Happy Tuesday friends! I hope that you have had a wonderful weekend and are excited for this week ahead! Today I am excited to share with y'all a little bit about our drive to Baddeck, Nova Scotia while on our cruise with Holland America. After exploring the Port of Sydney (you can read about it HERE) we took our tour with Holland America for a drive to Baddeck.

Baddeck is a village that is located in the Victoria County of Nova Scotia. For those that may remember me talking about about our drive through Nova Scotia that I did a couple of years ago this is much farther north than we were at. Baddeck is situated on the northern shore of Bras d'Or Lake on Cape Breton Island. The drive over to Braddeck was absolutely beautiful. 

Before this trip I didn't know much about Baddeck specifically but had always wanted to visit Cape Breton area of Nova Scotia and the beautiful Cabot trail. I was so excited that this would be a stop on our cruise with Holland America. Due to the time of year that we were traveling there was not the option of a tour on the Cabot trail, but this is an offering at some points during the year for those that might be interested. 

Our drive over was so beautiful and our tour guide and bus driver stopped a few times which was very sweet of them to do. 

I have to admit that my favorite part of our tour was the drive over and our time driving back. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy Baddeck, but I was expecting a charming lake/ocean town and really didn't find that there. We tried going into a couple of different stores and shops, and ended up sitting at a coffee/bakery shop with another person from the cruise and talking for about an hour of our time. It was nice, but just a lot different than what we had expected from the description of our tour. 

Baddeck is most known for being the home to Alexander Graham Bell and the Alexander Graham Bell National Museum. His home (located in the picture above across from the town) you can see from a distance, but you are not able to visit or tour. I think that if you are very interested in seeing the home from a distance or touring the museum than you will really enjoy this tour but if you aren't then you may want to chose a different tour excursion option for the cruise.

Additionally if you are with someone who struggles with a chronic health issue or pain Baddeck is a bit difficult to navigate due to where the bus needs to park and the steep hills in Baddeck. I was thinking of this when I wandered down to the library in Baddeck (and found several books, of course *smiles*) and was hiking the hill back. A couple of years ago when I was fighting for my health I would not have done well on this excursion. 

Thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to read today! Please let me know if you have any questions about Baddeck or our cruise with Holland America! It was simply lovely! You can read about all of our adventures on our cruise with Holland America by clicking HERE!

Happy Friday friends! I hope that your week is finishing well. Today I am so excited to share this blog post with you- our second stop that we took while on our Holland America Cruise, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island!

This was my second visit to Charlottetown, and it was even more lovely than the first visit. If you have been around this blog for a while you may remember that back in 2017 I took a lovely road trip through New England, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. On that trip in 2017 we spent a lovely three days in Prince Edward Island, including time in Charlottetown. It was sweet, it was delightful, and it really was delightful with a dear friend at the time. 

That trip holds sweet memories in so many different ways and for so many different reasons, and one is how it impacted some ways I share about travel on the blog. After that road trip, I was inspired to start a series of me doing a large road trip each year and sharing and documenting about it on the blog. After that 2017 road trip I then took a road trip through a part of Alaska in 2018, which you can read about HERE, and then returned for a second road trip throughout a different part of Alaska in 2019, which you can read about HERE. As a side note I can't wait to share about where the 2020 road trip will be in the next couple of weeks! 

But I share all of that to say that Charlottetown and Prince Edward Island hold a lot of sweet memories for me. When I saw that our trip with Holland America would include a stop at the Charlottetown port I was delighted to see Charlottetown from a different angle and I am so glad that we did!

We arrived at Charlottetown in the early morning and had a couple of hours before we needed to meet up with our tour group for a tour of some different spots on the Island. My mom and I got off the ship as quickly as we could and decided to explore Charlottetown a bit on our own and we were so excited that we did!

Compared to my time in Charlottetown in 2017, I was most surprised by how busy the city was. When we visited in October in 2017 the tourist season was ending and we were hitting it at very end of the season. In fact many shops and restaurants closed very early at that time (around 3 or 4pm!) which limited our ability to really explore the area.

That was not the case in August - it was busy and full of people and yet still kept the charm and quaintness that I would associate with Charlottetown.

A stop into the Anne of Green Gables Store was a must! This precious store was closed the last time I was there, and I had been disappointed. Let me tell you friends, those of you who are "Anne lovers" - definitely add this to your list to stop at. It is adorable and so sweet!

The beautiful thing about the main street of Charlottetown is that it is very easy to walk through and see on your own. We meandered in and out of stores and just had a delightful time exploring this charming area of the city. If you are on a cruise and looking to explore like we did I would say to give yourself about 2 hours to wander through.

Stopping in at this quaint and beautiful bookstore was a must! Just like last time, I picked out a couple of books again this time and loved adding them to my library collection.

I wrote about Casa Mia Cafe' and the delicious meal we had when I visited in 2017 (you can read about it HERE) and y'all... it is one of those restaurants that has just gotten better with time. It was so delicious and a restaurant that you have to add to your list to go to while in Prince Edward Island!

It really was the perfect couple of hours in Charlottetown and it was so delightful to see it again from a different angle, coming off a cruise ship!

Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to read today! I can't wait to share more with y'all regarding our Holland American Cruise adventures and about our time on Prince Edward Island next week!

Happy Tuesday friends! I hope that your week is off to a wonderful start! This week I am excited to share with y'all one of our first stops that we took on our Holland America Cruise, Quebec City!

It was our first time being in Quebec City and I look forward to sharing more about this charming city that reminded me so much of Europe this week! Today I wanted to share with y'all a bit of history and about our time touring around this beautiful area of the world!

Old Quebec (sometimes referred to as the Latin Quarter or Old Town Quebec) is a UNESCO World Heritage treasure as it is the only fortified city north of Mexico. With more than 400 years of rich history, this beautiful area of the world is sure to remind you of the charm of a quaint European city right in North America. 

As it was our first time visiting I wasn't sure what to expect and was completely enthralled with the city and definitely plan to go back to spend more time here. If you love European cities but are looking for something in North America to explore you will want to add this to your bucket list!

There is an "upper town" and "lower town" section of Old Quebec City and you can access both by walking up the cobblestone windy hills (reminding me of our visit to Heidelberg after touring Heidelberg castle in Germany) or taking a funicular to the top, or by taking a taxi between both areas. If you are coming from a ship like we were and are short on time, I would suggest taking a taxi to give you the ability to spend as much time in the city itself. 

We sort of did a combination of using the transportation and walking and for our short period of time that we were in Old Quebec City it worked well for us. 

We first spent time exploring the Upper Town walking around the fort area, watching music performances that were going on and then going to the Historic Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac (you can read about it HERE) for a brief tour. 

After this we walked back out to the Upper Town square and just took time enjoying this beautiful place we were in!

You could see our ship from the upper area and it was such a beautiful view!

After this we walked around a couple of the side streets surrounding the Historic Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac. All of the colors of the buildings and flags and architecture reminded me so much of the European cities that we visited on our Rhine River Cruise!

If you are into history and learning more about the cultural background of the places you are visiting then Old Quebec City is definitely for you! There was so much history in this one place it was amazing!

As we started to make our way down to our cruise ship we enjoyed walking slowly and meandering down the different streets. Many of them were cobblestone (something y'all know just makes my little heart smile *smiles*) and it was lovely.

This square area was one of my favorites to explore. I loved the vivid pops of red on this roof against the other buildings and it was truly just an amazing day! 

Important tip: When you leave the square above that I just talked about take the side alley with all of the artists and artwork. It was truly an art lovers dream and the people were so sweet. I love picking up pieces of art along my travels - they decorate my living space with special memories (like this trip) and are truly one of a kind treasures!

We spent our time walking down the streets towards our ship, just stopping in and out of shops, reading through the historic plaques that are all throughout the streets and just enjoying our time in this quaint place. 

It really was the perfect day in Old Quebec City and I can't wait to return! It is definitely a place I would recommend a visit to! I know that I said this a lot in this blog post, but often times I hear from people that want to go explore more in Europe but can't afford to leave North America. As it was our first time visiting I wasn't sure what to expect and was completely enthralled with the city and definitely plan to go back to spend more time here - maybe even spending several days by grabbing a rent a car such as Globe Car & Truck Rental of Montreal to visit Montreal as well. If you love European cities but are looking for something in North America to explore you will want to add this to your bucket list as it will give you a beautiful taste of European charm and quaintness!

Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to read today! I can't wait to share more with y'all regarding our Holland American Cruise adventures and about the beautiful Quebec City this week!