Becky's photoblog

Our Lady of Good Voyage – Seaport Blvd, Boston

First ride on the T since before the pandemic

I had a few minutes before meeting Brian in Copley Square, so I snapped a handful of photos of the lovely Old South Church. It was that perfect hour as it’s getting dark but the sky is still a deep dark blue, and I loved how the one stained-glass window above the door splashed flecks of colored light on the arches above the door. Yes, it’s an artificially lit stained glass window, but it was perfect.

After saying farewell to our lovely hotel room, we picked up our rental car and headed up to Mont Royal Park to enjoy the view of the city. We headed to St. Joseph’s Oratory right near the park because it was something I had read about. We had a long drive ahead of us, so I figured we would just swing by and see it, but it turned out to be a ginormous church at the top of a hill, with a really big parking lot – it looked like a pretty big deal, so we found parking and walked up lots of stairs … totally worth it. Really really beautiful.

Back in the car for one last necessity before hitting the road: fresh bagels. Mission accomplished, and we headed south but we didn’t get very far before we found out about a massive detour: the big bridge over the big river was closed, and our internet access was spotty at best. We thought we might have to swim across the St. Lawrence, but we managed to figure it out, and before long, we were at the border and on to the gorgeous green mountains of Vermont (that are actually rather blue).

Another necessary stop was the Ben and Jerry’s factory in upstate Vermont. Fun tour, delicious ice cream, homage to the flavor graveyard, and back on the road as the sun began to set. A few hours later, we finally saw the Boston skyline … home at last!

We woke up on the last day of our cruise with the sunrise again, and we were treated to a spectacular view of Montreal waking up. We had to be off the ship pretty early, so just like that, it was over, but we still had two more days to explore Montreal, and drive home.

We were super lucky that we could get in to our hotel room at 10am, and we were incredibly pleased with our hotel room! Brian and picked out Le St. Martin Hotel Particulier, and it was an excellent choice – one of the highlights of the trip. Spacious, great decor, a fireplace and a ginormous tub, with a sliding door opening up to the rest of the room. We settled in a bit, then took off to explore Montreal.

We headed straight to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, which has a wonderful collection in a cluster of lovely buildings. They have a cut-out model of Florence’s Duomo, which was pretty incredible to see. Then we headed over to the Notre-Dame Basilica, which was absolutely phenomenal. It was easily the largest of the many churches we saw this week, and the deep blues and greens of the altar and the vaulted ceiling were incredible!

After a warm croissant or two, we continued wandering around. Later in the evening, we visited another church very close to our hotel, the Basilica of Mary Queen of the World (sounds better in French). It was very beautiful and peaceful, and it had a baldacchino altar very similar (but smaller) to the one at St. Peter’s in the Vatican.

We continued our evening stroll through a neighborhood with tons of shopping and McGill students, found some dinner, then headed back to our cozy hotel to relax for the evening. We’re happy, exhausted, and ready to head home!

When we stayed at the Sea Crest Beach Hotel in May 2013, we ‘discovered’ a lovely church right near lots of cute shops and restaurants in Falmouth. Before dinner, we stopped by to visit this little gem again. We discovered that they recently added a labyrinth … yet another copy of the famous labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral, so of course I had to walk the labyrinth. It’s a bit smaller in scale than the one I walked just one week ago on the Greenway, but it was lovely and pleasant. We visited the church’s gorgeous little garden as the sun continued to set, then we settled in for a delicious dinner!

The Old South Ringers is Old South Church’s handbell choir, and the put on an amazing Christmas concert. It’s incredibly beautiful (the music and the setting), and this has become one of my favorite holiday traditions.