Sunday, 22 May 2016, Quebec

Happy Anniversary to us! No time for lollygagging. We have important touring to do!

After looking at yesterday’s pictures, I realized that we had missed some detail on one of the things in which I am most interested. One of the sign boards at the top of the trail the British used to reach the plains said “The Battle” was below us on the path. I knew this was not correct, but did not understand why there was this error. Looking at the pictures last night, I realized that this was the location of the sign boards we had seen yesterday and that the other points on the sign were other sign boards farther down the path. I could not leave without investigating this further. And the location was at the greatest distance from our hotel of any of our objectives. So, we “hopped on” our bus again at 9:40 and paid for another day.

We “hopped off” our bus near the site at 11 and walked the path all the way to the bottom of the cliff. There were several very informative interpretive signs all the way down. Apparently this path and these features are only about a year old and it was clear that the landscaping was quite new. We learned that there was a road here that the French did not defend adequately because they thought it unlikely that the British would try an assault here. Some British “commandos” of the day did scale the cliffs to take out the sentries and guard posts to allow the main force to use the road. It was definitely well worth the effort to return here.

Here is the top of the trail with "The Battle" display in the distant background in the middle.

Here is "The Battle" display.

And here is a sample of what we missed yesterday.

We got back to our bus stop around 12:30. We were quite hungry by this time and the bus was not due until after 1, so we took a short walk to a corner store for an ice cream. We caught the bus back to the main area at the Chateau Frontenac and had lunch in a small restaurant about 2. From there we went to the Museé du Fort, a diorama and projection show about the various attacks on Québec over the centuries. The diorama was quite detailed and full of effects that gave life to the narrative. Very good.

We caught our 4 pm bus back to the hotel, dropped off our backpack, and headed back to our microbrewery. I think we will be regulars for the rest of our stay. The beer is good, but so is the music. We noticed yesterday that it is much more quiet than your average bar. Today it sounded like they were playing from my CD collection. (For you young folk, CDs are round plastic disks that can be used to record music.)

We didn’t try the bakery today, assuming that it would be closed by that time on a Sunday. Then it was back to the hotel to be mesmerized by TV and computers.

Comment: I knew there was a tourism industry here, but I had no idea of its extent. One of our bus tour guides said that it is the second leading industry behind government. The streets and attractions are all busy. The tour buses are nearly full, although they are not yet on a full summer schedule. Celeste's computer says they had 168,000 cruise ship passengers in 2015 and are one of the top destinations. We talked to an Australian couple who came here from Montreal a day earlier than planned and had to stay 25 miles from downtown. And it’s only May! (Although it is a long weekend.)

Here is our tour bus. We rode up top most of the time.