What I did on my summer vacation! Part 2 - St. John, New Brunswick

Thursday, July 24, 2008 by Marianne | 2 Comments

Do you want to know about one of my favorite things on the ship?

I just loved that our towels were made into animals each night! I also enjoyed coming to our stateroom and seeing our decorated door.

I don’t know if decorating doors is common on most cruises but people certainly did it on this one! It was so much fun to see all of the different designs. Many of the doors were added to during the voyage with trinkets and memories from each port.

Tuesday dawned foggy and we were in St. John, New Brunswick. We had quite the lovely welcoming committee in St. John – greeters who handed out welcome gifts, a band and lots of information about the city. I have to say, St. John is one of the friendliest places I have ever been in my life – everyone was extremely helpful, nice and very proud of their city. It was delightful.

We got off the boat and took a shuttle into town. It dropped us off right in front of the City Market, a delightful place filled with fresh and prepared foods and local crafts.

The roof of the building was designed to look like a ship’s hull.

We walked up the market (St. John is hilly!) and out the front entrance and into King’s Square. King’s Square is a lovely park laid out in the shape of the Union Jack. It has lots of monuments…

And a fantastic two-storey bandstand/fountain:

And from King’s Square, you can see all the way down into the harbor (and out massive ship looming in the distance):

We left King’s Square and walked over to Queen’s Square, another Union Jack park. It was much less crowded than King’s Square and just as lovely. It was very foggy, I love fog.

Then we headed down to see Germain Street, lined with charming houses…

And Prince William Street, the main commercial street.

In 1877 there was a huge fire and much of downtown St. John was destroyed. The city needed to rebuild and they decided to rebuild with style. The city invited famous architects from all over the world to design the buildings on Prince William Street, creating a beautiful hodgepodge of styles – Italianate facades, Corinthian columns, gargoyles, Queen Anne Revival, etc.

While on Prince William Street we stopped into Java Moose, a lovely cafe. As we were drinking our coffee, we struck up a conversation with the barista who was on break. She was a delightful person and gave us some tips for what to see and some history of the city. She obviously loved and knew a lot about her city and it was a treat to get to talk with her.

On her suggestion we headed back up King Street…

To the Old Burial Ground. It was a lovely place with a Beaver Fountain:

And some beautiful old headstones…

After spending some time sitting and relaxing in the Old Burial Ground we headed over to the Old Courthouse to see the famous spiral staircase. It is a three-storey, unsupported, stone staircase and it’s lovely!

We also checked out the Museum of New Brunswick, where we saw a fascinating exhibit (recommended by our barista) “No Place for a Lady”.

It was so interesting learning about the experience women had traveling in the 18th – 20th centuries. It took a remarkable sense of courage and adventure for many of these women to set off to such far-flung places. One of my favorite anecdotes was about a woman climbing the Pyramids in Egypt while not wearing her petticoats. One of the other women there gave her dirty looks and scolded her for not being dressed as a lady should but she was the one that was able to get to the top – she then gave the advice “Leave your petticoats in Cairo!” Can you imaging climbing the Pyramids in a full, long dress with a corset? I can’t!

After a lovely day, we got back on the ship…

And I knit on the balcony as the fog rolled in!

Later… Halifax and Bar Harbor!

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