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Weekend
Getaway: St. John, New Brunswick With waterfront cafes and flower baskets festooning downtown street lamps, Saint John (home to 125,000) is a comfortable port-of-call for Americans, a place where people speak English and seem genuinely glad to meet their neighbors from the south. Located on the Bay of Fundy, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean, the tidy city is only 70 miles from the Maine-New Brunswick border. This year it welcomes more than 70,000 cruise visitors during 40 vessel calls. For our family of four and 2,700 other passengers sailing from New York on Carnival Cruise Lines' Carnival Triumph, Saint John was our gateway to Eastern Canada's Maritime Provinces, a rather offbeat destination in the whole scheme of cruise vacations. The other port on the five-day Atlantic adventure was Halifax, Nova Scotia. Though people tend to associate cruising with tropical isles, more and more discerning travelers are thinking cool-clime voyages to historic cities in Canada and New England. Instead of embarking from Miami or Fort Lauderdale, they're setting sail in summer and fall from New York or Boston on the same megaships that usually carry sun-seekers to the Bahamas and Caribbean. North American cruising has become an attractive alternative since last year's terrorist attacks caused people to re-evaluate their travel plans to faraway places, and cruise lines this year are providing more domestic options than ever. Canada/New England cruises are especially enticing for those who live within driving distance of the Eastern Seaboard. After a day of getting acclimated to life at sea and sampling the facilities on our flashy floating resort, the Carnival Triumph delivered us right to the heart of Saint John, within easy walking distance of downtown shops, restaurants, and museums. Greeting passengers were costumed "Loyalists" in three-corner hats and frilly dresses; ladies received a rose, men a pin. (Loyalists, or American supporters of the British crown, settled the area in 1783; one early resident was Benedict Arnold.) In the shed at the pier, vendors sold T-shirts, fudge, crafts, and other souvenirs. Besides two indoor vertical malls connected to other buildings by enclosed skywalks and underground passageways, shoppers head to the stalls of Old City Market, a cavernous, block-long hall with festive banners, moosehead trophies, and white-painted rafters reminiscent of a ship's hull. It's a good place to take pictures and absorb some local color while perusing the foodstuffs and souvenirs at Canada's oldest continuous farmer's market, a fixture since 1876. The retail mix includes butchers, bakers, fruit peddlers, florists, sausagemakers, and fishmongers. Appealing to sweets-lovers like us were the market's ice cream treats, homemade chocolates, and New Brunswick maple syrup and candy. We tried a salty snack called dulse, a dried purple sea vegetable that grows on the shores of Grand Manan Island in the Bay of Fundy. Locals eat dulse like potato chips or popcorn. We decided it must be an acquired taste. For a taste of times past, we prowled through some of the antique stores and art galleries in the Victorian brick and wooden gingerbread buildings on Prince William and Germain streets, a short walk from the pier. Some Carnival passengers signed up for the two-hour "History In Stone Stroll" guided tour focusing on the ornate carvings, gargoyles, stained glass, and other architectural details of churches, residences, and commercial buildings in Canada's oldest incorporated city. In Market Square mall, we enjoyed excellent exhibits on whaling, logging, and shipbuilding at the three-story New Brunswick Museum--a new, expanded version of Canada's oldest museum. Market Square, a delightful place to shop, is a multi-level, harborfront complex fashioned after an old village square, incorporating 100-year-old warehouses as well as modern additions. Across the street is Barbour's General Store, an authentic 19th century country store that in 1967 was moved here from a rural New Brunswick location. Another downtown focal point is King's Square, a tree-shaded oasis with gardens, monuments, and a vintage, two-story bandstand--a "Memorial To King Edward VII, King Emperor 1901-1910." The square, near the Old City Market, once hosted cricket and baseball matches as well as band concerts. Saint John's chief claim to tourist fame is Reversing Falls, a natural phenomenon in which a series of rapids and whirlpools caused by high tides force back--twice each day for several hours--the mighty St. John River, which normally would flow through the rocky gorge into the Bay of Fundy. (It's not a single, straight-drop waterfall like Niagara Falls.) One of Carnival's most popular shore excursions features a thrilling 20-minute jet-boat ride through the rapids past the Irving Pulp Mill. Yellow rain slickers are provided because everyone gets wet. Waves tower as high as 10 feet. (For extreme sports enthusiasts, the jet-boat operator just introduced the 10-foot "Bubble," which allows harnessed riders to bounce through the rapids.) Perched above Reversing Falls, the Falls Restaurant observation deck affords panoramas of the harbor (a five-minute taxi ride away) and the river gorge below. A short film sheds more light on this marine wonder. Besides feasting on views, lunch-goers enjoy seafood favorites like grilled salmon, lobster stew, and fish & chips. Depending on the tide, you might be watching calm water or jet-boats at play in the churning whitecaps. One more fun excursion in "The Fundy City" involves kayaking on calm stretches of the river, where the great blue heron, eagles, osprey, and other bird species may be spotted. A lobster bake on the beach follows two hours of paddling. Another Saint John tour features a visit to Moosehead Brewery for a look at how Canada's world-famous premium beer is brewed, bottled, and shipped for export. Free samples are offered, and there's time to buy Moosehead logo souvenirs in the gift shop. Several tours give cruise passengers a chance to view their ship from Fort Howe lookout, the site of an English fort built in 1778, or Carleton Martello Tower, a circular stone fort built for the War of 1812. A three-hour tour to Irving Nature Park involves a shoreline walk that reveals harbor seals and many bird species. (The Irving name pops up everywhere in this industrial city, the site of the Irving oil refinery, the largest in North America; K.C. Irving, who founded the company, was one of the world's richest men.) The 2 1/2-hour Carnival shore tour spotlighting the city's Jewish heritage visits the North End, where the Jewish community thrived from the late 19th century through the 1950s. (Only 40-some Jewish families remain.) Included are the Saint John Jewish Historical Museum, the only Jewish museum in Atlantic Canada, and Shaarei Zedek Synagogue, a magnificent Victorian Gothic structure built in the 1860s. Longer shore excursions from New Brunswick's largest city follow scenic coastal roads to smaller towns on the Bay of Fundy. The picturesque fishing village of St. Martins, less than an hour from Saint John, enchants day-trippers with its lighthouse, lobster traps, fishing boats, and "echoing" caves that the tides have carved into the sandstone cliffs. If the tide is low, you can walk the ocean floor. In the resort town of St. Andrews By-The-Sea, a highlight is a traditional tea with scones and preserves at the historic Fairmont Algonquin Hotel. Tour members have the afternoon free to peruse the waterfront shops for woolens, pottery, pewter, and glass. Besides the Carnival Triumph, other cruise ships calling in Saint John this year include Regal Cruises' Regal Empress, Princess Cruises' Golden Princess and Royal Princess, and Royal Caribbean International's Brilliance of the Seas.
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