Cruise Blues #TuesdayTravels

Royal Princess

Princess Cruises Royal Princess, my home-away-from-home for 13 days.

In July, I went on a 13-day cruise of the British Isles with Princess Cruises, and now I’m suffering from the Cruise Blues.

I heard people talking about the cruise blues in the elevator on the last day of the trip. It kind of boils down to things like:

Oh, no, I have to make my own bed. What happened to the cabin steward?

What do you mean I have to fix my own breakfast? I’d rather go to the buffet.

Where am I going on today’s shore excursion? Oh, yeah, the grocery store. 🙁

In other words, getting back to real life can be a drag. I’m mostly joking–I really was happy to get home–but I will admit it was nice to be spoiled for a couple of weeks. In the next weeks I’m going to do some blogs about the trip so I can re-live the fun of being on the Royal Princess.

First stop: London!

Linda

Tuesday Travels: Quebec for Canada Day

Tuesday Travel buttonThis is the first in a new Tuesday feature on places I’ve been, places I love, and places I’d love to visit, and since today is Canada Day, our first armchair excursion is to Quebec. (Note: I took this trip back in the pre-digital photography days so the photos are from my Art Explosion CD collection.)

Quebec CityQuebec is one of the settings used in my French & Indian War-set historical romance, Rogue’s Hostage. When I was writing the book, my husband and I took a vacation to Quebec Province so I could do some research. We started in Montreal, where I managed to find my way around the Metro using my college French.

Chateau Frontenac

Chateau Frontenac

After a couple of days we took the train to Quebec, and I fell in love with the charming old city, though I had to keep reminding myself that the city in my book was the previous city, the one that was destroyed by the British shelling.

Since I wanted to stay in the old part of the city, I booked us a room at Chateau Frontenac, the venerable Canadian Railway hotel. Picturesque setting, but we were pretty sure they gave us the smallest room in the place! Instead of a view looking out toward the river, our window looked down onto an alley. Oh, well, we didn’t spend much time in the room anyway.

We were far more interested in wandering the streets, taking pictures of the old houses and the fort and battlefield. Monument of the Battle of the Plains of AbrahamOn the last day we took a boat ride on the St. Lawrence for the spectacular views of the city and countryside. What a beautiful area! I’d love to go back some day.

Quebec Street SceneBut the house needs a new roof so we’ll be staying home this summer. How about you? Do you have vacation or staycation plans? Leave a comment below to be entered in my monthly drawing for a $15 Starbucks e-gift card.  Follow the blog and earn a second entry. (If your comment doesn’t pop up right away, it’s because first time comments have to be moderated by yours truly.)

Linda McLaughlin