NCL cruise to New England

We’re back on solid land again after our 11 day New England/Canada cruise aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines. A recap of our stops on the cruise:

1. First stop was at Boston. We took a bus from the dock to city center and then walked parts of the Freedom Trail. We saw Paul Revere’s house, Old North Church (remember 1 if by land and 2 if by sea?), the South Meeting hall, and the Boston Commons.

2. Second stop was at Bar Harbor. This was the worst weather on the trip. It was raining sideways. We went through the shops, but we had already spent 5 days near here about 3 weeks prior to our trip, so we had already seen the sights when the weather was good.

3. Third stop was Halifax, Nova Scotia. We toured the Maritime Museum and walked around town and then up into an old fort on top of the hill. The museum was interesting in that Halifax was where rescue was done for the Titanic. Also, on board in the afternoon a bagpipe band performed for us.

4. Fourth stop was Quebec City. This is a beautiful old city with a very European feel to it (although I’ve never been to Europe!). Lots of old stone buildings. The city is surrounded by a wall.

5. Fifth stop was Syndey, Nova Scotia. We took a tour on this day and went to Batten where Alexander Graham Bell had his summer home. We went through a museum with information about his different inventions. We always think of the telephone, but he also had an interest in lots of other things including hydrofoils.

6. Sixth stop was Saint John, New Brunswick. We took a 45 minute walk (each way) to the Bay of Fundy where they have the Reversing Falls. We didn’t time it very well for seeing the falls, but it was a nice walk. We also walked along the main old street where there were 4 very beautiful churches built in the late 1800’s. There was a big fire in the 1800’s that destroyed most of the town, so these were built after the fire.

We enjoyed seeing square dance friends on the cruise and we did dance for about 1 hour to a CD while on the cruise. The Norwegian Jewel is a brand new ship. It's a nice ship, but they need to make the meals and the hot tubs hotter. They had good shipboard entertainment.