it was F'n terrific. The pics give the details.

Loved these 'tree trunks' in a large mall down towards the river

car share Smarts all around the city

we love squirrels

Quite a handful!

bPeteb · Jan 6, 2016

Habitat 67, nearly 50 years old, amazing

Habitat 67. Brilliant architecture

Silo No 5

Silo No 5

Forget food trucks, Montreal has food containers!

bPeteb · Jan 6, 2016

Cool public art down by the river

Montreal's lido. Apparently it goes off in summer. Go figure.

Bloody Biosphere. Quite a trek for nothing. DO NOT visit Montreal on Monday if you're only visiting for one day!

The sun came out and Montreal looked pretty darn beautiful from the top of Mont Royal

My favourite! Portuguese tarts!!! Tavern F.

bPeteb · Jan 6, 2016

15/09/2015

Amtrak Adirondack, Montreal - New York City

The world's most helpful cabbie picked us up to take us back to Montreal's station to take the Amtrak Adirondack to New York. That he got all three big bags into the boot of a Hyundai Sonata was a miracle.

Looking a little lost, a guy approached us and told us about using his porter service. He would take our bags off us, store them, then when we were ready he'd take us down to the train before general boarding, stow our luggage and we'd have the pick of the seats on the train. I handed over $10, he smiled and all wandered away, with our bags. Thirty minutes later we met him at the top of the escalators (just as promised), he loaded our bags on to the rack and told us to choose seats. We chose, he showed us better seats and he was right - two full windows. A few minutes later the train filled with everyone else.

Each seat had a huge amount of room. They reclined and even had a foot stool. Overhead racks big enough to hold a pretty big bag. Very glad we'd paid the porter as our three filled the luggage rack at the end of the carriage.

Border crossing was a pain. Train stopped for an hour. US border patrol comes through the train, checks your passports and asks you a bunch of questions. We were directed up to the cafe car for further processing. We thought our ETSA visa would cover us but because we'd left the USA straight after we arrived (transit through NYC on way to Iceland) we had to pay another $6 each for another visa. Bizarre.

Very scenic trip. Wide open corn fields in Canada then along the shore of Lake Champlain. Later in the day (the trip is 11 hours) we dropped into the Hudson River valley and witnessed a beautiful sunset across the Hudson.

We'd chosen our hotel in NYC mainly for its location near Penn Station but also because it looked pretty cool. Riff Hotel Chelsea Riff Hotels | Times Square NYC Hotels I Chelsea Hotel | Affordable Hotel NYC | Budget Chic Hotel in New York City | Riff Hotel Chelsea, has a great location, looks cool, and that's about it. My review on TripAdvisor says it all. Should be thankful that the sheets were clean and the bed was comfortable.

We dumped the bags and went in search of a snack and ended up at Brother Jimmy's BBQ Brother Jimmy's BBQ | Great Southern Food NYC | NY Legend | Put some South in Yo Mouth | Florida Barbecue Joint | Manhattan Grill Restaurant | New Brunswick BBQ | Miami BBQ | Westchester BBQ | Best ribs NYC, and it was great. Great staff, good beer and great snacks.

Amtrak Adirondack. Great value. Great views.

The World had just arrived as we left

Lake Champlain - huge!

We changed engines in the NY state capital Albany so had some time to stretch our legs

Beautiful sunset over the Hudson

love_the_life · Jan 6, 2016

Really enjoying the TR.
$350,000 a year - a mere bagatelle!

bPeteb · Jan 6, 2016

I wish I knew how to rotate these photos. They are fine on my tablet. amaroos portrait photos are all displaying as portrait. Any hints?

Without any further ado, here's the cough hole aka The Riff Chelsea... $400 a night!