We got to sleep in just a bit this morning as we weren't meeting until 10 for our tour with Tartan to Fortress Louisbourg. We went up to the Lido buffet for breakfast for the first time and then made our way off the ship to the terminal. There was also wifi in the terminal but it seemed a little slow. I had gone into the terminal earlier this morning just after 8 am when Amina was still sleeping to check it out and had run into Tatiana and Alex who were going on the tour with us. They thought we were meeting at 8 instead of 10. I walked briefly around the little shopping area and then went back to wake Amina up. When we came back down to the terminal, Amina found some earrings that she wanted to go back and buy after our tour was over.
Our tour guide actually arrived a bit early. We all gathered in the terminal (Me, Amina, Tatiana, Alex, John, and Leslie) and then went out to meet our tour guide. The van that we climbed into seemed nice from the outside but as soon as I climbed into the back seat, I was not happy. The van reeked of cigarette smoke. The ladies had a nice conversation on the way to the fortress and we soon arrived at the visitors' center. Our driver told us to meet back at 2 pm. It was just before 11 am. At first, I thought it was a little chilly in Sydney but by the time we arrived at the fortress, it had warmed up a good deal and was probably in the 70's and sunny while we were there.
There was a decent sized line in the visitors' center and we waited to purchase our tickets. There was also decent wifi in the visitors' center. We had just missed the bus so we went downstairs and took a few pictures before boarding the next bus. You ride the bus to the actual entrance to the fortress. While on the bus - you should sit on the left side to get a view of the fortress beyond the water.
We walked through a small building with a few park interpreters and then walked the dirt road to the entrance of the fortress.
We were stopped just in front of the bridge and given instructions such as park closure, not climbing on the walls, etc and then made our way across the bridge and into the fort.
Tatiana had been told by her ticket agent that there was a cannon demonstration at 11:45 so we made our way in that general direction making a few stops along the way to see a blacksmith and bakery where we bought a small loaf of "soldiers' bread" for $2.50 just to get a taste of what the soldiers ate. Not surprisingly, the bread was heavy and not terribly tasty.
We climbed the hill towards the building where the cannon demonstration was going to be and saw a good sized crowd headed the same way. To the immediate left there was a church and the park interpreter stopped us to ask where we were from and then proceeded to explain about the church and the various objects in the room. He obviously really enjoyed his job and did a great job telling us what he knew about the church.
I asked him where the bathroom was and he was very sweet to walk us to the where the bathrooms were. When we were done it was getting close to 11:45 so we found an open space in the grass and sat down.
The same park interpreter came back, found us, and told us that we were not sitting in the best spot and proceeded to take us to a much better location to see the cannon fire. He then explained to us what to expect....the soldiers and band would march out to the lower grass courtyard, do a short demonstration and then fire their muskets. Then they would march up towards the cannon and the muskets would fire in turn followed by the cannon. He was so helpful and we thanked him for the information.
The demonstration was interesting - the soldiers actually loaded their muskets with gunpowder and fired them. When they marched up towards the cannon - 2 of the muskets misfired which one of the interpeters standing near us commented that this happened from time to time. She said that it wasn't unusual for the cannon to misfire as well.
We explored the governor's compound for a bit and then made our way down into the "village" and stopped to see a few exhibits including a very interesting demonstration of lace weaving. Weaving lace by hand is extremely tedious but the result was beautiful. The woman interpeter told us that it took about an hour to weave one inch of lace.
We eventually made it down to the 2 restaurants that were available to dine in. I had read that one was for the "upper class" (officers, etc) and the other was for the "lower class" (soldiers, workers, etc). The wait of the upper class dining was 15 minutes and they served a 3 course meal. We examined the menu of the "lower class" restaurant and decided to eat there.
We were squeezed in between 2 other couples at what looked like a picnic table and were told that sharing 8 to a table was required. The guy on one end of the table grumbled about having to share the table with us. We were each given a very large piece of cloth to use as a napkin and a spoon. Amina ordered fish soup and we shared the mussels as well as some canadian white cheddar cheese. We chatted with the couple at the other end of the table who were from British Columbia and were visiting all of the maritime islands. The man sitting next to me ordered the French Toast and when he asked the waitress for something to eat it with, she directed him to use his spoon. It was really funny and he took it all in good spirit. The food was really pretty good and not too heavy.
When we finished, it was almost 1:30 so we decided to take the bus back to the visitors' center. As we were leaving the fortress, the same park interpreter who had talked to us before, found us again and pointed out that the draw bridge entrance to the fort was a weighted lever so that just one soldier could draw the bridge up himself.
Back at the visitors' center, we peeked into the gift shop where I bought a little something for Rhys (a candy stick that you could tear open with your teeth like a packet of musket gun powder and pour the "powder" and gum ball into your mouth to enjoy). We met up with our driver and got back into the smoke-laden van and he took us to a vantage point with a lighthouse where we got out and took some pictures and the girls found some jellyfish. We seemed to take a different route back to the cruise terminal and our driver really never said a thing to us. I had already made a decision back at the fortress that this "tour" was definitely not worthy of any sort of tip. We paid the exact tour fare and went back into the terminal.
We stopped first for Amina to get the earrings that she had looked at but wanted to make the 3 pm Indonesian tea service and we were a bit late so we headed straight for the dining room where they did accommodate us at a table for 8. Amina got a spiced tea and I got a jasmine - hers smelled better than mine. We were offered several savory and sweet items including some smoked salmon on toast, steamed cake, and rice balls. They were all good and we enjoyed talking with our table mates. One couple was from Grove, OK - just northeast of where we lived.
I went to the gym and did a really quick couple of miles then returned to the cabin to shower and get ready for our dinner at the Pinnacle Grill for their "Evening at Le Cirque" dinner. Seth and I love to eat at the Le Cirque in Las Vegas at the Bellagio hotel. It's probably in our top 10 favorite restaurants of all time - we've eaten there at least half a dozen times.
The amuse bouche was a creamy foie gras pate on top of a mildly fruity jam. I liked it but Amina didn't care much for it.
Amina ordered the caesar salad which was very interesting in the way it was prepared/presented.
I had the trio of salmon, caviar, and foie gras pate which was pretty good but I did notice how sloppy the presentation was - something you would NEVER see at the real Le Cirque.
Our next course was the butternut squash soup with huckleberries which was very good - I liked the contrast of the smooth sweet soup and the tart huckleberries.
For the main course, I had the seared alaskan black cod which was absolutely delicious and my favorite part of the meal. The cod was very nicely cooked but I was a little surprised that there were bones in it. It was a very generously sized piece of cod.
I had the famous Le Cirque creme brulee for dessert and was happy to find the recipe for the dessert printed at the bottom of the ramekin so I simply had to finish all of the dessert so I could take a picture of the recipe.
I wasn't interested in the show or the movie this evening so I went back to the cabin to catch up on my blog post for a bit then went to bed. There was a towel crab on my bed this evening.
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