J'aime Canada in blackpropaganda

So, we are back - after a 36 day cruise which started on the Thames near London, and went to Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenlandm St John’s Newfoundland, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Gaspe, Quebec City, Montreal - and back up the St Lawrence to Saguenay, Sept-Isles, and finishing at the oldest European site in North America on the northern tip of Newfoundland, before crossing the Atlantic and calling in on Cork in Ireland.

When we asked people what their main highlight was it had to be Greenland with the ice and the whale sightings - just like us - but we also found Quebec City fantastic, and loved getting off the ship at small places and finding out how they live. We learnt a lot about Canadian history - and also about the friendliness of this diverse nation, we spent a lot of time in French-speaking Quebec. Is this the only country in the world where, when you stop on a pavement just wondering if you should cross the road cars stop for you, just in case.

This was our entry point to Canada - St John’s, Newfoundland - with its natural harbour - and the high point on the left where the first Marconi wireless signals from England were picked up.

Very much on the edge of North America and not for the first time on the trip we wondered how they coped in the winter - on these hills