Wednesday, 25 May 2016, Québec

We checked out, left our luggage in the lockup and were on our way about 10:30. Our only sightseeing goal for today is Artillery Park. It is a Parks Canada site focused on the development of the city’s fortifications over the years. One of the highlights was a scale model of the area built between 1806 and 1808. It was built locally to assist in military planning, shipped to England for further study by military planners, and then stored in a museum until its return for Québec’s 300^th anniversary.

On our way back to the hotel, we discovered that the circus troupe was doing a show in front of the church again. We caught all but the very beginning. They were quite good. They make you wonder how some of those stunts are possible.

For lunch we went to place around the corner that we had noticed over the last several days. We had passed by several times in the late afternoon/early evening and there was always a lineup of young people trying to get in. Celeste looked the place up online and we decided to check it out. Their gimmick is that every basic menu item is $5 and you can pump them up with additional trims for additional cash. It was pretty good for that price.

We returned to the hotel for our luggage, caught a cab, and were at the airport before 2 for our 6:30 departure. The WestJet counter didn’t open until 4:30ish. Our flights were on time and uneventful. We flew directly over Ottawa on the way to Toronto. Didn't get the camera out fast enough to get a picture of Angie's house, but here is one of parliament hill.

At Toronto, we had an almost 15 minute walk from one gate to the next. We arrived home a few minutes early at 10:40 Regina time 2 hour difference).

Some items of interest from the week:

The church around the corner had a small shelter containing a cupboard and fridge. Apparently people can leave food there for the homeless to help themselves. The area of our hotel is in the process of renewal. Although  it is quite commercial and gentrified, there were several homeless people still around checking garbage cans for bottles.

There virtually no pigeons there. We saw a pair huddled together on the ground in a park and that was it. The guides on our bus tour joked about passing the cheapest hotel in Québec, a pigeon house where they fed the pigeons something that interfered with their reproduction. Seems to work. Although we didn’t notice a lot of other birds either. Not sure if the quite treeless environment of the city is not conducive to them or if they are getting into the pigeon food.

The church near our hotel has an interesting income stream. They have turned the basement into a boutique for local fashion designers.

The PST here is 10% and it seems to be on virtually everything. Add the GST of 5% and there is 15% added on to almost anything you buy. Although it is not that much more than our 10%, it sometimes caught us by surprise when you bought something for $40 and the bill was $46.

Until next time...

Tuesday, 24 May 2016, Québec

We were kind of lazy this morning and got a bit of a late start, hitting the road about 10. We walked to the Lower Town to shop for a few gifts, then road the Funiculaire to the Upper Town. 

One place we had not bothered to go yet was the Notre Dame de Québec Cathedral, but one of the bus tour guides had said not to miss it, so we decided to take it in. When we walked in at 12:15 they were in the middle of Mass, so we went to another spot that had not been high on our list, the Morrin Centre. Built in 1807 as the city jail, it became too small for the growing city and was converted to a college in 1867. It is operated by the Literary and Historical Society of Québec as an English cultural centre and its library is the only English library in Québec City. We were able to tour some original cells, a display area, an old science lab from the college, and the library, which houses many antique volumes, one of which is 500 years old. I was lucky enough to be placed in solitary confinement in pitch darkness for a minute or so. The camera flash makes it look a little less intimidating.

By the time we got out of there, we were pretty hungry, so we went for quick, simple, easy and cheap – Subway – which is right next to the church. Then we toured the church, followed by gelato, also right next to the church. 

We had pretty much exhausted our to do list, so we found a bench in the park and watched the world go by while we figured out our next move. Sitting across from the Tourist Information office, it occurred to us to check out the local bus schedule and the details of a Gross Ile excursion. The agent said that the bus system and schedule was too large and complex for them to deal with there, but she showed us two routes that could work from our hotel and another that loops around the Old City. She sent us to the Parks Canada kiosk for Gross Ile info. There they told us that you would have to rent a car, drive across the river to Montmagny (1 hour/83 km according to Google), then catch the 45 minute/$65 ferry for a half day excursion. All together, a full day and $200 for two of us. Maybe another time.

Eventually, we decided to head back to the hotel. We briefly stopped at Artillery Park, which was another “maybe” on our list. It looked like a fairly interesting museum, so we might take it in tomorrow. Our flight does not leave until 6:30 pm.

On the way back, we noticed a “dollar” store that we had walked by obliviously several times before. We decided to stop in and emerged a while later with a handful of items. As we passed the church near our hotel, we observed a youth circus training company warming up in the courtyard. We watched for a while and moved on.

We dropped off our bag at the hotel and headed back to our microbrewery for some well-deserved refreshment. Then we made one last visit to our grocery store and bakery for a couple of items for tonight and tomorrow. It was after 7 by the time we returned to the hotel.

Monday, 23 May 2016, Québec

Even though we were not riding the bus today, we were still on our way by 9:30 and watched the tour bus drive past us. We have thought about getting a city bus pass since the first day, but have not mustered sufficient ambition.

One of our tour bus guides mentioned the other day as we drove by three older buildings in the Old Port that about one million immigrants came to Canada through Québec. This got me thinking about Celeste’s Folk ancestors that came through here in 1903. I thought we would check out those buildings looking for the immigration hall. Unfortunately, I missed a clue from Celeste when she said something about an island. I had completely forgotten that immigrants coming through Québec first stopped at Grosse-Ile for quarantine. We wandered around the three buildings looking for some clues, but nothing we found indicated that they might fit the bill. Later, Celeste was reading a brochure we picked up that set the record straight. You can take a boat ride there, but you have to somehow get to the departure point, it is an all-day commitment and not cheap, so we will pass. If we had thought of it early enough, we could have planned to fit it in. Too bad.

For our next adventure we wandered back to the Musée de la Place Royale, which was closed when we were there last week. I had made a note to go back Sunday, but we did other things, so we let it slip another day. I forgot a minor detail – it is only open on Saturdays and Sundays at this time of year. Strike two.

We hit a home run on the next pitch though. Again, one of the bus tour guides had mentioned something - the Guinness and Whiskey fudges at the Fudgerie. Yes, we are bringing some home.

Next, we rode the Funiculaire back up to the main square of the Upper Town and took the tour of the Saint-Louis Forts and Chateaux. This is an archeological dig, completed between 2005 and 2008, of the governors’ residence under the boardwalk by the Chateau Frontenac. It was the governors’ residence in various incarnations under the French and British from 1620 until it burned down in 1834. The presentation, by Parks Canada, was top notch. There was a guided tour, informative panels, artifacts, and a very cool display technology that I have never seen before. There were several touch screen displays throughout the site, each focused on a different area of the exhibit. Each display offered several pages of information complete with 360 degree views of the room.

From there we went back to the Musée du Fort where I asked if I could take some pictures that I had neglected to take yesterday. They happily obliged.

Then it was off for lunch at this charming little restaurant in a house that supposedly dates to 1677. We ordered their special – a beer, pea soup, tourtiere, and dessert. It was all very good. The tourtiere came with butternut squash, a pickled beet, potatoes, and a sweet tomato sauce that the waitress called ketchup. Celeste had maple syrup pie and I had maple bread pudding – bread pudding with a sort of butterscotch sauce. All delicious.

Our last stop of the day was La Citadelle de Québec. We took the guided tour, with a great view of the city, and then spent some time in their museum. It is focused on the Royal 22^nd Regiment, Canada’s French language regiment. The museum was quite extensive and very well done. If you are really interested in such things, you could probably spend a day there. We rushed through it because it was late in the day and did not quite get through it before they kicked us out at 5 pm. From there we hiked back to the hotel in just over half an hour and shut it down for the day with a nice cold beer. When Celeste got looking on the Internet for the Citadelle she found that they had had special displays with costumed re-enactors on the weekend. Would have been strike three if not for the fudge.

The other day at the grocery store we wanted to pick up a couple of beers to have in our room. Bewildered by the dizzying array of Québec beer, we fell into decision paralysis and fell back on something familiar, but unexpected.

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.

Saturday, 21 May 2016, Quebec

We “hopped on” our bus at 9:40 again and rode through familiar territory for almost an hour – beats walking. We finally arrived at the Plains of Abraham museum for the 25-minute Battles 1759-1760 “immersive projection” that we missed yesterday. It was very good – a deluxe version of a slide show. It used a curved screen, multiple projectors, and first-hand accounts of participants to tell the story of events before, during, and after the pivotal battle for Quebec. It really explained everything well and succinctly and was well worth returning and paying admission.

After the show we walked to the same little restaurant strip we ate at yesterday. We found the Cosmos Café that Celeste’s friend Janice had recommended for its great breakfasts. They were still serving breakfast at lunch time, so that’s what we had. Very tasty and well-presented with fruit garnish. Planned to take pictures, but got too excited when the food came and forgot. Sorry Tyler.

From there we walked out into Battlefields Park on the Plains of Abraham. One of my main motivations for coming here is to investigate the 1759 battle between Wolfe and Montcalm. One of the keys to that is understanding how Wolfe got his army to the top of the cliffs. I wanted to try to search out the location. In all the history I have seen from here going back to high school, there is very little detail about this, beyond the fact that it happened. After a fairly long hike through the park we found a fairly new exhibit of exactly what I was looking for. There were several interpretive panels providing detail.

We just missed our bus, so we walked back toward the old city and barely caught a bus at another stop, riding it back to the Chateau Frontenac. Within minutes, the last departure of the day toward our hotel took us home. We dropped off our backpack and headed out to wet out parched throats, finding a nearby microbrewery. Their tasty beer sure hit the spot. Then it was off to our bakery for some treats.