by Jim Bellomo | Oct 2, 2023 | Photography
Yes, there are two posts today. If you are a cruising fan and missed the earlier one on our stateroom, it is below this one.
Here they are for my readers who follow me for my photography and have been asking about what happened on my third day in Montreal. I’m so sorry I forgot to put them out there. I got into the cruise stuff and forgot to add them.
On our third morning, I awoke onboard Vista. One of my favorite things about overnights on cruises is that you can get on or off at any time of the day or night. So I was up at my usual 5:15 and walking out of the port at 5:30. Here’s what I shot on that walk. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
Early morning moon
Early morning mood with buildings.
Vista in the dark
A really cool dark shot. Turn your brightness up.
The Marine sign…
I am told it is a Montreal landmark.
I shot this standing in the middle of a lock on the Lachine Canal
A sign in Montreal’s Old Towne
It was like being back in France.
With tiny French streets.
Just gorgeous and blue hour gave me great light.
More of the same.
This is the front of the building I shot the night before…
..that’s now a shopping mall
Back on the streets
The light gets lighter.
And changes to Golden Hour
When I found this church.
With really nice lighting
And one last look at the sun on the dome.
Symmetry
Looking back on the city. The light was better on the city…
but the sunrise was not as incredible.
From Vista’s upper deck once back on board.
The no-longer-used Lachine Locks
But still cool to take photos of.
The city from the highest point on the ship.
Back on board for breakfast
Once back on board, we met the group (sans later sleepers Jamie and Steve) for breakfast in the buffet—which was outstanding. I will do a whole post on the food toward the end of the cruise. Then we took a walk down the waterfront with most of the gang to see Old Towne. I took about 25 photos, and I am not happy with a single one of them. The light was directly overhead and incredibly harsh. Not even going to bother to show them to you. Just know, they were bad. And nothing I could do made them in any way special, and I can usually fix them somehow.
Afternoon boat tour
We wanted an activity that didn’t involve a lot of walking, so we decided to do a harbor cruise on a smallish boat. We used Bateau Mouche. Don’t use them. It was NOT a good value. $21CAN for a 45-minute ride, of which half was the same sights as the first. We got to see the river and learned some fun facts, but we all voted that we wished we had gone with another company or skipped it altogether.
I got some photos, but the best ones were of the Six Flags amusement park that sits on a man-made island in the middle of the St. Lawrence. Those were fun. And a couple of other river-cruise-type shots. Here they are—you know the drill.
Thought I would get a pic of the other side of the Big Wheel
And the other side of the Clock Tower.
Two island monuments
A very old cruise ship now sailing with a cruise line we have never heard of—Ambassador.
Six Flags Roller Coaster
Six Flags swing.
Habitat 67 in Montreal
Back on land I took a short walk and got this shot of Vista.
Tugboat in Montreal
And this sadly, abandoned factory also on the Lachine.
That about covered our time in Montreal. It was a great city. Lots to do, and if you haven’t been there, I highly recommend it. We had a great time, ate great food, saw many cool sights, and so much more. Tomorrow, a little more about the ship and our visit to Québec City. We did sail right on time and had a very peaceful voyage down the St. Lawrence River to Québec City.
Montreal is a great town. There’s equal parts blue-collar town.
—Jay Baruchel
by Jim Bellomo | Oct 1, 2023 | Photography
The saga continues. The following day (Friday), we awoke at our hotel in Montreal. This would be our last morning at the hotel as we would board Oceania’s Vista this afternoon. Of course, this meant one more predawn photo walk for me. Initially, before they had changed our boarding time, I had planned NOT to walk this morning because we would be leaving the hotel before 11:00, and I would have needed to pack and get ready to leave by 10:30. But when they pushed our embarkation back to 2:00 (more about that later) I decided to walk, and as you will see from my photos, it would have been a tremendous loss if I hadn’t.
The day before, when I had gotten lost trying to get to the top of Mount Royal in time to take sunrise photos, had been kind of a bust with me arriving after the sun was over the horizon and having missed the blue and golden hour of light. But today, I decided to walk Montreal’s waterfront and didn’t miss anything. One of the reasons I wanted to walk the waterfront was to take some. early morning photos of Vista (our home for the next two weeks). On the way I would get not only photos of Vista but some cityscapes of Montreal from the bottom looking up, some early morning lights and then one of the best sunrises I have ever had the pleasure of shooting.
Sunrise the day before, I had been kind of blah. Even if I had gotten to the top before the sun came up, it was rather hazy up there. Not so this morning on the waterfront, as you shall see. Here are my pics from that morning (with captions). Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
My walk started in this park where I just wanted a photo of this sculpture. As I walked up to take it, I realized I was in the middle of more than 100 sleeping homeless.
This is the square in front of the cathedral.
It looked totally different than the night before…
Montreal Bank
The outside of the basilica.
Right behind the basilica, there was Vista.
Up close and personal.
Then the sun started showing itself in the blue hour.
Montreal Reflection
I must have shot 30 pics of the big wheel and the reflections.
When it switched to Golden Hour, I just started snapping.
Every time I would think it couldn’t get any better…
Montreal Sunrise
Montreal Tower at Dawn
The Jacques Cartier Bridge with Six Flags amusement park behind it.
The Jacques Cartier Bridge again.
Molson Beer is the second oldest company in Canada after the Hudson Bay Co. Their sign is reflective so that’s the sun you see.
And the sky got better…
Montreal Tower
and better.
As I said, whenever I tried to walk away, I would get called back.
The tower was just the focal point I needed.
But I finally gave up as the sun itself crested the horizon.
Lots of small shops lined the waterfront.
The yacht club had a real sand beach.
Loved the blue.
Behind me was the city.
And of course, the Clock Tower once again.
Molson sign a little later.
Food trucks on the waterfront.
The sign at the port.
Vista, head on.
A very interesting piece of architecture…
An apartment complex called Habitat 67.
An old, abandoned facility on the harbor.
On my way back to the hotel I walked through Old Town.
I would come back here the next morning off the ship.
But the reflections of the light on this dome (above a shopping mall) were too good to pass up.
Old Town Montreal or a street in France—you decide.
Finally, back to our hotel.
After breakfast, Mike, Steve and I wanted to go back and get more photos inside the basilica. because we had been rushed the night before after the performance. There had also been so many people. We still had tickets that would let us in for a tour, so we headed over. We got some great shots–here are mine.
We had missed the stained glass windows the night before..l
because it was dark outside.
Cathedral of Notre Dame in Montreal
Truly a huge work of art
Incredibly well lit
Some of the parts in closeup.
The lectern was about halfway down the side of the church.
There was a private chapel behind the main altar.
The pipe organ at the back.
After shooting the church, it was back to the hotel to pack for the ship, process photos, do a little writing and then grab an Uber. Even though we had received the e-mail about not boarding until 2:30, our check-out time at the hotel was noon. So we thought we could just as easily wait at the port than in the hotel lobby. Plus, if we went over early, we could drop our big luggage with the porters. But Oceania surprised us by just letting us onboard. And I have to say it was probably the best and smoothest embarkation we have ever had in 30+ cruises. We were getting out of the Uber at 12:20 and sitting down to eat lunch in the buffet before 1:00. More about that (and the ship) tomorrow.
There’s never one sunrise the same or one sunset the same.
—Carlos Santana
by Jim Bellomo | Sep 29, 2023 | Photography
I am starting this post at 4:15 in the afternoon on our first full day in Montreal. It’s not even dinner time and we are exhausted already. Kathleen is taking a well-deserved nap and I am writing about today.
This morning I did my usual pre-dawn photo walk, and I knew exactly where I wanted to walk even before I got here. The only problem was, neither Google Maps nor Apple’s maps could figure it out. We are staying at the Homewood Suites by Hilton at the base of Montreal’s Chinatown. I wanted to walk to the Belvedere Kondiaronk Lookout which is up above all of Montreal. That’s where I shot the photo at the top of this page. The only problem was, that both map apps wanted me to take the long way to get there. Proof of this is that it only took me 40 minutes to walk back but it took me almost two hours to find the place. Two hours of walking up hiking trails in the dark. And then being sent backward and forward on the same trails, again and again being told to “take the path on the right,” when there was no path. So I would continue the way I was going and then be told, “Go Back!”
The best thing I can do to show you my frustration is to show you what the app Map My Walk showed me I had done. It uses GPS to show me exactly where I walk each day. Here’s my overall route.
See the part between the two and the three-mile marks? Those were on tiny trails in the pitch-black darkness, using my phone’s flashlight to see where I was going. See the five and six-mile markers? That’s the way I should have been going. I was trying to get somewhere near the five on the map but couldn’t figure out where to go. Finally, a very nice jogger (whom I had already passed twice) said she would show me, and I got there. Late! I had purposely left early enough at 5:15 a.m. to be on the lookout by 6:30 for the sunrise. I got there around 7:15, and I was NOT happy about it. I got photos of the view, but I really wanted that golden hour light. Oh, well. The sky was not that great this morning anyway, and once there, I did make it back a lot easier than I went up.
Here are the photos I took from the top with captions. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
The east gate to Chinatown is right outside our hotel
Walking out, each little street in Chinatown had some great lights.
This photo of an arts building near the Performing Arts Center has some really awesome art in all the windows.
Here’s a moody shot of the performing arts center itself.
Looking down into the city as I started my long climb.
The cross at the top of Mount Royal
Looking down from the Belvedere Kondiaronk Lookout
From the Belvedere Kondiaronk Lookout
More from the Belvedere Kondiaronk Lookout
More from the Belvedere Kondiaronk Lookout
More from the Belvedere Kondiaronk Lookout
Check out he HUGE Leonard Cohen mural.
There are murals all over Montreal.
This is what it looks like walking up to the More from the Belvedere Kondiaronk Lookout
On the way down from the More from the Belvedere Kondiaronk Lookout
You walk through some beautiful parks.
And the campus of McGill University.
This is their law library
This is their chapel
This is their art museum
Loved this little artificial park.
And you can always find a fountain and a statue to shoot.
Unnamed church. I will try and go back and see if I can get the name.
On the way past the art museum I spotted these guys taking someone away.
The west gate to Chinatown
Guarded by the fiercest lions.
Once back, I ran into my brother and Jamie getting out of the elevator. They had not gotten in until midnight the night before (lousy connections in MSP). I showered and changed as quickly as I could, and we went down and had breakfast with them. It was great seeing them and introducing them to Jocelyn.
Since I am already a day behind, I am going to stop this here and give you the rest of day two tomorrow. We have that canceled port in a few days that is now a sea day that will give me a chance to catch up. I am writing this on Friday morning, and we are packing up to head to the ship, but I want to put it online today before we go. Once we are on board, we have another full day in Montreal before setting sail for Quebec City on Saturday evening.
Not all those who wander are lost. —J.R.R Tolkien
by Jim Bellomo | Jun 4, 2023 | Photography
Just a quick post to point out a new page on this site. If you look above this post, you will see a menu. On the far right side is a new item that says, My Photographic Portfolio. If you click it, you will find a page with my 23 (I know, it’s a stupid number, but I just could not whittle them down any further) favorite photos.
You will also find links to ALL my other travel photos. I have divided my best photos into three pages; photos I have taken in the United States, photos I have taken in Europe and photos I have taken in the rest of the world. Inside those pages, you will find galleries by country, state or region. This is a project I have had on my to-do list for more than a year. When I tell people here in Trilogy that I am a travel photographer, they ask me where they can find my photos. Up until today, I didn’t have one place where they all are. Now I do. Enjoy.
And of course, this comes with the usual reminder: Don’t forget, if you click the first shot of any of the galleries, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see. — Gilbert K. Chesterton.
The travel photographer sees it all and brings it home. — Jim Bellomo
by Jim Bellomo | May 5, 2023 | Photography
Every time I think that things will get better, they get worse. So many bad things have happened that I can’t remember if I have already written about them or if I still have to. I have to say I have not talked to a single person on this cruise that is happy about it. Not one.
And I feel so bad for the crew. They are working as hard as they can, but they are HUGELY understaffed and HUGELY overworked. Having talked to some crew members, they work 11, 12 and sometimes more hour shifts. Everything to do with food is being manned by fewer people than they would normally have. Here’s how the end of yesterday and today went.
I posted early this morning, but I think I forgot to mention that we had a comedian who performed last night in the BB King venue, and he was pretty funny. The place was packed, and there were lots of people standing around the edges. He did two shows, we were at the first one, and the laughs were quick and numerous. See, there’s something positive.
We did dinner at the buffet, where only one side was open. That meant there were no seats on that side of the room, so we sat on the other and walked back and forth. I ate what I call my “not willing to stand in line” menu. I would get anything that I didn’t have to stand in line behind ten people to get. Not much selection in that lineup.
I have not mentioned how HAL is handling the buffet. In about 85% of the buffet, you cannot serve yourself. There is a plastic shield preventing you from doing that. In 15%, there are tongs and a space to reach through for a roll or a small sandwich. The only problem is that if you get a roll and want butter, you must get in line to ask for the butter. Or (like I did last night) I grabbed a sandwich and then took the same tongs to reach a little further back for potato chips and was quickly scolded by the person behind the counter that I was not allowed to reach that far and if I wanted chips with my sandwich, I would need to get behind the 11 people in the line. I was welcome to as many sandwiches as I could eat, but not the chips. Go figure.
Breakfast in the Main Dining Room
This morning, against my better judgment, Bob talked us into going down to try to get into the dining room for breakfast. We had not eaten any meal in there as of yet and really wanted to see what it looked like. So we went down expecting a long wait. Lo and behold, we were second in line and ushered to our table at 8:10. Keep track of that number; it’s important ?.
At 8:40, we were still waiting for water and coffee and had not had a waiter stop at our table for anything. Judy was coughing and really needed water, and Bob pointed out that there were water pitchers on a table behind me. So I grabbed one and poured us all some water. Before I could set the pitcher back down, a waiter grabbed it from me. He finished pouring and went and brought us back to carafes of coffee, one with decaf for Bob and the other for the rest of us. Sadly, they were lukewarm and became cold pretty quickly.
The server came back about five minutes later to take our orders. He told us that it might take a while since they had just had a big group of people come in, and there were a lot of orders coming in. By this time, it was close to 8:55. I really wanted to point out that if he had taken our orders when we came in, we would have had our food by then, but I didn’t. I want to point out that this situation was NOT HIS FAULT! He was covering a lot of other tables, and the food was NOT coming out very quickly. We knew we would be waiting a while for the food to come back because the tables near us had been seated before we were, and they didn’t have food yet, either.
The food finally showed up at about 9:20. This is where it really gets good. Kathleen had ordered buckwheat pancakes, and they were OK but not hot. Just lukewarm. Judy had ordered banana pancakes, and as you can see from the photo above, they came with exactly THREE slices of banana on them. I asked her if there were any mixed into the batter, and she said, “No, these are just buttermilk pancakes with three slices of banana on top.”
Bob and I had both ordered the same thing—the ham and cheese scramble with hash browns, and I also ordered an English muffin. Now wouldn’t you think that a “scramble” would have the eggs scrambled into them? You know, scrambled eggs? No, when Bob moved aside the tortilla chips that were, for some reason covering his “scramble,” there were two (kind of) soft-boiled eggs on top. When I moved mine back…there were two hard-boiled eggs on top. That is NOT a scramble. It just isn’t. The ham, cheese, green bell peppers, onions and potatoes looked great, but the entire dish was dry without the scrambled (or poached, soft-boiled or any other kind of egg other than hard-boiled) eggs.
Not being willing to eat hard-boiled eggs, I called another waiter over and asked them to take them back and get me some scrambled eggs in my scramble. He did, and miraculously within about 5-7 minutes. But one small problem. The veggies and ham that were on the bottom were not cooked. Basically raw. The scrambled eggs were on top, and they were almost raw, very runny. And the cheese? Nowhere to be seen. It has probably run off with the hash browns and English muffins because they weren’t there either. So I pushed the veggies and ham aside and ate the wet eggs. Just as I was finishing them, out came two servings of hash browns. One was cooked almost well-done, and the other was close to raw.
We just gave up at this point as the coffee was cold, and it was obvious that my English muffin had gone to HAL food heaven with Bob’s Dive-In hot dog. I hope they are doing OK together. We left the dining room at 9:50 according to Kathleen’s recollection.
HAL rips off everyone on the ship…or at least attempts to
So after this wonderful breakfast, we decide to go and check out scenic Prince Rupert. Regular readers of this blog know that I walk a lot. My daily walk is always between four to eight miles. Kathleen, on the other hand, is not a big walker. She has a few things that make it difficult for her to walk long distances, and she can’t keep up with me. When we do go out together in a port, I try to walk slower so we can stay together, but she knows it is driving me crazy…but we make do. This also means that we like to tour by tram or bus.
So today, we get off the ship, and there is a tram that takes you around Prince Rupert. Super! When we go to buy tickets, we are asked for our sea pass card. Now this is NOT a HAL excursion. Anyone can walk up and take it. But once they knew I was off the ship, they wanted my sea pass and would not take cash. So I gave the woman the card, and she wrote us a receipt. She had told me the trip around town took 90 minutes, and the cost for us would be $59.95. She handed me the receipt to sign, and I was SHOCKED to see it was $59.95 EACH! For a 90-minute tour around a very small town. We decided to skip that.
Then we started talking to a couple of local people who worked for the tram service, who were only too glad to fill us in on what was going on. It seems that HAL (and all the other Carnival Corp lines who stopped here) were buying out all of the trams for the days they have ships in port. Then they set the price for that day for everyone. Even if you happen to drive to Prince Rupert and want to take the tram, you pay the price set by the cruise line that is in town that day. He said the day before when Princess had been there, the price had been $69.95 per person. I don’t know about you, but this is just WRONG as far as I am concerned! They buy out the entire set of 15 trams (the only ones in town) to be able to charge their own customers more. Shame on them!
And later on, when I went out walking on my own, I passed one of these trams and saw them stopped in front of a house with the driver pointing at the house. That’s cool. Then as I went past him, he moved up one more house and started talking about that one and the people who had lived there. I walked another 300 yards to the corner where I was going to turn and looked back, and he had pulled up two more houses and was doing the same thing all over again. You see, I think Prince Rupert must not have that many things to show people who are from out of town, so they probably tell the guides/drivers to take as long as you can describing things to stretch this out as long they can. I am fully willing to hear from anyone who took this tour that it was a good value.
I also want to point out that when we got off the ship, there was not a single vendor selling any kind of tour. No boats, no helicopters, no airplanes, no taxis. Nothing near the port. The collusion between the city and the cruise lines is really evident here in Prince Rupert.
Lunch on board Koningsdam in Prince Rupert—how sweet it ISN’T!
After we had tried to go out (we did walk around for a short time), we came back to the ship; I changed into my walking shorts and a tee shirt and went out to do my four miles. Had a very nice walk as the weather was uncharacteristically (we were told by a local) beautiful and sunny. And then, when I came back, I had to again…stand in a 20-minute line to get back on the ship. We took our grandkids to Walt Disney World in February, and we were told by Disney that it was the most crowded four days in the park’s history. We have stood in more lines to get places on this ship than we did there. And at least at WDW, they give you something interesting to look at while you wait in line.
Once I was back, we went up and got a sandwich/slice of pizza on deck 10 (above the buffet, next to the indoor/outdoor pool). Got it pretty quick (which was awesome), but then we both felt like something sweet afterward (I had missed my English muffin at breakfast, remember?), so I went down to check out the desserts in the buffet. Above is the list of the desserts they had on offer today. Below is a picture of the actual desserts that were available directly below the sign. 
This was the only place to get sweets (except for a small ice cream station serving two flavors of ice cream with a line of at least 15 people waiting at all times) on the entire buffet. This is the second day in a row that this has happened. Nothing there for sometime before the meal is set to be over. At the point I took this photo, they still had more than an hour before the time the buffet was scheduled to close. I did walk by a little later and they were putting out a few apricot tarts but as soon as they were out, a swarm of people grabbed them all. Ah, the hoarding of desserts.
They did get me to spend money on gelato again. HAL has been doing really well getting me to spend money on extra stuff. Besides the gelato, I have purchased meals in specialty restaurants (which have been really great so far) on four of the five nights of this cruise. We are eating in Canaletto (the family-style Italian place) tonight and Rudi’s (Fish house) tomorrow night, the last night of the cruise.
For your viewing enjoyment here’s my selection of my favorite Prince Rupert photos from early morning and my walk around town. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
Early morning as we were sailing into Prince Rupert.
The sky was kind of layered.
This boat looked like it was going to sink, bow first.
But it didn’t sink and it was overshadowed by a huge freighter waiting to take a load on.
As I walked off the ship on my walk, there was a crab boat unloading right next to the gangway and these women were sorting them.
This guy would hook up the crab pots to a winch and they would be hoisted to the dock.
This guy guided them on to the dock to start the sorting.
When I came back, this guy had his crab waving to us.
As I walked up a fairly busy street, this deer ambled by and just started grazing next to the parking area.
These two Mounties were in full dress greeting people as they came off the ship. Later I saw them taking photos with people at Service Park.
Found the very cool, old and falling apart church at the top of the hill.
It makes an interesting subject but it desperately needs a coat of paint.
My Prince Rupert Panorama.
It’s after dinner as I am finishing up this post; we are back in our stateroom. I have succumbed to the lure of a reduced-cost WiFi package and picked up the last three days of the cruise for around $25 US. Worth it to be able to check some things going on with Kathleen’s estate stuff and a medical appointment I have coming up, plus I get to post the rest of the way.
We had a very nice dinner at Canaletto, and we all ate way too much. When we had been on Nieuw Statendam with my brother and his bride, we had thought the food was kind of weak in Canaletto, but it is much improved here on Koningsdam. So far, we have eaten in three of the four specialty restaurants and we have had great food, efficient and friendly service and wonderful experiences. I just said to Kathleen, “this is where HAL is putting their experienced waiters and cooks—the specialty restaurants. Where they make money.” Again, that’s pretty sad, but I believe it’s true.
I’m scammed almost every day. Or, if not scammed, at the very least someone tries to scam me. Usually more than once a day. —James Altucher
