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Day Nineteen
Bonjour de Québec! (and that's all the French we know)
We left a dreary wet 13C Boston to catch the plane to Toronto and then to Quebec. All in all a very smooth trip without any dramas through immigration or customs. A bit of a novelty catching a turbo-prop plane (Dash 8) to Quebec.
It's a bit strange trying to understand French when English is our main language. So far we just open our mouth and speak English. It works.
Supposed to be a fine day tomorrow. So we'll see what's on offer.
Day Twenty
Woke up to a chilly but fine morning. Decided to have breakfast in the hotel, and what a breakfast it was....shredded duck, mushrooms and poached eggs....very yum!
Grabbed a map and headed out to see what's around. Our hotel is located in Old Quebec near the St Lawrence River wharf area.
The streets are very narrow and surrounded by very old buildings that look like they were built yesterday, but they weren't, if that makes sense! It's quite hilly in parts, and they have constructed a vernicular rail (Google it) in one part to avoid the steep steps. For $2.25 one way it's worth it. The streets have the usual tourist gift shops with a few restaurants. Three cruise ships had come into port and the streets were crowded.
About 10 minutes walk is the Le Chateau Frontignac which was part of the fortified city, and listed on the World Heritage Register. It was bought by the Fairmont Hotel group and they spent millions of dollars to renovate and expand the chateau and area. To say it's huge and impressive is an understatement. It sits atop of a hill and can be seen from every point of Old Quebec. Rooms are very expensive.
We walked along the Governor's Promenade that overlooks the St Lawrence River: very spectacular. The walk leads to the old battery higher up. I left Karen and her knee behind and thought it would be a good place to get some photos. Twenty minutes and a few hundred steps later, I arrived to find a big empty space. Definitely not worth the effort.
It's Sunday so there are not many places open for dinner. We started with a few drinks at the hotel and found a pizzeria across the road that looked OK. Incredibly good food and wine for about $40.
Day Twenty One
Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me...you get the idea! Woken up a few times by my phone during the night from well meaning people sending me a birthday greeting. Thanks to all for your wishes! I'm so important that today they have declared a National holiday. Not really, it's Canadian Thanksgiving, so many of the shops are closed.
It was another chilly start to the day (-1C) but very sunny. We had a quiet day walking around the streets that we didn't cover yesterday. The area is ridiculously clean. We're pretty sure that at night, a group of ladies run around with Hoovers and vacuum the streets, and dust the public statues. There's not even any bird crap.
We've made a dinner booking at (supposedly) good italian restaurant to celebrate my birthday.
- comments
Al A novelty catching a dash 8!! Modern would you live in